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Lucky Boy
A gripping tale of adventure and searing reality, Lucky Boy gives voice to two mothers bound together by their love for one lucky boy.
Solimar Castro Valdez is eighteen and drunk on optimism when she embarks on a perilous journey across the US/Mexican border. Weeks later she arrives on her cousin's doorstep in Berkeley, CA, dazed by first love found then lost, and pregnant. This was not the plan. But amid the uncertainty of new motherhood and her American identity, Soli learns that when you have just one precious possession, you guard it with your life. For Soli, motherhood becomes her dwelling and the boy at her breast her hearth.
Kavya Reddy has always followed her heart, much to her parents' chagrin. A mostly contented chef at a UC Berkeley sorority house, the unexpected desire to have a child descends like a cyclone in Kavya's mid-thirties. When she can't get pregnant, this desire will test her marriage, it will test her sanity, and it will set Kavya and her husband, Rishi, on a collision course with Soli, when she is detained and her infant son comes under Kavya's care. As Kavya learns to be a mother - the singing, story-telling, inventor-of-the-universe kind of mother she fantasized about being - she builds her love on a fault line, her heart wrapped around someone else's child.
Lucky Boy is an emotional journey that will leave you certain of the redemptive beauty of this world. There are no bad guys in this story, no obvious hero. From rural Oaxaca to Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto to the dreamscapes of Silicon valley, author Shanthi Sekaran has taken real life and applied it to fiction; the results are moving and revelatory.
Solimar Castro Valdez is eighteen and drunk on optimism when she embarks on a perilous journey across the US/Mexican border. Weeks later she arrives on her cousin's doorstep in Berkeley, CA, dazed by first love found then lost, and pregnant. This was not the plan. But amid the uncertainty of new motherhood and her American identity, Soli learns that when you have just one precious possession, you guard it with your life. For Soli, motherhood becomes her dwelling and the boy at her breast her hearth.
Kavya Reddy has always followed her heart, much to her parents' chagrin. A mostly contented chef at a UC Berkeley sorority house, the unexpected desire to have a child descends like a cyclone in Kavya's mid-thirties. When she can't get pregnant, this desire will test her marriage, it will test her sanity, and it will set Kavya and her husband, Rishi, on a collision course with Soli, when she is detained and her infant son comes under Kavya's care. As Kavya learns to be a mother - the singing, story-telling, inventor-of-the-universe kind of mother she fantasized about being - she builds her love on a fault line, her heart wrapped around someone else's child.
Lucky Boy is an emotional journey that will leave you certain of the redemptive beauty of this world. There are no bad guys in this story, no obvious hero. From rural Oaxaca to Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto to the dreamscapes of Silicon valley, author Shanthi Sekaran has taken real life and applied it to fiction; the results are moving and revelatory.
472 pages, Hardcover
First published January 10, 2017
About the author
Shanthi Sekaran
7 books307 followersShanthi Sekaran was born and raised in California, and now lives in Berkeley. Her recent novel, Lucky Boy, was named an IndieNext Great Read, an Amazon Editors' Pick, and a Best Book of 2017. It was also the Penguin Random House "One World, One Book" selection for 2017. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Huffington Post, Mutha Magazine, and The Rumpus. Her first middle grade novel, The Samosa Rebellion(Harper Collins), comes out in Fall 2021. When she's not writing books, she writes for the NBC drama, "New Amsterdam."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,897 reviews
December 29, 2016
When I first started this I wasn't sure if this is one I would like. The writing was good so I continued and am so glad I did. This is a wonderful story, a devastating one and a timely one. Two women, one Soli, illegally in the US, went through so much to get here, not an easy trip. The second a young Indian woman, Kavya, who wants desperately to have a child. Married to Rishi, they have been trying without success. Two women, one little boy named Ignacio, who will steal your heart and wrap it around your little finger.
Never really realized what the undocumented go through, how they have to live when they are caught and before they are deported. The author notes that the immigration laws are those of 2013, but that little has changed. This is a book full of love and heartbreak, of struggle and fear. These two women want this child and how this plays out is the story. There is no bad in either, no evil, just wanting the best for this little boy. Informative and an agonizing look at the deportation process and the undocumented experience. I think sometimes we tend to forget to look at people as people, who want the same things we do but often find insurmountable barriers in their way. A wonderful and emotionally challenging story.
ARC from publisher.
Publishes, January 10, 2017
Never really realized what the undocumented go through, how they have to live when they are caught and before they are deported. The author notes that the immigration laws are those of 2013, but that little has changed. This is a book full of love and heartbreak, of struggle and fear. These two women want this child and how this plays out is the story. There is no bad in either, no evil, just wanting the best for this little boy. Informative and an agonizing look at the deportation process and the undocumented experience. I think sometimes we tend to forget to look at people as people, who want the same things we do but often find insurmountable barriers in their way. A wonderful and emotionally challenging story.
ARC from publisher.
Publishes, January 10, 2017
December 20, 2016
This really timely story is a heartbreaking one about an undocumented young woman, Soli, who takes risks for hopes of a better life, risks which were more dangerous than she ever imagined as she leaves her family in Mexico to make her way to the US. Soli's story is told in conjunction with the alternating narrative of a young couple of Indian descent, Kayva and Rishi who want desperately to have a child but are not successful in their attempts to conceive. They are ultimately connected by a baby boy named Ignacio. It's difficult to write about this without giving too much of the story away but suffice it to say that this story grabbed me from the beginning. During this past election with a big focus on immigration and whether to deport undocumented people, one of the things that I found very difficult to imagine was separating US born children from their parents who may be deported. This is a gripping story that will keep you interested to the end waiting to see what happens to these desperate people and this beautiful, little boy . Difficult to say how lucky he was , but definitely worth reading.
I received an ARC of this book from Penguin through NetGalley and Edelweiss.
November 29, 2016
Boy.....this is a timely - heartfelt book!!!!! Kudos to the author!!!
Kayvan had moved to Berkeley eighteen years earlier for college. She graduated,
traveled, became a chef, and married Rishi. After nine months of trying to get pregnant with no success -they were looking into adoption. Their plans took a detour when they became foster parents to a little boy - a toddler named Ignacio. They hoped to adopt him.
Solimar Castro Valdez makes plans to meet her cousin in Berkeley. She needs to make it across the border from Mexico. Her cousin tells her that she has a place to stay and a job for her when she arrives. The journey is traumatic. Soli arrives in bad shape -- filthy- exhausted - abused - and pregnant. Against all advice from her cousin-- she refuses to abort the baby. She wants to keep her child.
Problems and struggles increase. Soli is an illegal immigrant and she is in a detention center facility about to be deported back to Mexico. She wants her child.
Two mothers love Ignacio. Two mothers want him as their permanent son. Issues get raised - lives intersect.
This story is EXCELLENT. It's also sad - and frustrating. It's easy to see that there is no easy answer. Many immigrant children face uncertain futures --- and its no different for Ignacio.
I don't want to give this story away --but it will pull at your heartstrings--as it's easy to see all points of view -- all in the name of Love.
A terrific book club pick. An important discussion book as it feels very realistic.
Thank You G.P Putam's son, NetGalley, and Shanti Sekaran.
Kayvan had moved to Berkeley eighteen years earlier for college. She graduated,
traveled, became a chef, and married Rishi. After nine months of trying to get pregnant with no success -they were looking into adoption. Their plans took a detour when they became foster parents to a little boy - a toddler named Ignacio. They hoped to adopt him.
Solimar Castro Valdez makes plans to meet her cousin in Berkeley. She needs to make it across the border from Mexico. Her cousin tells her that she has a place to stay and a job for her when she arrives. The journey is traumatic. Soli arrives in bad shape -- filthy- exhausted - abused - and pregnant. Against all advice from her cousin-- she refuses to abort the baby. She wants to keep her child.
Problems and struggles increase. Soli is an illegal immigrant and she is in a detention center facility about to be deported back to Mexico. She wants her child.
Two mothers love Ignacio. Two mothers want him as their permanent son. Issues get raised - lives intersect.
This story is EXCELLENT. It's also sad - and frustrating. It's easy to see that there is no easy answer. Many immigrant children face uncertain futures --- and its no different for Ignacio.
I don't want to give this story away --but it will pull at your heartstrings--as it's easy to see all points of view -- all in the name of Love.
A terrific book club pick. An important discussion book as it feels very realistic.
Thank You G.P Putam's son, NetGalley, and Shanti Sekaran.
March 5, 2017
Update 3/4/17: Today in my local town 2 parents were deported to Mexico and were forced to leave their US born child here (thankfully with relatives). I have updated my original rating because though I was not in love with the style of storytelling, it nevertheless brings this sad state of affairs into the light and it's going to become a more prominent issue.
3★
Infertility, foster parenting, and undocumented immigration across the Mexican/US border are the focus of two stories that will connect after the birth of a baby boy.
From the book description on goodreads it states: “There are no bad guys in this story.” That must only be referencing the main characters as some would certainly be labeled bad guys by me.
I had a difficult time sympathizing with Kavya’s inability-to-conceive-hardship-story up against Soli’s reality of poverty and desperate circumstances.
I can appreciate the intent to bring knowledge and sympathy to families in crisis but this style of storytelling is not a good match up with me. Though it may be satisfying for many it was just too long-winded and melodramatic for my tastes. While information gleaned from research was no doubt factual there was too much crammed into the characters and pages. That said, it does a decent job of using the fiction platform to give a voice to a sad and contentious issue—the plight of children born of parents who are living and working under the radar in a country which then claims their offspring as its own. The author's resolution of Ignacio's fate rang true and was unexpected.
3★
Infertility, foster parenting, and undocumented immigration across the Mexican/US border are the focus of two stories that will connect after the birth of a baby boy.
From the book description on goodreads it states: “There are no bad guys in this story.” That must only be referencing the main characters as some would certainly be labeled bad guys by me.
I had a difficult time sympathizing with Kavya’s inability-to-conceive-hardship-story up against Soli’s reality of poverty and desperate circumstances.
I can appreciate the intent to bring knowledge and sympathy to families in crisis but this style of storytelling is not a good match up with me. Though it may be satisfying for many it was just too long-winded and melodramatic for my tastes. While information gleaned from research was no doubt factual there was too much crammed into the characters and pages. That said, it does a decent job of using the fiction platform to give a voice to a sad and contentious issue—the plight of children born of parents who are living and working under the radar in a country which then claims their offspring as its own. The author's resolution of Ignacio's fate rang true and was unexpected.
February 9, 2017
The heartbreaking journey of two women, bound by the love of a baby boy, was so NOT a book I wanted to read. It sounded like a potboiler romance…that is, until I actually started it and didn’t want to come up for air. The writing was so mesmerizing, the situation so poignant and the characters so authentic that I found myself staying up past my self-appointed bedtime to read “just another page.”
There are two key characters here: Kavya, daughter of Indian immigrants, who has always taken control of her own life…until she is unable to conceive a child. She and her techie husband Rishi struggle with the emotional ravages of infertility. The interwoven story focuses on Soli, an illegal Mexican immigrant, who, after risking her life, ends up at her cousin’s doorstep in Berkeley, unexpectedly pregnant and determined to keep her baby son.
