The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

Lucky Boy: A Novel

January 11, 2017

Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date: January 10th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Cultural, Fiction, Literary
four-stars

lucky boy

 

Despite its upbeat sounding title Lucky Boy is a novel saturated in desperation. Desperation for a better life, desperation for a child, for success…for happiness. Solimar is eighteen, lives in a dying town in Mexico and with money her parents procure she leaves with a man who is supposed to get her to California where she will meet up with a cousin who has already established herself and has papers. Kavya is an Indian-American woman living with her husband in Berkley. She is a chef at a sorority while he works at a company that makes baby products. Entering their thirties, they are on the baby trajectory, but with no success. Author Shanthi Sekaran makes these two dichotomous paths collide with a force that shatters and scatters everything in its path.

It comes as no surprise that Soli’s route to America is not as promised. In fact, it’s as bad as anything imagined or on the news. The difference is she makes it and after her recovery her cousin finds her a job as a cleaning woman for a nice family in Berkley. Life seems to settle until she realizes she’s pregnant. She gives birth to a son and is managing her life until a cataclysm of mistakes leaves her in prison awaiting deportation and her 18-month-old son in foster care. At the opposite end of the baby scale, Kavya and Rishi have exhausted and are exhausted from their attempts to have a child. When they decide to try fostering before adoption, they meet Ignacio, Soli’s son. He comes home with them and the die is cast for all of them.

Beyond the real-life stories, there have been a number of fictionalized works about a child being removed from a mother’s care and placed with a family of a different ethnic background. Sekaran obliterates those trope-y confines and uses Lucky Boy to lay bare a multitude of social issues. Some are familiar—people wanting a better life coming to America and working for the dream, but being caught up in the reality. Others are less so—the antipathy towards adoption in the traditional Indian community that separates Kavya from her mother; the belief that bloodline is paramount. Then there is the impossibility of justice for those who cannot pay for it and the treatment of government detainees. All of these come together in Lucky Boy, but thanks to Sekaran’s grace under pressure her writing doesn’t feel salacious or forced. Instead, the novel is one that hurts, with no easy answers. Sadly, it is a meaningful novel of our times that resonates.

four-stars

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
  • Same Genre
  • 4 Star Books
missing
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
symphony
Symphony of Secrets: A Novel
grammarians
The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine
Back to Moscow
glass hotel
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
night guest
The Night Guest
Of Things Gone Astray
nothing
The Nothing Man: A Novel
american
American Royals by Katharine McGee
lookaway lookaway
Lookaway, Lookaway
falcons
The Affairs of the Falcóns: A Novel
October Mini-Reviews
glass
Glass Houses by Louise Penny
prayer
A Prayer for Travelers
feast
Feast of Sorrow: A Novel of Ancient Rome

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, literary, marriage, Putnam, San Francisco, social issues

Comments

  1. Monika @ Lovely Bookshelf says

    January 11, 2017 at 8:59 pm

    Ohhh this sounds like a tough read, one that will stay with you. I’m glad to hear it breaks tropes.

    Reply
  2. Sarah's Book Shelves says

    January 12, 2017 at 4:52 am

    This “people wanting a better life coming to America and working for the dream, but being caught up in the reality.” sounds like Book of Unknown Americans, which I read over Xmas and thought was really powerful. I downloaded the sample of this one and am planning to read it at some point.

    Reply
  3. Susie | Novel Visits says

    January 13, 2017 at 4:20 pm

    I really liked this book, too and thought Sekaran was so good at developing all her characteres into people you liked and cared about. I especially liked the growth of Rishi as he came to love Iggy!

    Reply
  4. Katie @ Doing Dewey says

    January 15, 2017 at 1:19 am

    This sounds beautiful and important, but I know I’ll have a hard time making myself pick it up! It just seems like such a tough read.

    Reply
  5. susan says

    January 15, 2017 at 3:26 pm

    Yes I have this one on my radar to read. I’m glad you reviewed it. It sounds well done & quite moving. Publishers Weekly said the ending is too drawn-out. Did you feel that way? Did it seem overly long? cheers.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Bookshop

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Indiebound and Amazon. If you click on a link that takes you to any of these sites and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2023

Copyright © 2023 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in