A Great Country

Poignant and thought-provoking, A Great Country centres around the Shah family, an immigrant Indian family headed by Ashok and his wife Priya who moved to the USA to give their family more opportunities. When their teenage son Ajay is arrested, their lives become fodder for the news and community gossip and the shockwaves created by the arrest are felt throughout their family.

Gowda explores the personal experiences of immigrants and the idea of the American 'melting pot' and how it may not be the same experience for all. Themes of racism (including racism within the immigrant communities), class, police brutality and the tension between generations are explored through the perspectives of different characters in different generations and classes. 

As a white Canadian woman, I appreciated how Gowda brings readers into the struggles non-white immigrants can face. These include the barriers - both direct and in-direct - as they try to fit in with American culture while also hoping not to gain unwanted attention for fear of racist repercussions.

The first half of the book was strong and felt like it was in a similar vein to Jodi Picoult's books and their focus on societal issues. That is high praise indeed! The second half of the story lost some of that energy and didn't go into the issues with as much depth as I had hoped, but despite that, A Great Country was a compelling read that will give book clubs much to discuss.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Canadian

Type and Source: Trade Paperback, personal copy

Publisher: Doubleday Canada

First Published: March 26, 2024

Read: Nov 26 - 29, 2024

Book Description from GoodReads: From the New York Times bestselling author, a novel in the tradition of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere, exploring the ties and fractures of a close-knit Indian-American family in the aftermath of a violent encounter with the police.

Pacific Hills, California: Gated communities, ocean views, well-tended lawns, serene pools, and now the new home of the Shah family. For the Shah parents, who came to America twenty years earlier with little more than an education and their new marriage, this move represents the culmination of years of hard work and dreaming. For their children, born and raised in America, success is not so simple.

For the most part, these differences among the five members of the Shah family are minor irritants, arguments between parents and children, older and younger siblings. But one Saturday night, the twelve-year-old son is arrested. The fallout from that event will shake each family member's perception of themselves as individuals, as community members, as Americans, and will lead each to consider: how do we define success? At what cost comes ambition? And what is our role and responsibility in the cultural mosaic of modern America?

For readers of The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, A Great Country explores themes of immigration, generational conflict, social class and privilege as it reconsiders the myth of the model minority and questions the price of the American dream.