The author doesn’t keep us in suspense very long. Soli is arrested and her son, born on American soil, is taken over by the state of California, where he ends up in the custody of foster parents Kavya and Rishi. Neither are villains; both women are good-hearted and striving to define what it means to be a mother. My sympathies kept shifting from one to the other, knowing that each woman was emotionally invested in the little boy.
I finished this powerful book at a particularly fortuitous time, when a hard-hearted demagogue heads our country and is targeting law-abiding immigrants who simply want a chance to survive and raise their own children in peace. Soli’s journey as an illegal immigrant and her horrendous treatment by government officials and in the detention center brought tears to my eyes and it is based on a true story. Anyone who paints all immigrants with a broad brush must read this revelatory novel. And anyone who believes, as I do, that there is no such thing as an illegal human should read it to0, and revel in its themes of identity, fertility, motherhood and growth.
There are two key characters here: Kavya, daughter of Indian immigrants, who has always taken control of her own life…until she is unable to conceive a child. She and her techie husband Rishi struggle with the emotional ravages of infertility. The interwoven story focuses on Soli, an illegal Mexican immigrant, who, after risking her life, ends up at her cousin’s doorstep in Berkeley, unexpectedly pregnant and determined to keep her baby son.
The author doesn’t keep us in suspense very long. Soli is arrested and her son, born on American soil, is taken over by the state of California, where he ends up in the custody of foster parents Kavya and Rishi. Neither are villains; both women are good-hearted and striving to define what it means to be a mother. My sympathies kept shifting from one to the other, knowing that each woman was emotionally invested in the little boy.
I finished this powerful book at a particularly fortuitous time, when a hard-hearted demagogue heads our country and is targeting law-abiding immigrants who simply want a chance to survive and raise their own children in peace. Soli’s journey as an illegal immigrant and her horrendous treatment by government officials and in the detention center brought tears to my eyes and it is based on a true story. Anyone who paints all immigrants with a broad brush must read this revelatory novel. And anyone who believes, as I do, that there is no such thing as an illegal human should read it to0, and revel in its themes of identity, fertility, motherhood and growth.
February 1, 2020
"She'd learned the lesson that all women learn sooner or later. If there was something to be done, she'd have to do it herself."
"There is a beast in all of us. Only the worst things can bring it ripping through the human veneer."
This is one of the most powerful books I have read so far this year. While the title is "Lucky Boy," I'm not sure that anyone in this timely novel could be considered "lucky."
Young and naive, Solimar (Soli) Castro-Valdez leaves Mexico on a wing and a prayer in hopes of a better life in California. She has only a vague understading of the system, and believes that a cousin who lives in the US will help her establish her new life.
Before even reaching the border Soli meets with heartache and disaster, and, unknown to her at the time, a child in her womb.
Simultaneously, author Shanthi Sekaran introduces the reader to an upwardly mobile Indian-American couple named Kavya and Rishi. Educated and talented, they are living the American Dream, except that they are struggling with infertility.
This heartbreaking book is told through alternate lenses: Soli's and Kavya/Rishi's as we see Soli give birth to a son, Ignacio; get arrested and held in a detention center for illegal aliens; and witness Ignacio go into the care of Kavya and Rishi.
This book stirred my emotions and has inspired me to learn more about the deportation process as well as the rights aliens have regarding their American-born children.
4.5 stars (which I may end up rounding up to 5)
Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.
"There is a beast in all of us. Only the worst things can bring it ripping through the human veneer."
This is one of the most powerful books I have read so far this year. While the title is "Lucky Boy," I'm not sure that anyone in this timely novel could be considered "lucky."
Young and naive, Solimar (Soli) Castro-Valdez leaves Mexico on a wing and a prayer in hopes of a better life in California. She has only a vague understading of the system, and believes that a cousin who lives in the US will help her establish her new life.
Before even reaching the border Soli meets with heartache and disaster, and, unknown to her at the time, a child in her womb.
Simultaneously, author Shanthi Sekaran introduces the reader to an upwardly mobile Indian-American couple named Kavya and Rishi. Educated and talented, they are living the American Dream, except that they are struggling with infertility.
This heartbreaking book is told through alternate lenses: Soli's and Kavya/Rishi's as we see Soli give birth to a son, Ignacio; get arrested and held in a detention center for illegal aliens; and witness Ignacio go into the care of Kavya and Rishi.
This book stirred my emotions and has inspired me to learn more about the deportation process as well as the rights aliens have regarding their American-born children.
4.5 stars (which I may end up rounding up to 5)
Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.
February 10, 2017
I felt such a wide range of emotions reading this book that it is hard for me to write a review that will make others understand why it meant so much to me but here we go... The two main characters in this book are woman who feel like they are not enough and desperately love the same child, and use their love for this child to get them through some very rough times. Soli left her small town in Mexico because she was the only one her age left and she felt like she could be more in America than she could ever be at home. You go through the horrors that you know happen to women as they try to get into the US illegally but don't want to think about. She meets the love of her life and the father of her child and loses him in a cruel twist of fate. She get a job as a house cleaner and nanny to a family in Berkeley, CA but is caught by the police and is separated from her child while awaiting her fate in a detention center where more things that you know happen to women in these center but also don't want to think about happen. Her child, Ignatius, goes to the Reddy's, an Indian family who has been desperately trying to have a child of their own to the point where it is destroying themselves and their relationship. The child who they call Iggy pulls them together slowly. Ultimately there is a legal battle for the child between the natural mother and the adoptive family. I was not aware that US born children with parents in detention centers could be placed for adoption due to a legal system that does not work with the parents to get them legal representation for family court or even allow them to go or call into court hearings. I thought the children were deported with the parents but this is not always the case. You are rooting for the Reddys and Soli because they are both so likable and you want their pain to stop but in the end you know both cannot have the child. This book broke my heart and opened my eyes to the pain that many people are going through that I would have never experienced or even realized people were going through. And isn't that what books are suppose to do, put you in someone else's shoes? I would definitely recommend this book to everyone.
I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.
I received a free advanced copy of this book from Penguins First to Read Program for review consideration.
I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.
I received a free advanced copy of this book from Penguins First to Read Program for review consideration.
June 21, 2023
3.5 stars
I found this novel a sensitive and well-researched exploration of the plight faced by immigrant Latina women, as well as women who struggle with infertility. The characters felt believable and Shanthi Sekaran poses interesting questions about motherhood and who gets to access motherhood. Certain scenes stood out to me as particularly earnest, such as Soli and Kavya’s interactions with Nacho/Iggy.
I only rate this book a little lower because the writing itself came across as predictable to me, especially the first half of the novel – for some reason it didn’t wow me. I felt that I could sense what was coming next and flipped the pages to get to that predetermined conclusion. Also, while I think Sekaran did the best she could’ve with the dual perspectives, putting Soli and Kavya’s struggles side by side didn’t always sit 100% right with me, perhaps because Kavya’s journey didn’t feel complete enough by the end or because of the potential for a false equivalency between the two women to be drawn.
Still, even from skimming the most recent reviews of this novel I can see that some readers from more privileged backgrounds have expanded their empathy and desire to act on injustices against immigrant women. That’s an important plus that makes me feel appreciative toward this novel.
I found this novel a sensitive and well-researched exploration of the plight faced by immigrant Latina women, as well as women who struggle with infertility. The characters felt believable and Shanthi Sekaran poses interesting questions about motherhood and who gets to access motherhood. Certain scenes stood out to me as particularly earnest, such as Soli and Kavya’s interactions with Nacho/Iggy.
I only rate this book a little lower because the writing itself came across as predictable to me, especially the first half of the novel – for some reason it didn’t wow me. I felt that I could sense what was coming next and flipped the pages to get to that predetermined conclusion. Also, while I think Sekaran did the best she could’ve with the dual perspectives, putting Soli and Kavya’s struggles side by side didn’t always sit 100% right with me, perhaps because Kavya’s journey didn’t feel complete enough by the end or because of the potential for a false equivalency between the two women to be drawn.
Still, even from skimming the most recent reviews of this novel I can see that some readers from more privileged backgrounds have expanded their empathy and desire to act on injustices against immigrant women. That’s an important plus that makes me feel appreciative toward this novel.
July 8, 2018
[3.9] This was a painful novel for me to read, given the recent headlines about children being ripped from their parents at our borders. I'm glad I persisted. It was well done and quite gripping. One quibble - for a 469-page sprawling novel, the ending felt too abrupt, especially Kavya's story.
February 6, 2017
In writing this novel, author Shanthi Sekaram was inspired by a news report of an undocumented Guatemalan woman who was attempting to regain custody of her son who was being adopted by his foster parents. She was interested in the motivations of both parties; she wanted to understand both parties.
Sekaram is a first generation American whose parents were fortunate to find a workable way to live legally in the USA. The plight of undocumented immigrants are an interest to her; she sees her life as lucky in that her parents possessed skills and were from a country that the USA prefer. The politics of undocumented immigrants are an important issue to her.
In this story, a young Mexican girl, Soli, goes through horrendous conditions to get illegally into the United States. Her destination is Berkley, CA because she has a cousin who is documented and successfully living there. Once in Berkley, Soli realizes she’s pregnant. The reader learns of the sad health resources that are available to immigrants. Soli’s life as an undocumented worker is exhausting. Soon after her baby boy is a year old, Soli unwittingly gets involved in a traffic incident that exposes her to the authorities. Her son is taken away from her, placed in social services, as she is remanded to immigrant detention.
Kavya and Rishi are first generation Americans whose parents emigrated from India. After undergoing heart wrenching fertility issues, they decide to adopt a child. Once they learn the cost of a private adoption, they realize they can’t afford it after the expensive fertility treatments. They decide to go through the foster care system, and become foster parents interested in adopting. Soli’s son becomes their ward. They fall immediately in love with the boy.
Sekaran does a fabulous job creating endearing characters. The reader sees both sides of the issue; it’s heart breaking. Sekaran also illuminates the horrors that many undocumented immigrants go through to get to the USA. She shows how these people just want to work and live their lives in peace. She also studied the laws that govern these children of undocumented workers. In general, the judge that resides the case generally determines the rights of the undocumented.
I highly recommend this timely novel as one that exemplifies immigrations issues, especially for those immigrants who want to be part of the country, and the difficulties posed to them to be documented. The story also shows the emotional issues of those foster parents who deeply love their children under their care and believe they are the best choice for the welfare of the child/children. This would be a fabulous book club read.
Sekaram is a first generation American whose parents were fortunate to find a workable way to live legally in the USA. The plight of undocumented immigrants are an interest to her; she sees her life as lucky in that her parents possessed skills and were from a country that the USA prefer. The politics of undocumented immigrants are an important issue to her.
In this story, a young Mexican girl, Soli, goes through horrendous conditions to get illegally into the United States. Her destination is Berkley, CA because she has a cousin who is documented and successfully living there. Once in Berkley, Soli realizes she’s pregnant. The reader learns of the sad health resources that are available to immigrants. Soli’s life as an undocumented worker is exhausting. Soon after her baby boy is a year old, Soli unwittingly gets involved in a traffic incident that exposes her to the authorities. Her son is taken away from her, placed in social services, as she is remanded to immigrant detention.
