By: Thrity Umrigar
Thrity Umrigar is an Indian-born writer who has an amazing gift of telling stories that are rich with the sights, sounds, smells and customs of India. In this story, we meet a United States couple named Frank and Ellie Benton whose son has unexpectedly died at the age of seven. Frank works for a medicinal company while Ellie is a therapist. Frank is given the opportunity to manage a factory in India and he and Ellie decide they will go. They both seem to feel that a new start would be best all around because the death of their son has greatly unraveled their marriage. Like many companies that have set up shop in another country, the Bentons find that Herbal Solutions is in trouble. The company is using herbs which the townspeople formerly harvested and would then sell and/or use among themselves. Frank latches on to a servant's boy - a child who is incredibly smart and funny, yet is trapped, like many children in India, in a vicious cycle of poverty. Ellie struggles in India - she finds her husband's attachment to young Ramesh to be unacceptable and sickening. She find the cultural norms to be hard to swallow. The story moves along at a fast clip, as we watch the marital problems continue, the medicinal company struggle with hard feelings from the local residents, Frank's obsession with Ramesh, and . . .. Wow - let me just say that the story absolutely blew me away - the ending is so very shocking. I really recommend this book - it is sad, yes, but Ms. Umrigar is a very talented writer, and I greatly enjoy her descriptions of India and the native people and of course . . . of love. (Fiction) 07/13/09
