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A review by ria_mhrj
Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language by Katherine Russell Rich
2.0
Dreaming in Hindi was the first book selected for my newly formed book group and I wanted to love it. The book boasted an interesting premise, was well outside my reading comfort zone and the timing of our selection was all the more poignant with the recent passing of Katherine Russell Rich, so my expectations were quite high as I started.
Sadly, I did not love the book and I'm struggling to fully articulate why. The book roughly covers the space of a year in which Ms. Rich was in India, with stories from her time there leading into discussion of how one studies and retains a second language as an adult. In terms of format, this was clever but perhaps a little too clever, as the frequent segues into the science of language learning often led to my attention drifting.
In terms of the 'story', it's fairly incredible that a woman survived cancer, lost her job and then decided to up sticks and live on the other side of the world for a year. Yet I never fully connected with the story and the characters. It ultimately felt like being told anecdotes by a friend, full of people you have never met and that you don't especially care about. Perhaps that sounds unfair, but in the many great books I have read, I have always felt like an observer, almost a participant in the action, rather than the recipient of a second hand account of an event.
In some ways, I wonder if my own limited life experience led to my not being able to fully immerse myself in this world. Will be interesting to hear what the rest of the book group think next week.
Sadly, I did not love the book and I'm struggling to fully articulate why. The book roughly covers the space of a year in which Ms. Rich was in India, with stories from her time there leading into discussion of how one studies and retains a second language as an adult. In terms of format, this was clever but perhaps a little too clever, as the frequent segues into the science of language learning often led to my attention drifting.
In terms of the 'story', it's fairly incredible that a woman survived cancer, lost her job and then decided to up sticks and live on the other side of the world for a year. Yet I never fully connected with the story and the characters. It ultimately felt like being told anecdotes by a friend, full of people you have never met and that you don't especially care about. Perhaps that sounds unfair, but in the many great books I have read, I have always felt like an observer, almost a participant in the action, rather than the recipient of a second hand account of an event.
In some ways, I wonder if my own limited life experience led to my not being able to fully immerse myself in this world. Will be interesting to hear what the rest of the book group think next week.