Kavya and Rishi are first generation Americans whose parents emigrated from India. After undergoing heart wrenching fertility issues, they decide to adopt a child. Once they learn the cost of a private adoption, they realize they can’t afford it after the expensive fertility treatments. They decide to go through the foster care system, and become foster parents interested in adopting. Soli’s son becomes their ward. They fall immediately in love with the boy.
Sekaran does a fabulous job creating endearing characters. The reader sees both sides of the issue; it’s heart breaking. Sekaran also illuminates the horrors that many undocumented immigrants go through to get to the USA. She shows how these people just want to work and live their lives in peace. She also studied the laws that govern these children of undocumented workers. In general, the judge that resides the case generally determines the rights of the undocumented.
I highly recommend this timely novel as one that exemplifies immigrations issues, especially for those immigrants who want to be part of the country, and the difficulties posed to them to be documented. The story also shows the emotional issues of those foster parents who deeply love their children under their care and believe they are the best choice for the welfare of the child/children. This would be a fabulous book club read.
December 8, 2019
Unexpectedly involving, emotional, heartbreaking, poignant. Lucky Boy turned out to be the hidden gem this year. This was an emotionally powerful book highlighting some issues with no right answers.
It's Bollywood, Telenovela and a soap opera combined, with its cliched, predictable and episodic plot. The writing is good but not great. But oh was it a riveting story and so incredibly timely with so much substance and poignancy. It angered me and cause me to explore why a country would consciously sustain a system that is so unjust and downright cruel. This story is mostly guilty of being believable…to the degree that you know the general depth of feelings and emotions and experiences in the novel are authentic.
Sekaran managed to write very convincing and authentic narratives revolving around Indian culture, Mexican culture and American culture. It covered a broad amount of themes: Immigration, undocumented workers, poverty, materialism, cultural appropriation, racism, classism, Americana, elitism, misogyny, criminal justice, detention centers, self awareness, self esteem, parental rights, government sanctioned kidnapping, careerism, corporate greed/appropriation, environment, Mexican diaspora, infertility, cultural prejudices/stigmas, motherhood/fatherhood, rape, dehumanization, love, despair, obsession and much more. Many of these items seem stripped from headlines. There was a lot of powerful commentary in this book.
This one turned out to be one of my favorites this year. It asks questions that have no answers. I ached for all of the choices and situations of the characters involved. With the main characters, there is no "bad guy". Everyone loves and wants what is best for the boy. It turns out that the answer to what's best is not binary and has tremendous nuance. The author didn't answer that question. Yes, there is an ending, but the determination of whether or not it was the right thing to do is a matter of perspective, values, ethics. This was a thoughtful, emotional and heart wrenching book that asks the question: Does the end justify the means? Philosophers are still working on that one…
4.5 Stars
Listened to the audio book. Soneela Nankani and Roxana Ortega were absolutely superb!!
It's Bollywood, Telenovela and a soap opera combined, with its cliched, predictable and episodic plot. The writing is good but not great. But oh was it a riveting story and so incredibly timely with so much substance and poignancy. It angered me and cause me to explore why a country would consciously sustain a system that is so unjust and downright cruel. This story is mostly guilty of being believable…to the degree that you know the general depth of feelings and emotions and experiences in the novel are authentic.
Sekaran managed to write very convincing and authentic narratives revolving around Indian culture, Mexican culture and American culture. It covered a broad amount of themes: Immigration, undocumented workers, poverty, materialism, cultural appropriation, racism, classism, Americana, elitism, misogyny, criminal justice, detention centers, self awareness, self esteem, parental rights, government sanctioned kidnapping, careerism, corporate greed/appropriation, environment, Mexican diaspora, infertility, cultural prejudices/stigmas, motherhood/fatherhood, rape, dehumanization, love, despair, obsession and much more. Many of these items seem stripped from headlines. There was a lot of powerful commentary in this book.
This one turned out to be one of my favorites this year. It asks questions that have no answers. I ached for all of the choices and situations of the characters involved. With the main characters, there is no "bad guy". Everyone loves and wants what is best for the boy. It turns out that the answer to what's best is not binary and has tremendous nuance. The author didn't answer that question. Yes, there is an ending, but the determination of whether or not it was the right thing to do is a matter of perspective, values, ethics. This was a thoughtful, emotional and heart wrenching book that asks the question: Does the end justify the means? Philosophers are still working on that one…
4.5 Stars
Listened to the audio book. Soneela Nankani and Roxana Ortega were absolutely superb!!
February 10, 2017
If any readers are skeptical that vibrant, tingling, page-turning storytelling can also be literary, I’m convinced that LUCKY BOY could change your mind. Saturated with ethical questions about maternal love, privilege, boundaries, and the immigrant experience, the story tells itself without any authorial interference. Hard questions have no soft answers, and the reader, while adventuring through morally complex lines and barriers, will surely be exhilarated and full of empathy for all the primary characters.
There are no easy outcomes to knotty disputes of immigration and the undocumented worker, as well as the foster care system and questions of class and standing. When a child is involved, the heart demands authority over statutes that are buried under benevolence. What we have is a tale bursting with humanity that traverses the invisible borders of the law, morality, and mercy that both connect and divide us from each other. There are borders and boundaries, and then there are immigrants and the law. But, when it comes to maternal love, that love IS the law, and there are no boundaries in the heart that can be imposed by the courts.
Privileged Indian American Berkeley couple Kavya and Rishi Reddy are in their mid-thirties and childless. Kavya, especially, is envious of couples with children, pregnant women, and those that effortlessly conceive. They begin a process of obtaining a child with a desperation that is exclusively understood by the barren and single-minded.
Solimar “Soli” Castro Valdez is a nineteen-year-old from a poverty-stricken village near Oaxaca. Her anguish resides in the unending hope of a better future somewhere else—and that somewhere else is America. What she entails to cross the border is both courageous and harrowing, but not without a pause in terror to find love.
All three of these main characters are motivated by desperation and moved by certainty—the surety of their hearts that sometimes defies the law and ethics. What they would do for a child they love is limitless, unquantifiable, and borne on their own determination of their desire, their sense of right that supersedes external and murky morality defined by others.
You can read the blurb on the book for content of plot, although I would suggest coming into it cold with no preconceived notions or plot-spoilers. Therefore, I am withholding from too much notation of the plot. Although it is close to 450 pages, I read this unputdownble book at a rapid pace, not wanting to tear myself away. What a fine balance between plot and theme, events and reflection.
And Rishi’s job, as an air quality engineer, provides witty and scintillating extended metaphors. Attempting to create a room of “pure” air for his company (and to impress his boss, now married to Kavya’s childhood friend, who she always envied) is almost absurd. His goal is to create an invisibly bordered room of non-toxic, flawlessly healthy and breathable air. It blends impeccably with the theme of manifest borders and systematic laws that are supposed to be created for the good of its citizens, but also can run roughshod over families and the nature of love and bonds.
“Air quality data was clear and quantifiable. It could be summoned and charted. Children and wives could not. Acceptance couldn’t be graphed. Nor could love.”
In the meantime, Soli is attempting to navigate life as an “illegal.” It isn’t just the border of Mexico and America, but also what she will be willing to do to get what she wants. She is at a disadvantage being poor in a rich country, but now she has a reason to fight and win under any circumstances. She’s a scrappy girl with resources, despite her lack of money, education, and fluency of English. You root for her determination and empathize with her, as well as Kavya and Rishi, whose privilege obscures an underlying despair. Eventually, these characters will be fighting the same fight, each certain of their rightness.
Invisible and indivisible, cleaving and cleaving (the same words with opposite meanings)—the narrative will pull you on both sides of an argument, while pushing you to new frontiers of emotion while you witness human truths that parallel ideology and undermine the law.
There are no easy outcomes to knotty disputes of immigration and the undocumented worker, as well as the foster care system and questions of class and standing. When a child is involved, the heart demands authority over statutes that are buried under benevolence. What we have is a tale bursting with humanity that traverses the invisible borders of the law, morality, and mercy that both connect and divide us from each other. There are borders and boundaries, and then there are immigrants and the law. But, when it comes to maternal love, that love IS the law, and there are no boundaries in the heart that can be imposed by the courts.
Privileged Indian American Berkeley couple Kavya and Rishi Reddy are in their mid-thirties and childless. Kavya, especially, is envious of couples with children, pregnant women, and those that effortlessly conceive. They begin a process of obtaining a child with a desperation that is exclusively understood by the barren and single-minded.
Solimar “Soli” Castro Valdez is a nineteen-year-old from a poverty-stricken village near Oaxaca. Her anguish resides in the unending hope of a better future somewhere else—and that somewhere else is America. What she entails to cross the border is both courageous and harrowing, but not without a pause in terror to find love.
All three of these main characters are motivated by desperation and moved by certainty—the surety of their hearts that sometimes defies the law and ethics. What they would do for a child they love is limitless, unquantifiable, and borne on their own determination of their desire, their sense of right that supersedes external and murky morality defined by others.
You can read the blurb on the book for content of plot, although I would suggest coming into it cold with no preconceived notions or plot-spoilers. Therefore, I am withholding from too much notation of the plot. Although it is close to 450 pages, I read this unputdownble book at a rapid pace, not wanting to tear myself away. What a fine balance between plot and theme, events and reflection.
And Rishi’s job, as an air quality engineer, provides witty and scintillating extended metaphors. Attempting to create a room of “pure” air for his company (and to impress his boss, now married to Kavya’s childhood friend, who she always envied) is almost absurd. His goal is to create an invisibly bordered room of non-toxic, flawlessly healthy and breathable air. It blends impeccably with the theme of manifest borders and systematic laws that are supposed to be created for the good of its citizens, but also can run roughshod over families and the nature of love and bonds.
“Air quality data was clear and quantifiable. It could be summoned and charted. Children and wives could not. Acceptance couldn’t be graphed. Nor could love.”
In the meantime, Soli is attempting to navigate life as an “illegal.” It isn’t just the border of Mexico and America, but also what she will be willing to do to get what she wants. She is at a disadvantage being poor in a rich country, but now she has a reason to fight and win under any circumstances. She’s a scrappy girl with resources, despite her lack of money, education, and fluency of English. You root for her determination and empathize with her, as well as Kavya and Rishi, whose privilege obscures an underlying despair. Eventually, these characters will be fighting the same fight, each certain of their rightness.
Invisible and indivisible, cleaving and cleaving (the same words with opposite meanings)—the narrative will pull you on both sides of an argument, while pushing you to new frontiers of emotion while you witness human truths that parallel ideology and undermine the law.
July 17, 2018
When I retrieved Lucky Boy from the holds shelf at the library, I groaned in dismay. It's the July read for my book club, but no one mentioned at our last meeting that it weighs in at nearly 500 pages. My mind went immediately to Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, which I loved and is admittedly three times longer, but it took me weeks to wend my way through. I didn't have that kind of time or worse, the needed attention span.
