“Gold Diggers” - Sanjena Sathian

✴️ Current and former Indian-American youth (I myself fall into the latter category), will find Sathian’s writing so very relatable, particularly portions centering on growing up as a first generation Indian-American in small town America. I strongly suspect “Gold Diggers” will be relatable for first generation American hyphenates of other cultures as well.

✴️ Sathian mingles gentle humor with astute, acid-tinged observations regarding notions of kinship, connectedness to a distant motherland, “assimilationist” language and even wardrobe. 

✴️ Sathian’s blending of magical realism with alchemy and food, reminds me a great deal of Chitra Divakaruni’s “Mistress of Spices” and Laura Esquivel’s “Like Water for Chocolate”.

✴️ If you enjoy this novel, keep on the lookout for a forthcoming series based on “Gold Diggers” to be produced by Mindy Kaling. 

TW: suicide