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A review by brianlarson
Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian
2.0
“Gold Diggers” ranked high on my must-read list of 2021. Sadly, it was a disappointment. I trudged along reading hoping to find a shimmer of a golden nugget but sadly I turned up empty handed. Sathian’s debut tries to be too many things: satire, comedy, coming of age story, historical annal, & even thriller.
In the beginning of the novel I drew a couple comparisons to Ng’s “Little Fires Everywhere” with the neighborhood camaraderie & the gossip that plagues Indian and American neighborhoods alike. These comparisons stopped after the second epoch.
Sathian mentioned in the afterword that she spent a lot of time researching the different gold rushes across the US and integrating traditional Hindu folklore into her novel. While the research definitely aids the novels believability, I never fully understood why the two main characters would do anything to obtain high-quality “wedding gold” even after adolescence.
The chapters could have benefited from the usage of dates. There’s a lot of timeline jumping around with characters aging, de-aging, & dying. The death of Shruti seemed like a small event in the novel but it got dragged on until the every end.
Last, while I am familiar with some Indian wedding ceremony customs and traditional Hindu folklore, this novel could have been benefited greatly by better integrating these customs to allow all readers readily-accessible insights into a culture that is known for its beautiful customs and rituals.
Overall, a disappointing debut.
In the beginning of the novel I drew a couple comparisons to Ng’s “Little Fires Everywhere” with the neighborhood camaraderie & the gossip that plagues Indian and American neighborhoods alike. These comparisons stopped after the second epoch.
Sathian mentioned in the afterword that she spent a lot of time researching the different gold rushes across the US and integrating traditional Hindu folklore into her novel. While the research definitely aids the novels believability, I never fully understood why the two main characters would do anything to obtain high-quality “wedding gold” even after adolescence.
The chapters could have benefited from the usage of dates. There’s a lot of timeline jumping around with characters aging, de-aging, & dying. The death of Shruti seemed like a small event in the novel but it got dragged on until the every end.
Last, while I am familiar with some Indian wedding ceremony customs and traditional Hindu folklore, this novel could have been benefited greatly by better integrating these customs to allow all readers readily-accessible insights into a culture that is known for its beautiful customs and rituals.
Overall, a disappointing debut.