Not to worry. Lucky Boy captured me in its opening pages and held me for the scant four days it took to read. Released in early 2017, the novel presciently mirrors the headlines du jour: the travesty at the US-Mexican border of children separated from their parents. Lucky Boy challenges us to consider how to balance the justice and compassion for undocumented migrants with the need for fair and reasonable immigration policies; how to embrace the American-born children, those so-called Dreamers, whose parents left their home and risked their lives to escape poverty and violence. In a culture where ethics, compassion, civility and common sense seem to crumble with each Tweet blasted out from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Shanthi Sekaran's smart and tender novel makes us feel deeply the controversies that newspaper headlines so often sensationalize to the point of rendering us numb.
Lucky Boy shows two disparate facets of the complicated jewel of immigration- the treasure and curse that built this political and economic entity known as the United States. One story centers on Solimar, or "Soli", an 18-year-old undocumented migrant who makes the harrowing journey from Mexico to Berkeley, California. She arrives at a cousin's door, pregnant, tattered, exhausted and with only a few words of English. The other story is that of Kavya and Rishi Reddy, children of Indian immigrants who live comfortable upper-middle class lives. The lucky boy of the novel's title is Ignacio, or "Nacho", Soli's son who is born a few months after her arrival.
With the help of her cousin, Silvia, Soli finds work as a nanny-maid and for a while, she seems to sliding under the radar and into a new life of possibilities. She sends money to her parents in Mexico, she learns English, and she gives birth to a baby boy who her employers allow her to carry around in a sling while she cleans their toilets and dusts their nightstands. Then one day she loses track of their daughter in a playground. By the end of the evening, she is in an immigration detention center, separated from her toddler son.
The Reddy's, living out quiet anguish as unrequited parents in their storybook bungalow, become Nacho's foster parents. Kavya, so desperate to be a mother that the book's pages fairly twist with her longing and frustration, comes to love her new charge, whom she calls Iggy, with a vital, fierce, and visceral passion. She lives in fear that the baby will be taken from her; Iggy's biological mother is a ghost-shadow that looms large over their lives. The guilt over her plight, her loss, and the potential destruction she wields add a sense of urgency to Kavya and Rishi's parenting. The irony of course is that their greatest fear has already been realized by Soli, who spends months in horrific conditions, agonizing over the loss of her child.
To reveal more would be to enter spoiler territory. This is without hesitation a story you should discover on your own. Sekaran treats these thorny, topical issues with lucid empathy and rich characters. She takes time to build these lives, giving even minor characters weight and relevance. Her prose is a joy to read, clear and lovely. Highly recommended.
"Why did people love children that were born to other people? For the same reason they lived in Berkeley, knowing the Big One was coming: because it was a beautiful place to be, and because there was no way to fathom the length or quality of life left to anyone."
Not to worry. Lucky Boy captured me in its opening pages and held me for the scant four days it took to read. Released in early 2017, the novel presciently mirrors the headlines du jour: the travesty at the US-Mexican border of children separated from their parents. Lucky Boy challenges us to consider how to balance the justice and compassion for undocumented migrants with the need for fair and reasonable immigration policies; how to embrace the American-born children, those so-called Dreamers, whose parents left their home and risked their lives to escape poverty and violence. In a culture where ethics, compassion, civility and common sense seem to crumble with each Tweet blasted out from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Shanthi Sekaran's smart and tender novel makes us feel deeply the controversies that newspaper headlines so often sensationalize to the point of rendering us numb.
Lucky Boy shows two disparate facets of the complicated jewel of immigration- the treasure and curse that built this political and economic entity known as the United States. One story centers on Solimar, or "Soli", an 18-year-old undocumented migrant who makes the harrowing journey from Mexico to Berkeley, California. She arrives at a cousin's door, pregnant, tattered, exhausted and with only a few words of English. The other story is that of Kavya and Rishi Reddy, children of Indian immigrants who live comfortable upper-middle class lives. The lucky boy of the novel's title is Ignacio, or "Nacho", Soli's son who is born a few months after her arrival.
With the help of her cousin, Silvia, Soli finds work as a nanny-maid and for a while, she seems to sliding under the radar and into a new life of possibilities. She sends money to her parents in Mexico, she learns English, and she gives birth to a baby boy who her employers allow her to carry around in a sling while she cleans their toilets and dusts their nightstands. Then one day she loses track of their daughter in a playground. By the end of the evening, she is in an immigration detention center, separated from her toddler son.
The Reddy's, living out quiet anguish as unrequited parents in their storybook bungalow, become Nacho's foster parents. Kavya, so desperate to be a mother that the book's pages fairly twist with her longing and frustration, comes to love her new charge, whom she calls Iggy, with a vital, fierce, and visceral passion. She lives in fear that the baby will be taken from her; Iggy's biological mother is a ghost-shadow that looms large over their lives. The guilt over her plight, her loss, and the potential destruction she wields add a sense of urgency to Kavya and Rishi's parenting. The irony of course is that their greatest fear has already been realized by Soli, who spends months in horrific conditions, agonizing over the loss of her child.
To reveal more would be to enter spoiler territory. This is without hesitation a story you should discover on your own. Sekaran treats these thorny, topical issues with lucid empathy and rich characters. She takes time to build these lives, giving even minor characters weight and relevance. Her prose is a joy to read, clear and lovely. Highly recommended.
"Why did people love children that were born to other people? For the same reason they lived in Berkeley, knowing the Big One was coming: because it was a beautiful place to be, and because there was no way to fathom the length or quality of life left to anyone."
January 23, 2018
3 stars
I have started this review 3 times now. I think there is just too much to say about this book as it tackles some heavy situations and emotional trauma is rife. Whether these situations were avoidable was a big question for me for most of the book. By the end, I stopped judging by my own standards and was engaged in the characters as the author intended them to be read, and of the decisions that they made.
Probably not the best written of the books I have read, but certainly engaging and morally speaking, it’s edge of your seat reading.
It’s common these days for me to see these trigger warnings in reviews so spoilers below;
It’s tough reading and not for the faint hearted. It’s a horror story without the genre label.
I have started this review 3 times now. I think there is just too much to say about this book as it tackles some heavy situations and emotional trauma is rife. Whether these situations were avoidable was a big question for me for most of the book. By the end, I stopped judging by my own standards and was engaged in the characters as the author intended them to be read, and of the decisions that they made.
Probably not the best written of the books I have read, but certainly engaging and morally speaking, it’s edge of your seat reading.
It’s common these days for me to see these trigger warnings in reviews so spoilers below;
It’s tough reading and not for the faint hearted. It’s a horror story without the genre label.
Read
August 19, 2022Sekaran has woven a rich compelling story here. The novel juxtaposes two women's lives--one a middle class woman living in Berkeley, the other a poor undocumented immigrant. The latter leaves Mexico on a dangerous journey which leaves her pregnant with limited resources. Ultimately both women want the same things--the immigrant's baby. The story tackles several issues--immigration, rape, adoption, and foster care. I work in foster care so inauthenticity in such storylines is a true pet peeve of mine, but I thought Sekaran handled it well. There were instances that were different from the state laws in Illinois where I live, but I know they can vary from state to state and it didn't seem inaccurate, just different from what I know. Overall Lucky Boy is a beautiful portrait of the complicated relationships that develop when families become intertwined through the foster care system.
June 13, 2018
Though it's called Lucky Boy, this book weaves together two women's stories and doesn't spare much attention for the little boy in the center of it all. He acts as a prop and mostly enters scenes to be loved and have his hair smelled. We spend almost all our time with Kavya, an Indian-American woman in Berkeley who longs for a child, and Soli, a Mexican woman who (eventually) has a son named Ignacio. Ignacio (even more eventually) ends up in Kavya's care.
Here's the problem with Soli's narrative: Sekaran has no idea when to stop piling on the horror and woe. (Some spoilers follow.) We already know from the blurb that Soli will get pregnant and have a boy; but rest assured that we won't get there without a violent gang rape (featuring both a gun and a knife, of course, in a precursor of excesses to come). In Berkeley, Soli goes to work for a family as a housekeeper and nanny. The white American yoga mom is all the painful cliched things you'd expect, with a self-indulgent postpartum depression so crazy and entitled that she makes Soli watch a video of herself in childbirth. The ridiculousness accelerates from there. Soli falls asleep in the park and her charges run away. In a panic, she calls her cousin, who proceeds to get in a high-speed car chase with the police-- because if you flee, it makes the cops "lose interest." Or something. At this point, we know from the blurb that Kavya ends up fostering Soli's son, so we're just waiting for that to finally happen; the police oblige by arresting Soli and figuring out that she's not in the country legally. They throw her in the county jail.
Once Soli enters state (then federal) custody, I struggled to get through her sections. I've worked on many lawsuits involving civil rights violations in jails (for the plaintiffs, so you can't accuse me of being unsympathetic), and almost nothing about the overwrought depictions of incarceration hit close to the mark. First, the county jail refuses to give Soli any water, so that she's forced to "drink from her own breast" to avoid dehydration. Hmm. Do all the other non-lactating inmates just die, then? Then she's transferred to a immigration detention center, where sadistic guards give inmates inedible soup full of bugs and then dump it on their heads when they complain, and Soli's kept in solitary confinement for days without food. Hmm, again. She's not permitted to see her lawyer except during public "visiting hours" (not how that works), forced to miss hearings while in custody, and then raped regularly by a guard. (We know it's rape because Sekaran says: "Let's be clear: This was no romance." Thanks for clarifying!) So far, the guard-on-inmate rape is the closest we've come to real life. I actually laughed during the courtroom scene when a judge announces that it's "not her place to consider" why Soli-- who everyone knows is in federal custody-- didn't appear for the hearing. Of course it's her place to consider that. Courts often have to deal with situations like this when transport orders get messed up and in-custody parties don't appear when they're supposed to. Obviously her attorney informed the judge about his client's status and requested a transport order (right...? or do not even the lawyers in this book know the law?), so it'd be absurd to deny a party parental rights on the grounds that the federal facility didn't make her available. But okay, throw it on the pile of plot contrivances. Soli's rapey guard buddy takes her to the kitchen for sex and she steals a knife, which she hides in her ponytail. She must have thick hair. And this evil off-the-grid federal detention center must forget to frisk its inmates or check their cells at night. After a few scenes of tortured buildup (in between which we cut to long episodes of Kavya being a devoted, loving mom, for some reason), Soli stabs the guard in the thigh and escapes out the kitchen window. We never hear about the guard again and I assume he's bled out and died. She gets away with this stabbing because, as an immigrant, she "doesn't officially exist." Which makes perfect sense because, as everyone knows, the United States makes no attempt to track people it deports-- and don't let anyone who's been arrested for illegal reentry tell you otherwise.
Anyway, some deeply misguided Good Samaritan type sees Soli in her prison uniform, covered in blood, and decides to help her get a job. She makes her way back to Berkeley, where she promptly breaks into her former employers' house, steals their stroller, stalks Kavya, and then kidnaps Ignacio from his bed at 4am. She takes the time to note that Kavya and Rishi are "not even American" because of their ethnicity before bundling Ignacio off on a Greyhound bus back to Mexico. He doesn't appear to enjoy his kidnapping, but his feelings are irrelevant. And that's the end.
