Review: One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakurni

Summary: In an Indian passport and visa office in an American city, an unexpected earthquake traps nine people within the premises. The characters include an upper-class Caucasian couple whose relationship is disintegrating. A punky teenager and her Chinese grandmother, with secrets in her past. A Muslim-American man, whose life changes post 9/11. A graduate student haunted by questions of love. An African-American soldier who seeks redemption. And two visa officers who are on the verge of having an affair. As food and water supplies dwindle, the basement is flooding and no escape seems possible, these people share personal stories; "one amazing thing" they have never shared before, from their lives.

Review: This book is easy to read and fairly quick. I liked certain elements in it such as the concept of sharing personal stories, as tragedy strikes this group of characters. Each of them is subtly transformed by this process of sharing.

The book is quite short (It is 220 pages, I usually steer towards the 700 page novels) but she manages to bring the characters to life through their stories, as well as their interactions with each other. Some of the stories are definitely more powerful than others, one of my favorite being Jiang's.  Her story was the first one and after that my expectations were set high, so I felt disappointed by some of the others. There were images in the book that were vivid and memorable, such as Lola's beauty salon, Jiang's shoe store and the description of the bits of food. Other stories were not as effective. I was waiting for the soldier-Cameron's story, but felt a bit let down when it was finally revealed.  Tariq and Mrs. Pritchett's  story were quite clichéd and didn't really strike a chord with me.

Overall, it was an OK book. There is no doubt that Chitra Banerjee Divakurni is a skilled story teller but there are other books by her that I have definitely enjoyed more such as The Palace of Illusions, or even Queen of Dreams. In comparison, this book is much more forgettable; I did not get a lot from it. It was reasonably enjoyable but not of those books that stay with you.