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A review by alex_johnson_2021
What a Happy Family by Saumya Dave
5.0
I wanna read more stories like this! Intergenerational stories about people of color trying to figure out whether they want to go with the expectations that their families have placed on them or whether they want to go their own route.
My favorite character out of this entire novel is Natasha. She went from having a boyfriend, working at an ad agency, and her parents expected her to marry her boyfriend and settle down with her decision. Her boyfriend was ready to propose to her in front of both of their families and she said no, despite the pressure that she was put under. Despite the feelings of other people, she put herself first. I don't think it was selfish at all. Natasha's boyfriend didn't really talk about in detail what their future plans would look like, instead he just proposed, assuming that she would say yes, and I didn't like that. I think his name is Karan, but I could be wrong.
Suhani is the model daughter but she's hiding a big secret from her husband. They are married and they have talked about kids. Her husband wants to have them, but she's a bit apprehensive about it, because she wants to focus on her career. She works in the medical field, and her husband works at a tech startup so you can say that they definitely have the money to support a kid for sure. Suhani wants to reach a big accomplishment at her job, but she comes to find out that her ex-boyfriend is standing in the way of that. Long story short, she needs his approval in order to be recommended for the position, and the only person that knows the big secret is Natasha.
Anuj keeps to himself and for very good reason. He doesn't want to have the spotlight on him. He got into Cornell, specifically to major in architecture, and his parents don't know why.
You start to learn why everyone does the things that they do, and there were certain moments that definitely got to me, when they came together and revealed their secrets to each other. This author did a great job of interweaving all of their stories together and each chapter you get to go inside a different POV and see how they're feeling at a given point in time.
My favorite character out of this entire novel is Natasha. She went from having a boyfriend, working at an ad agency, and her parents expected her to marry her boyfriend and settle down with her decision. Her boyfriend was ready to propose to her in front of both of their families and she said no, despite the pressure that she was put under. Despite the feelings of other people, she put herself first. I don't think it was selfish at all. Natasha's boyfriend didn't really talk about in detail what their future plans would look like, instead he just proposed, assuming that she would say yes, and I didn't like that. I think his name is Karan, but I could be wrong.
Suhani is the model daughter but she's hiding a big secret from her husband. They are married and they have talked about kids. Her husband wants to have them, but she's a bit apprehensive about it, because she wants to focus on her career. She works in the medical field, and her husband works at a tech startup so you can say that they definitely have the money to support a kid for sure. Suhani wants to reach a big accomplishment at her job, but she comes to find out that her ex-boyfriend is standing in the way of that. Long story short, she needs his approval in order to be recommended for the position, and the only person that knows the big secret is Natasha.
Anuj keeps to himself and for very good reason. He doesn't want to have the spotlight on him. He got into Cornell, specifically to major in architecture, and his parents don't know why.
You start to learn why everyone does the things that they do, and there were certain moments that definitely got to me, when they came together and revealed their secrets to each other. This author did a great job of interweaving all of their stories together and each chapter you get to go inside a different POV and see how they're feeling at a given point in time.