The only moments of authenticity come in Kavya's story. Sometimes even that overreaches-- for example, she doesn't get pregnant within just three months of trying and immediately melts down-- but it has a believable heart. And her overbearing-but-loving mother with the thick accent convinced me entirely. It's a shame that the high (melo)drama of Soli's story eclipses the book's hints of truth and subtlety. In the end, Kavya's husband Rishi has a very trippy little visit to Mexico and sees water coming from a cactus and learns that "something can come out of nothing," or whatever. He goes home and he and Kavya realize that they "had gone too far. They had taken a women's child." The book is tired of the Reddys' realism and grief, so we get a bright little wrap-up about how they're still living a fine life without a child.
The message is overwhelmingly pro-biological-mother, which I have mixed feelings about. Sekaran keeps acting like Soli's only crimes are illegal immigration and intense maternal love, but that's not true. Among other things, she stabbed a man and left him to die. And no one ever seems to think for a moment about what Ignacio might want or benefit from, even though it's clear (for example) that he caught pneumonia in Soli's care and only gets proper medical treatment with the Reddys. I have a hard time believing the book's core lesson-- repeated by everyone, including the wise Miguel and, ultimately, Kavya herself-- that they did something wrong by taking this little boy in and loving him when he was troubled and traumatized. I also have a hard time believing that kidnapping your own child, re-traumatizing him to the point that he no longer speaks, and fleeing the country to live as an impoverished fugitive really counts as a "happy ending." I'm baffled by the reviews that say this.
People also say that the book is funny, so I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Sekaran adds many bizarre jokey asides, like when Soli learns the word "mortgage": "Mort. Gage. It was a word that got in its own way. It was a word that held within itself a sense of its own limits, an echo of death." There are several little sci-fi/fantasy jokes (e.g. quoting Lord of the Rings to refer to Ignacio as "the One"), too, which seem to stem from genuine interest or fandom. I didn't dislike them, but they clashed with the tone of the story, which Soli describes as "an opera of small hells" (okay, I see the opera part, but is being raped countless times, murdering someone, and kidnapping a child "small"?).
Until the end, I thought of this as an ideal book-club book: pretty and hardworking, difficult to imagine people disliking it, and it addresses current issues in a way that's bound to win sympathy and interest. I still felt mostly indifferent to it, and I think the seams show on some of its efforts to be Moving and Timely-- but admittedly, as a reader I prefer something messy and ambiguous and standoffish, something that makes me wonder what I think rather than gently affirming the opinions (it assumes) I already have. And this ending so thoroughly abandons nuance to pacify its audience on the way out the door that I couldn't hold onto my non-dislike. Imagine "Sleepless in Seattle," start it off with 40 minutes of Bill Pullman crying and/or gushing about how passionately he loves Meg Ryan, then cut to that scene of him smiling and nodding as she leaves him for someone she heard on the radio, and you've almost got the idea of Kavya's unexpected and untenable forfeiture of her beloved foster son.
Here's the problem with Soli's narrative: Sekaran has no idea when to stop piling on the horror and woe. (Some spoilers follow.) We already know from the blurb that Soli will get pregnant and have a boy; but rest assured that we won't get there without a violent gang rape (featuring both a gun and a knife, of course, in a precursor of excesses to come). In Berkeley, Soli goes to work for a family as a housekeeper and nanny. The white American yoga mom is all the painful cliched things you'd expect, with a self-indulgent postpartum depression so crazy and entitled that she makes Soli watch a video of herself in childbirth. The ridiculousness accelerates from there. Soli falls asleep in the park and her charges run away. In a panic, she calls her cousin, who proceeds to get in a high-speed car chase with the police-- because if you flee, it makes the cops "lose interest." Or something. At this point, we know from the blurb that Kavya ends up fostering Soli's son, so we're just waiting for that to finally happen; the police oblige by arresting Soli and figuring out that she's not in the country legally. They throw her in the county jail.
Once Soli enters state (then federal) custody, I struggled to get through her sections. I've worked on many lawsuits involving civil rights violations in jails (for the plaintiffs, so you can't accuse me of being unsympathetic), and almost nothing about the overwrought depictions of incarceration hit close to the mark. First, the county jail refuses to give Soli any water, so that she's forced to "drink from her own breast" to avoid dehydration. Hmm. Do all the other non-lactating inmates just die, then? Then she's transferred to a immigration detention center, where sadistic guards give inmates inedible soup full of bugs and then dump it on their heads when they complain, and Soli's kept in solitary confinement for days without food. Hmm, again. She's not permitted to see her lawyer except during public "visiting hours" (not how that works), forced to miss hearings while in custody, and then raped regularly by a guard. (We know it's rape because Sekaran says: "Let's be clear: This was no romance." Thanks for clarifying!) So far, the guard-on-inmate rape is the closest we've come to real life. I actually laughed during the courtroom scene when a judge announces that it's "not her place to consider" why Soli-- who everyone knows is in federal custody-- didn't appear for the hearing. Of course it's her place to consider that. Courts often have to deal with situations like this when transport orders get messed up and in-custody parties don't appear when they're supposed to. Obviously her attorney informed the judge about his client's status and requested a transport order (right...? or do not even the lawyers in this book know the law?), so it'd be absurd to deny a party parental rights on the grounds that the federal facility didn't make her available. But okay, throw it on the pile of plot contrivances. Soli's rapey guard buddy takes her to the kitchen for sex and she steals a knife, which she hides in her ponytail. She must have thick hair. And this evil off-the-grid federal detention center must forget to frisk its inmates or check their cells at night. After a few scenes of tortured buildup (in between which we cut to long episodes of Kavya being a devoted, loving mom, for some reason), Soli stabs the guard in the thigh and escapes out the kitchen window. We never hear about the guard again and I assume he's bled out and died. She gets away with this stabbing because, as an immigrant, she "doesn't officially exist." Which makes perfect sense because, as everyone knows, the United States makes no attempt to track people it deports-- and don't let anyone who's been arrested for illegal reentry tell you otherwise.
Anyway, some deeply misguided Good Samaritan type sees Soli in her prison uniform, covered in blood, and decides to help her get a job. She makes her way back to Berkeley, where she promptly breaks into her former employers' house, steals their stroller, stalks Kavya, and then kidnaps Ignacio from his bed at 4am. She takes the time to note that Kavya and Rishi are "not even American" because of their ethnicity before bundling Ignacio off on a Greyhound bus back to Mexico. He doesn't appear to enjoy his kidnapping, but his feelings are irrelevant. And that's the end.
The only moments of authenticity come in Kavya's story. Sometimes even that overreaches-- for example, she doesn't get pregnant within just three months of trying and immediately melts down-- but it has a believable heart. And her overbearing-but-loving mother with the thick accent convinced me entirely. It's a shame that the high (melo)drama of Soli's story eclipses the book's hints of truth and subtlety. In the end, Kavya's husband Rishi has a very trippy little visit to Mexico and sees water coming from a cactus and learns that "something can come out of nothing," or whatever. He goes home and he and Kavya realize that they "had gone too far. They had taken a women's child." The book is tired of the Reddys' realism and grief, so we get a bright little wrap-up about how they're still living a fine life without a child.
The message is overwhelmingly pro-biological-mother, which I have mixed feelings about. Sekaran keeps acting like Soli's only crimes are illegal immigration and intense maternal love, but that's not true. Among other things, she stabbed a man and left him to die. And no one ever seems to think for a moment about what Ignacio might want or benefit from, even though it's clear (for example) that he caught pneumonia in Soli's care and only gets proper medical treatment with the Reddys. I have a hard time believing the book's core lesson-- repeated by everyone, including the wise Miguel and, ultimately, Kavya herself-- that they did something wrong by taking this little boy in and loving him when he was troubled and traumatized. I also have a hard time believing that kidnapping your own child, re-traumatizing him to the point that he no longer speaks, and fleeing the country to live as an impoverished fugitive really counts as a "happy ending." I'm baffled by the reviews that say this.
People also say that the book is funny, so I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Sekaran adds many bizarre jokey asides, like when Soli learns the word "mortgage": "Mort. Gage. It was a word that got in its own way. It was a word that held within itself a sense of its own limits, an echo of death." There are several little sci-fi/fantasy jokes (e.g. quoting Lord of the Rings to refer to Ignacio as "the One"), too, which seem to stem from genuine interest or fandom. I didn't dislike them, but they clashed with the tone of the story, which Soli describes as "an opera of small hells" (okay, I see the opera part, but is being raped countless times, murdering someone, and kidnapping a child "small"?).
Until the end, I thought of this as an ideal book-club book: pretty and hardworking, difficult to imagine people disliking it, and it addresses current issues in a way that's bound to win sympathy and interest. I still felt mostly indifferent to it, and I think the seams show on some of its efforts to be Moving and Timely-- but admittedly, as a reader I prefer something messy and ambiguous and standoffish, something that makes me wonder what I think rather than gently affirming the opinions (it assumes) I already have. And this ending so thoroughly abandons nuance to pacify its audience on the way out the door that I couldn't hold onto my non-dislike. Imagine "Sleepless in Seattle," start it off with 40 minutes of Bill Pullman crying and/or gushing about how passionately he loves Meg Ryan, then cut to that scene of him smiling and nodding as she leaves him for someone she heard on the radio, and you've almost got the idea of Kavya's unexpected and untenable forfeiture of her beloved foster son.
January 10, 2019
"Acceptance couldn't be graphed. Nor could love."
Solimar "Soli" Castro Valdez is from Popocalco, a small town near Oacaxa. Eighteen and naive, she is ready to leave and join her cousin Sylvia in Berkely, California. Making the treacherous journey illegally into the United States, Soli arrives heartbroken and pregnant at her cousin's doorstep. Not far reside Kavya and Rishi Reddy, an Indian-American couple. They have it all except for a child, which they want desperately. When Soli's son winds up in the care of Kavya and Rishi, it become a race to determine to whom this "lucky boy" belongs.
This was most definitely a timely and relevant read. Soli wants a better future, something that she is unlikely to get in Popocalco. Her cousin Sylvia, who resides in California, tells her there is a job and a place to stay, if she comes. Soli decides to cross the border ilegally in search a of a better life. Pregnancy was not part of the plan but she adapts and when Ignacio, her son, is born she is elated. On the other hand, Kavya and Rishi deal with infertility and when unable to conceive on their own, turn to fostering. Ignacio comes into their lives and they become absolutely smitten by him. When Soli want her son back, its becomes a battle that has no clear winner. Told in a dual storyline, that of Soli and the Reddys, this was a hearbreaking narrative, dealing with family, love, infertility, illegal immigration and just humanity as a whole. As the narrative progressed, it became clear that there was no villains, just two moms trying to do the right thing.
Words like 'justice' and 'fair' took a different connotation in this book. Given Soli's circumstances (her legal status, or rather, lack of), the Reddys inability to conceive and their growing love for this boy, and a complicated set of immigration laws, where Ignacio should live was a tangled mess. No matter the outcome, it was devasting. This was no simple matter, it is a moral conundrum. Someone was going to lose. This decision, as to whom Ignacio belonged to, was going to be unfair and unjust to one mother. The author did a great job in helping the reader see this painful situation from both sides and I empathized with both mothers. I was deeply invested in this narrative and could easily make arguments both in favor and against of, both, Soli and Kavya. Books like this are amazing for they make me thankful for my life and help me understand that we can not judge others without being in their shoes. There are laws and they should respected but I wonder, should humanity and compssion not play a role as well? Great book. Would definitely reccomend.
