Food for millionaires, fasting for readers

Food for the millionaires 

#blog 

Fun fact - this book has 577 pages.

The story starts with the protagonist a college dropout having a big fight with her father followed by finding her cheating boyfriend having a threesum. Her life a tad messed up already scatters into a million pieces. A good start at the rock bottom you expect the story will only get better assuming an upward curve to our character’s journey.

But dear Casey is as boring, meaningless and lost. Just like this book and the author’s intent. Casey meanders around the high streets of NYC, Wall Street and golf courses following one ambition for that one opportunity. As there is a light at the end of tunnel she changes her route. She is lucky to find all kinds of benefactors as boy friends or old lonely people seeing a spark in her which she herself fails to see. 

With a family life so estranged you hope she is accepted and loved by her parents. Instead her parents run on weird side track.  Her mothers journey could have been a woman’s exploration of her femininity instead it becomes a horny date-rape story   thru the lense of purity and guilt. Casey is a walking disaster and she still finds many friends and opportunities to bring her humdrum life on track. 

As a reader, I wait for the retribution, the twist, the up after the down, the good after the bad, but for hundreds of pages and some opportune moments it never comes. May be it was me hoping for the best, a need for a happy ending, to feel the hope and the belief in the goodness of the world. When it doesn’t happen I am disappointed. I blame the protagonist for not making wise and thoughtful choices rather settling for a confused  if not mediocre life. Rather than choosing dreams and love she chooses debt and casual companionship. She wants to possess fancy things, eat in new restaurants, and go away on exclusive trips and play golf - a rich persons sport. 

Oh my the desperate need to see a commoner finding the happiness despite all the miseries thrown at her. Why was this need? Why do some people can’t get out of the vicious cycle of their past bad choices? Why we refuse to change? Why we are stuck as a bad pattern? 

You feel one can only change when you undo the entire life. In reality, things don’t overturn in a moment or one chance. The life drudgery carries on and you face multiple failures time and again. The sadness seeps in your soul. Just like this book which made me really sad. Seeing the brilliant and sensitive Casey not fulfilling her potential and living the life she is destined for. Is the curse of being an immigrant child where the constant sadness of being homesick seeps into your children. 

Here I was me wanting more from my protagonist. After reading Pachinko by the same author I felt this would be equally interesting. Instead the author is expecting nothing from her characters or providing context to their motivations and actions. But the author is expecting me as a reader to do most of the work to empathise with the character. I have never read a more presumptuous author. 

At about 60% of the book I felt lost. The story became pointless, repetitive and directionless. New characters were being introduced but they served no purpose but an unnecessary diversion. Later after a month I got back to it and started skipping pages to get over with it. Along with the author the editor also must have felt lost. I realised  that reading 2 lines after 2 pages was enough for me to know that nothing really happened. Most of her mental dialogue was wasteful just like my wasted time. 

Utter disappointment and probably too scared to pick another book from the same author! Don’t read it.