Solimar "Soli" Castro Valdez is from Popocalco, a small town near Oacaxa. Eighteen and naive, she is ready to leave and join her cousin Sylvia in Berkely, California. Making the treacherous journey illegally into the United States, Soli arrives heartbroken and pregnant at her cousin's doorstep. Not far reside Kavya and Rishi Reddy, an Indian-American couple. They have it all except for a child, which they want desperately. When Soli's son winds up in the care of Kavya and Rishi, it become a race to determine to whom this "lucky boy" belongs.
This was most definitely a timely and relevant read. Soli wants a better future, something that she is unlikely to get in Popocalco. Her cousin Sylvia, who resides in California, tells her there is a job and a place to stay, if she comes. Soli decides to cross the border ilegally in search a of a better life. Pregnancy was not part of the plan but she adapts and when Ignacio, her son, is born she is elated. On the other hand, Kavya and Rishi deal with infertility and when unable to conceive on their own, turn to fostering. Ignacio comes into their lives and they become absolutely smitten by him. When Soli want her son back, its becomes a battle that has no clear winner. Told in a dual storyline, that of Soli and the Reddys, this was a hearbreaking narrative, dealing with family, love, infertility, illegal immigration and just humanity as a whole. As the narrative progressed, it became clear that there was no villains, just two moms trying to do the right thing.
Words like 'justice' and 'fair' took a different connotation in this book. Given Soli's circumstances (her legal status, or rather, lack of), the Reddys inability to conceive and their growing love for this boy, and a complicated set of immigration laws, where Ignacio should live was a tangled mess. No matter the outcome, it was devasting. This was no simple matter, it is a moral conundrum. Someone was going to lose. This decision, as to whom Ignacio belonged to, was going to be unfair and unjust to one mother. The author did a great job in helping the reader see this painful situation from both sides and I empathized with both mothers. I was deeply invested in this narrative and could easily make arguments both in favor and against of, both, Soli and Kavya. Books like this are amazing for they make me thankful for my life and help me understand that we can not judge others without being in their shoes. There are laws and they should respected but I wonder, should humanity and compssion not play a role as well? Great book. Would definitely reccomend.
December 3, 2016
This book is so timely with all of the immigration issues that our country is facing right now, this novel couldn’t have come out at a better time.
For me this book is personal in several ways. First of all my father was an immigrant from Mexico 70+ years ago when he had to have a sponsor and a job in this country and learn English to gain citizenship. He from Oaxaca city in Mexico and I just visited there 2 years ago.
One of my daughters has gone through 3 years of infertility work ups culminating in 4 failed in vitro attempts. I have been with her through all of the struggles, frustration, heartbreak, etc that goes with infertility.
This book is very well researched and well written. The characters are fully developed and there is much attention to detail. I felt as though I was riding with Soli Castro as she made her very harrowing trip to the United States. She is pregnant by the time she reaches her cousin’s home and works as a housekeeper and sometimes nanny for a wealthy couple who have chosen to “look the other way” and employ her even though they know she is illegal. She has the baby, Ignacio, and falls in love with him instantly only to have him taken away when she is sent to a detention center before deportation. When Soli and her cousin are detained it is through a fluke accident that they are found to be illegal.
The other main characters are Kavya and Rishi Reddy, who have spent all of their savings on infertility treatments which have just led to frustration and heartbreak. They have decided to pursue adoption and this is when our “lucky boy”, Ignacio is placed in foster care. They have quite a long time with him in which they are deeply in love with the little boy and have high hopes of adopting him. They are headed for heartbreak.
The author states that “U.S. immigration policy is in a continual state of flux. This novel refers largely to policies which existed in 2012-2013. As of this reading, immigration law has largely remained unchanged and more than five million children in the US have at least one undocumented parent.”
Though at times this book is very sad it is definitely a worthwhile read. I felt the characters were very believable and relatable and I think anyone would appreciate this beautifully written book. I think it would be a good choice for a book club with many timely topics to discuss.
Thank you to the author and publisher for an ARC of this book.
For me this book is personal in several ways. First of all my father was an immigrant from Mexico 70+ years ago when he had to have a sponsor and a job in this country and learn English to gain citizenship. He from Oaxaca city in Mexico and I just visited there 2 years ago.
One of my daughters has gone through 3 years of infertility work ups culminating in 4 failed in vitro attempts. I have been with her through all of the struggles, frustration, heartbreak, etc that goes with infertility.
This book is very well researched and well written. The characters are fully developed and there is much attention to detail. I felt as though I was riding with Soli Castro as she made her very harrowing trip to the United States. She is pregnant by the time she reaches her cousin’s home and works as a housekeeper and sometimes nanny for a wealthy couple who have chosen to “look the other way” and employ her even though they know she is illegal. She has the baby, Ignacio, and falls in love with him instantly only to have him taken away when she is sent to a detention center before deportation. When Soli and her cousin are detained it is through a fluke accident that they are found to be illegal.
The other main characters are Kavya and Rishi Reddy, who have spent all of their savings on infertility treatments which have just led to frustration and heartbreak. They have decided to pursue adoption and this is when our “lucky boy”, Ignacio is placed in foster care. They have quite a long time with him in which they are deeply in love with the little boy and have high hopes of adopting him. They are headed for heartbreak.
The author states that “U.S. immigration policy is in a continual state of flux. This novel refers largely to policies which existed in 2012-2013. As of this reading, immigration law has largely remained unchanged and more than five million children in the US have at least one undocumented parent.”
Though at times this book is very sad it is definitely a worthwhile read. I felt the characters were very believable and relatable and I think anyone would appreciate this beautifully written book. I think it would be a good choice for a book club with many timely topics to discuss.
Thank you to the author and publisher for an ARC of this book.
February 13, 2017
My heart is broken. And many tears were shed.
Lucky Boy is a gut wrenching, soul searching novel by Shanthi Sekaran that keeps a tight grip on you and won't let go until long after you've read it.
This story is about two women: mothers, who love the same little boy. But only one can will be able to keep him when all is said and done. And who is to say what's fair, what's right or wrong, when a little boy's life and when love is at stake?
Soli is an illegal immigrant from Mexico and she is also the birth mother of Ignacio "Nacho." While living in Berkley, CA, she gets into trouble with the law and loses temporary custody of her child.
Kavya, becomes Ignacio "Iggy's" foster mother, along with husband, Rishi. Kavya and Rishi love and are able to provide good a life for Iggy, one in which he won't want for anything. For years, Kavya and Rishi struggled to have a child and had come close to giving up when they found Iggy. Their lives are close to perfect; Soli's however, has fallen apart. But she will stop at nothing to be reunited with her child. This leads to the age old question of which home is in the best interest of the child.
The author, Shanthi Sekaran, did not make this plight an easy one. But boy, did she make us invest in it. Her storytelling is masterful, her words, beautiful. Further, all of the characters in the novel are extremely rich, well written and full of heart. While I felt that a bit of the novel was extraneous, all in all I absolutely love it and wished it never had to end. I will say, that for me personally, I was upset at the book's resolution and wish it had ended differently. My feelings on this however, did not detract from the loveliness of the novel. This book would be perfect for a book club or anyone who loves great literary fiction. 4.5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group, Putnam and Shanthi Sekaran for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 11/20/16.
**Will be published on Amazon on 1/10/17.
Lucky Boy is a gut wrenching, soul searching novel by Shanthi Sekaran that keeps a tight grip on you and won't let go until long after you've read it.
This story is about two women: mothers, who love the same little boy. But only one can will be able to keep him when all is said and done. And who is to say what's fair, what's right or wrong, when a little boy's life and when love is at stake?
Soli is an illegal immigrant from Mexico and she is also the birth mother of Ignacio "Nacho." While living in Berkley, CA, she gets into trouble with the law and loses temporary custody of her child.
Kavya, becomes Ignacio "Iggy's" foster mother, along with husband, Rishi. Kavya and Rishi love and are able to provide good a life for Iggy, one in which he won't want for anything. For years, Kavya and Rishi struggled to have a child and had come close to giving up when they found Iggy. Their lives are close to perfect; Soli's however, has fallen apart. But she will stop at nothing to be reunited with her child. This leads to the age old question of which home is in the best interest of the child.
The author, Shanthi Sekaran, did not make this plight an easy one. But boy, did she make us invest in it. Her storytelling is masterful, her words, beautiful. Further, all of the characters in the novel are extremely rich, well written and full of heart. While I felt that a bit of the novel was extraneous, all in all I absolutely love it and wished it never had to end. I will say, that for me personally, I was upset at the book's resolution and wish it had ended differently. My feelings on this however, did not detract from the loveliness of the novel. This book would be perfect for a book club or anyone who loves great literary fiction. 4.5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group, Putnam and Shanthi Sekaran for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 11/20/16.
**Will be published on Amazon on 1/10/17.
December 18, 2016
This is a beautifully written novel about motherhood. Kavya is an Indian American woman who is married to Rishi. Her deepest longing is to have a child. She feels she’s failed at so many things in life and this is something else that she has failed at as she’s been unable to have a child. She and her husband begin to talk about adopting. Soli is a young woman living in Mexico who longs for a better life. She manages to illegally immigrate to America but her high hopes fall apart when she learns of her pregnancy.
I loved each of the characters in this book and felt their desires and fears right along with them. The author has written a deeply compassionate novel about motherhood and parenting that truly touched my heart. The book is a timely and eye-opening story, too, about immigration but the main heart of the book lies in the love these two women have for a little boy named Ignacio, known to one as Iggy and to the other as Nacho. The story isn’t really a new or unique one as the struggle of adoption is a well-known topic but the author’s talent brings such insight into the minds and souls of these characters, which makes this a very special reading journey. I found the book to be completely engrossing. It’s quite a long book at almost 500 pages but it never dragged for me and I never tired of it for one minute. I hated to part with the characters at the end of the book and would have loved to continue reading about them.
Highly recommended.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
I loved each of the characters in this book and felt their desires and fears right along with them. The author has written a deeply compassionate novel about motherhood and parenting that truly touched my heart. The book is a timely and eye-opening story, too, about immigration but the main heart of the book lies in the love these two women have for a little boy named Ignacio, known to one as Iggy and to the other as Nacho. The story isn’t really a new or unique one as the struggle of adoption is a well-known topic but the author’s talent brings such insight into the minds and souls of these characters, which makes this a very special reading journey. I found the book to be completely engrossing. It’s quite a long book at almost 500 pages but it never dragged for me and I never tired of it for one minute. I hated to part with the characters at the end of the book and would have loved to continue reading about them.
Highly recommended.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
February 7, 2017
3.5 stars
April 9, 2017
I liked this story of Soli, a young girl who leaves Mexico for a better life in America. On her way she meets Checo, and ends up pregnant as she arrives in the States. Her cousin helps her find a job cleaning for a wealthy family in Berkeley CA. She delivers a baby boy named Ignacio Across town, a young couple are trying unsuccessfully to conceive. When Soli and her cousin are caught by immigration, baby Ignacio is sent to foster care. Rishi & Kavya bring the baby into their home and grow to love him as their own.
I found I was torn between the 2 Mothers who loved the little boy, and it was hard to choose who should keep him.
A relevant story in today's time, one I'd recommend.
I found I was torn between the 2 Mothers who loved the little boy, and it was hard to choose who should keep him.
A relevant story in today's time, one I'd recommend.
October 24, 2016
Soli Valdez is eighteen and desperate to leave Mexico. Bored with the day-to-day monotony of her quiet existence, she’s ready for an adventure. So she makes a plan to meet up with her older cousin who lives in Berkeley, California. If she can just make it across the border, her cousin assures her there will be a job and a place to stay waiting for her.
Soli does make it to California, but not before enduring, well, a lot. When she finally arrives at Silvia’s doorstep, she is dirty, beaten, abused…and pregnant. Silvia demands Soli abort the baby, but Soli refuses. Nine months later, her son, Ignacio, is born, and Soli is happy–still existing precariously, but absolutely in love with her son.
Thirty-something Kavya Reddy, on the other hand, is not so happy. Sure, her life is stable and fulfilling in some ways. She’s married to a man she loves, and she has a dependable job. But she’s desperate for a child and unable to get pregnant. Even after months of fertility treatments, nothing. Finally, when she can take it no longer, she and her husband, Rishi, decide to pursue adoption.
It’s at this point that the lives of the two women intersect. Kavya and Rishi are ready to begin the process of adopting a baby girl, when Kavya spots toddler Ignacio at the adoption center. She feels a connection with him immediately and asks about fostering him. Despite being warned by the adoption agency that Ignacio’s mother–currently locked in a detention facility for illegal immigrants about to be deported–is very motivated to regain custody of her son, Kavya and Rishi end up taking Ignacio home with them. As you might imagine, this does not deter Soli from getting her child back one bit.
I loved and hated this book. I felt about it the same way I felt about The Language of Flowers: it is so exquisitely written, but also ruthlessly, unbearably sad. Honestly, about 100 pages in, when I understood where things were going, I had to put the book down for a couple days. I just wasn’t ready emotionally to go there, you know? The things Soli goes through… Kavya, too… And poor Ignacio caught in the middle… To be so powerless is an awful thing.
Throughout the book, I felt for both women. Author Sekaran spends so much time developing their backstories, motivations, and perspectives–Ignacio isn’t even born until page 176!–that I ended up caring for Soli and Kavya deeply, equally. It’s a real testament to Sekaran’s writing abilities that I had no choice but to empathize with both sides. Even the ending, though sad, felt whole and satisfying to me. It wasn’t tidy or unrealistically cheery, but it made sense and honored the characters and the story perfectly.
Ultimately, this is a beautiful book–rich and layered and complex. I think it’s destined to be a book club favorite.
ARC provided through Amazon Vine.
See more of my book reviews at www.BugBugBooks.com.
Soli does make it to California, but not before enduring, well, a lot. When she finally arrives at Silvia’s doorstep, she is dirty, beaten, abused…and pregnant. Silvia demands Soli abort the baby, but Soli refuses. Nine months later, her son, Ignacio, is born, and Soli is happy–still existing precariously, but absolutely in love with her son.
Thirty-something Kavya Reddy, on the other hand, is not so happy. Sure, her life is stable and fulfilling in some ways. She’s married to a man she loves, and she has a dependable job. But she’s desperate for a child and unable to get pregnant. Even after months of fertility treatments, nothing. Finally, when she can take it no longer, she and her husband, Rishi, decide to pursue adoption.
It’s at this point that the lives of the two women intersect. Kavya and Rishi are ready to begin the process of adopting a baby girl, when Kavya spots toddler Ignacio at the adoption center. She feels a connection with him immediately and asks about fostering him. Despite being warned by the adoption agency that Ignacio’s mother–currently locked in a detention facility for illegal immigrants about to be deported–is very motivated to regain custody of her son, Kavya and Rishi end up taking Ignacio home with them. As you might imagine, this does not deter Soli from getting her child back one bit.
I loved and hated this book. I felt about it the same way I felt about The Language of Flowers: it is so exquisitely written, but also ruthlessly, unbearably sad. Honestly, about 100 pages in, when I understood where things were going, I had to put the book down for a couple days. I just wasn’t ready emotionally to go there, you know? The things Soli goes through… Kavya, too… And poor Ignacio caught in the middle… To be so powerless is an awful thing.
Throughout the book, I felt for both women. Author Sekaran spends so much time developing their backstories, motivations, and perspectives–Ignacio isn’t even born until page 176!–that I ended up caring for Soli and Kavya deeply, equally. It’s a real testament to Sekaran’s writing abilities that I had no choice but to empathize with both sides. Even the ending, though sad, felt whole and satisfying to me. It wasn’t tidy or unrealistically cheery, but it made sense and honored the characters and the story perfectly.
Ultimately, this is a beautiful book–rich and layered and complex. I think it’s destined to be a book club favorite.
ARC provided through Amazon Vine.
See more of my book reviews at www.BugBugBooks.com.
December 21, 2016
Outstanding writing about the disastrous state of our immigration system as told through the eyes of an immigrant. This was very thought provoking to me. Considering the title; I'm left wondering is it really so? Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
July 1, 2016
This is one of those books that I couldn't put down. Lucky Boy is family saga involving two different woman of separate socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. The first is illegal Mexican immigrant Solimar "Soli" Castro who is pregnant and makes a harrowing journey across the California border and into the city of Berkley. The other is Kavya Reddy of Indian descent who struggles with infertility. Both their paths cross when Soli is jailed for fraud and illegal immigration leading for Kavya and her husband Rishi to adopt Soli's son Ignacio "Iggy" which turns into a bitter custody battle between the couple and the mother.
Taking elements of the film Raising Isiah, the novels Brit Bennett's The Mothers, and M. L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans, Lucky Boy contains various themes from motherhood, the influences of parenting, culture, xenophobia, socio-economics, and even the hot topic political debate concerning immigration.
Author Shanthi Sekaran does a really good job with presenting two contrasting lives that diametrically opposite of one another. Soli is from an impoverished background and sees coming to America as an escape from her dreary life. However, her suffrage and the difficult struggles she forced to endure only fuels her bitterness. Still, her son Iggy provides the only good thing in her life despite all the hardships she had to face. On the other side, Kavya has led more of a charmed life as she is married to a successful husband and a good career. Despite the pressures faced upon her by her culture and her overbearing mother, she still longs to have a child of her own and adopting Iggy fulfills that dream.
The sacrifices of motherhood is a constant within in the book. First from Soli who suffers during her incarceration but still holds up hope of reuniting with Iggy and second, from Kavya who is wants to be the perfect mother unlike her own. Each side is flawed and the author does showcase this which becomes a good question to ponder to whom Iggy should rightfully stay with. Even with the realistic ending, there is still that lingering question and truthfully, neither side appears to be in the best interest of the child. Again, this is a great book to meditate over.
I would have rated it five stars but I found that the book could easily be trimmed a bit. Some of the parts concerning Kavya's and Rishi's friends and social circle a bit redundant and really didn't help much in the storytelling. Certainly, the presentation of Kavya's controlling mother was significant in shaping who she is as a person but again I found myself more fascinated by Soli's story than the couple.
Still, this is a wonderful book to recommend for Book Clubs!
Taking elements of the film Raising Isiah, the novels Brit Bennett's The Mothers, and M. L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans, Lucky Boy contains various themes from motherhood, the influences of parenting, culture, xenophobia, socio-economics, and even the hot topic political debate concerning immigration.
Author Shanthi Sekaran does a really good job with presenting two contrasting lives that diametrically opposite of one another. Soli is from an impoverished background and sees coming to America as an escape from her dreary life. However, her suffrage and the difficult struggles she forced to endure only fuels her bitterness. Still, her son Iggy provides the only good thing in her life despite all the hardships she had to face. On the other side, Kavya has led more of a charmed life as she is married to a successful husband and a good career. Despite the pressures faced upon her by her culture and her overbearing mother, she still longs to have a child of her own and adopting Iggy fulfills that dream.
The sacrifices of motherhood is a constant within in the book. First from Soli who suffers during her incarceration but still holds up hope of reuniting with Iggy and second, from Kavya who is wants to be the perfect mother unlike her own. Each side is flawed and the author does showcase this which becomes a good question to ponder to whom Iggy should rightfully stay with. Even with the realistic ending, there is still that lingering question and truthfully, neither side appears to be in the best interest of the child. Again, this is a great book to meditate over.
I would have rated it five stars but I found that the book could easily be trimmed a bit. Some of the parts concerning Kavya's and Rishi's friends and social circle a bit redundant and really didn't help much in the storytelling. Certainly, the presentation of Kavya's controlling mother was significant in shaping who she is as a person but again I found myself more fascinated by Soli's story than the couple.
Still, this is a wonderful book to recommend for Book Clubs!
August 23, 2017
Ughhhh book hangover. I read more than 400 pages yesterday. Then I frantically tried to finish on the train this morning but had to slow down to savor the last few pages because I realized I didn't want it to end. This is one of my new go-to reading recommendations.
My review/blurb for the San Jose Public Library blog: "I'll admit I picked this book up because I loved the cover (yes, I totally judge books by their covers), but now I can't stop recommending it to everyone I know. This beautiful novel follows two parallel stories in nearby Berkeley: one of an undocumented Mexican immigrant and the other of a middle-class Indian couple struggling with infertility. This book is especially relevant given the conversations around immigration in today's America, but I would recommend it anyway based on the engaging storytelling, vibrant setting and well-developed characters. You might have an opinion about who is wrong and who is right, but as the publisher declares, 'There are no bad guys in this story.'"
My review/blurb for the San Jose Public Library blog: "I'll admit I picked this book up because I loved the cover (yes, I totally judge books by their covers), but now I can't stop recommending it to everyone I know. This beautiful novel follows two parallel stories in nearby Berkeley: one of an undocumented Mexican immigrant and the other of a middle-class Indian couple struggling with infertility. This book is especially relevant given the conversations around immigration in today's America, but I would recommend it anyway based on the engaging storytelling, vibrant setting and well-developed characters. You might have an opinion about who is wrong and who is right, but as the publisher declares, 'There are no bad guys in this story.'"
February 10, 2017
If John Gardner is to be believed, then there are only two plots in all of literature: "A person goes on a journey" and "A stranger comes to town." In her sweeping, deep and strikingly compassionate second novel, "Lucky Boy," Shanthi Sekaran weaves these two elemental narratives with emotionally arresting aplomb.
One of the novel's paired protagonists, 18-year-old Solimar Castro-Valdez, or Soli, bravely sets off on the fraught journey to cross the border from Mexico to the United States, only to arrive without legal permission and unexpectedly pregnant. Her parents pay a smuggler to help her leave her tiny, forlorn village, Santa Clara Popocalco, because it "offered no work, only the growing and eating of a few stalks of corn," and because she "wanted California, and she wanted it badly enough that anyone who threatened to take it away … would have to be ignored."
The other protagonist, 35-year-old Kavya Reddy, decides that — in spite of possessing a beautiful Craftsman bungalow with her husband, Rishi, as well as a satisfying a remunerative career as a chef — she needs to embark on the journey of motherhood for her life to feel complete. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she feels such intense cultural and personal pressure to reproduce that sometimes, amid her struggles with fertility, "She vaguely and irrationally worried that the infant supply would be tapped out by other lucky women — that in the great heavenly handout, no babies would be left for her."
In Berkeley — where Soli ends up at the home of a cousin, Silvia, who claims to be "high-tech" and "doing well," and where Kavya and Rishi make their home — the stranger who ends up bringing their lives irrevocably together is Soli's new and unanticipated son, the lucky boy of the novel's title.
To call him lucky is not an ironic gesture on Sekaran's part, but it's also not an uncomplicated one. Much of the book's conflict hinges on how fortunate he is to be loved fiercely by two women — his mother, from whom he is taken when she winds up in an immigration detention center after a traffic stop, and Kavya, who fosters him, intending to adopt him and make him her own. Sekaran's handling of this situation, though humanistic and ultimately uplifting, does not oversimplify or sugarcoat the wrenching difficulty of such a situation.
Soli becomes "Alien 127676" in the detention camp, where "Prisoners slept head to toe, and at night, they shivered." Meanwhile, Ignacio, her "Nacho," becomes "Iggy" in the home of Kavya and Rishi, who have been duly warned that "there's a chance — a good chance" that his mother will return for him and that "long-term placement here is not a certainty."
Topical and timely, but thankfully neither pedantic nor preachy, Sekaran's book invites the reader to engage empathetically with thorny geopolitical issues that feel organic and fully inhabited by her finely rendered characters.
Because of the way Sekaran examines the vagaries of economic inequality and the messiness of love in addition to the intricacies of immigration and adoption, "Lucky Boy" would make a promising pick for a book club. The circumstances feel well-researched, but Sekaran never lets that research get in the way of what is, at its core, a gripping story.
The sentences themselves are beautiful too, as when she writes: "Why did people love children that were born to other people? For the same reason they lived in Berkeley, knowing the Big One was coming: because it was a beautiful place to be, and because there was no way to fathom the length or quality of life left to anyone."
And while the book certainly is, as Gardner might have it, about journeys and strangers, above all it is about vicissitudes of luck comforting and unjust, good and bad. Sekaran offers her audience the opportunity to consider chance itself — the accidents of circumstance we don't want to acknowledge as defining our fates, preferring instead to insist we are the ones in control.
One of the novel's paired protagonists, 18-year-old Solimar Castro-Valdez, or Soli, bravely sets off on the fraught journey to cross the border from Mexico to the United States, only to arrive without legal permission and unexpectedly pregnant. Her parents pay a smuggler to help her leave her tiny, forlorn village, Santa Clara Popocalco, because it "offered no work, only the growing and eating of a few stalks of corn," and because she "wanted California, and she wanted it badly enough that anyone who threatened to take it away … would have to be ignored."
The other protagonist, 35-year-old Kavya Reddy, decides that — in spite of possessing a beautiful Craftsman bungalow with her husband, Rishi, as well as a satisfying a remunerative career as a chef — she needs to embark on the journey of motherhood for her life to feel complete. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she feels such intense cultural and personal pressure to reproduce that sometimes, amid her struggles with fertility, "She vaguely and irrationally worried that the infant supply would be tapped out by other lucky women — that in the great heavenly handout, no babies would be left for her."
In Berkeley — where Soli ends up at the home of a cousin, Silvia, who claims to be "high-tech" and "doing well," and where Kavya and Rishi make their home — the stranger who ends up bringing their lives irrevocably together is Soli's new and unanticipated son, the lucky boy of the novel's title.
To call him lucky is not an ironic gesture on Sekaran's part, but it's also not an uncomplicated one. Much of the book's conflict hinges on how fortunate he is to be loved fiercely by two women — his mother, from whom he is taken when she winds up in an immigration detention center after a traffic stop, and Kavya, who fosters him, intending to adopt him and make him her own. Sekaran's handling of this situation, though humanistic and ultimately uplifting, does not oversimplify or sugarcoat the wrenching difficulty of such a situation.
Soli becomes "Alien 127676" in the detention camp, where "Prisoners slept head to toe, and at night, they shivered." Meanwhile, Ignacio, her "Nacho," becomes "Iggy" in the home of Kavya and Rishi, who have been duly warned that "there's a chance — a good chance" that his mother will return for him and that "long-term placement here is not a certainty."
Topical and timely, but thankfully neither pedantic nor preachy, Sekaran's book invites the reader to engage empathetically with thorny geopolitical issues that feel organic and fully inhabited by her finely rendered characters.
Because of the way Sekaran examines the vagaries of economic inequality and the messiness of love in addition to the intricacies of immigration and adoption, "Lucky Boy" would make a promising pick for a book club. The circumstances feel well-researched, but Sekaran never lets that research get in the way of what is, at its core, a gripping story.
The sentences themselves are beautiful too, as when she writes: "Why did people love children that were born to other people? For the same reason they lived in Berkeley, knowing the Big One was coming: because it was a beautiful place to be, and because there was no way to fathom the length or quality of life left to anyone."
And while the book certainly is, as Gardner might have it, about journeys and strangers, above all it is about vicissitudes of luck comforting and unjust, good and bad. Sekaran offers her audience the opportunity to consider chance itself — the accidents of circumstance we don't want to acknowledge as defining our fates, preferring instead to insist we are the ones in control.
June 19, 2020
Lucky Boy is about 2 women. One who escapes Mexico into the United States and try to make a life in California as an illegal. Then the other who desperately wants a baby but having a hard time conceiving.
I listened to the audiobook of this as well as have a hard copy and I enjoyed this so much. The narrator did a fantastic job with the story. A must read!!!
I listened to the audiobook of this as well as have a hard copy and I enjoyed this so much. The narrator did a fantastic job with the story. A must read!!!
June 4, 2017
That dark hole of infertility that brings a rollercoaster of emotions, makes couples question the meaning of life, threatens marriages, and brings then steals hope invades Kavya and Rishi’s lives. Of Indian descent, Kavya’s mother reminds her that adoption would dirty the bloodline.
As they struggle with their limited choices, they compare themselves to another Indian couple, Preeti Patel and Vikram Sen who also live in Berkeley, California. Preeti Patel is Kavya’s childhood friend and their parents are best friends. Preeti was always a little better than Kavya, especially when she gets pregnant. Sen started his own company and made a fortune. He is also Rishi’s boss and Rishi’s idol. But Kavya learns Preeti is not who she thought she was. She does not have it all. And Rishi begins to question his idol’s morals.
As Rishi questions Sen’s morals, he questions his own. Infertility challenges the couple’s liberal beliefs. They wonder if love can change what they know to be morally correct. This is the central issue of the novel.
In a parallel world, an 18 year old Mexican emigrant named Soli hops the deadly train nicknamed La Bestia continuing her journey to the US. Hopping this train is considered too dangerous for women, but she demonstrated her courageousness on an earlier leg of the journey so the young men allow her to accompany them. Not all of them make it.
She eventually knocks on her Aunt Sylvia’s door in the US, having arrived after considerable difficulty. She manages to land a good job with a nice family, this connection becoming critical to her survival. Her life is going well though she hopes for more.
Then, a single error leads to denial of her most fundamental human rights by the US government. By coincidence, her path crosses with those of Kavya and Rishi. The trajectory of their lives forces each of them to question their core beliefs.
The story is engrossing. I kept turning the pages because there was plenty of tension. I read all 469 pages in two days. The writing was crisp. Sekaran didn’t use any literary tricks—there weren’t dozens of symbols to figure out at the end. Instead, she used beautiful metaphors and similes. However, it could have been shorter. Sekaran spent too much time detailing Kavya’s dark obsession with everything child-related. Perhaps she meant to do this. Perhaps infertility is obsessing.
As they struggle with their limited choices, they compare themselves to another Indian couple, Preeti Patel and Vikram Sen who also live in Berkeley, California. Preeti Patel is Kavya’s childhood friend and their parents are best friends. Preeti was always a little better than Kavya, especially when she gets pregnant. Sen started his own company and made a fortune. He is also Rishi’s boss and Rishi’s idol. But Kavya learns Preeti is not who she thought she was. She does not have it all. And Rishi begins to question his idol’s morals.
As Rishi questions Sen’s morals, he questions his own. Infertility challenges the couple’s liberal beliefs. They wonder if love can change what they know to be morally correct. This is the central issue of the novel.
In a parallel world, an 18 year old Mexican emigrant named Soli hops the deadly train nicknamed La Bestia continuing her journey to the US. Hopping this train is considered too dangerous for women, but she demonstrated her courageousness on an earlier leg of the journey so the young men allow her to accompany them. Not all of them make it.
She eventually knocks on her Aunt Sylvia’s door in the US, having arrived after considerable difficulty. She manages to land a good job with a nice family, this connection becoming critical to her survival. Her life is going well though she hopes for more.
Then, a single error leads to denial of her most fundamental human rights by the US government. By coincidence, her path crosses with those of Kavya and Rishi. The trajectory of their lives forces each of them to question their core beliefs.
The story is engrossing. I kept turning the pages because there was plenty of tension. I read all 469 pages in two days. The writing was crisp. Sekaran didn’t use any literary tricks—there weren’t dozens of symbols to figure out at the end. Instead, she used beautiful metaphors and similes. However, it could have been shorter. Sekaran spent too much time detailing Kavya’s dark obsession with everything child-related. Perhaps she meant to do this. Perhaps infertility is obsessing.
March 8, 2018
What I heard frequently from our book club members was that this was a book that they would have not picked up on their own and that it ended up being a favorite this month. The best part, for me, was also hearing that it changed people's viewpoints and made them more empathetic to refugees and immigrants that have come to America.
This story is about two women- one who is in her teens and coming to the states illegally and the other who is living the American dream version of the immigrant story in Berkley. When Soli, our teen narrator, becomes pregnant on her perilous journey to the states, she decides to keep her son and do her best to juggle her job as a housekeeper and care for her child.
The other woman is struggling with infertility and would do anything to have a child.
When Soli's little boy enters her life, she must do everything she can to keep him in it.
Our "lucky" boy is loved fiercely by two women and both will stop at nothing to keep him in their lives.
I honestly couldn't turn the pages fast enough on this one. It made for a FANTASTIC and timely book club discussion from fertility to the immigrant struggle to the unstoppable love of motherhood. I can't recommend this read enough!
This story is about two women- one who is in her teens and coming to the states illegally and the other who is living the American dream version of the immigrant story in Berkley. When Soli, our teen narrator, becomes pregnant on her perilous journey to the states, she decides to keep her son and do her best to juggle her job as a housekeeper and care for her child.
The other woman is struggling with infertility and would do anything to have a child.
When Soli's little boy enters her life, she must do everything she can to keep him in it.
Our "lucky" boy is loved fiercely by two women and both will stop at nothing to keep him in their lives.
I honestly couldn't turn the pages fast enough on this one. It made for a FANTASTIC and timely book club discussion from fertility to the immigrant struggle to the unstoppable love of motherhood. I can't recommend this read enough!
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