One Amazing Thing [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

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Product Details

Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Voice; Reprint edition (December 21, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1401341586
ASIN: B0058M7LQ6
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Customer Reviews

Though I'm a long time fan of literature from authors born in India, One Amazing Thing is the first book from Chitra Divakaruni that I've had the pleasure of reading. It was a pleasure making the acquaintance!
The story of One Amazing Thing (no spoilers here, it's in the product description) revolves around a very promising plot device: a heterogeneous group of people that are in the Indian consulate of an American city are trapped in the basement of the building by a huge earthquake. Most of the trapped people have trips planned to India, two are consulate employees. While the building slowly crumbles, and the basement begins to flood, survival becomes an issue. To pass the time, each person is invited to tell a story, a story about "one amazing thing" that happened in their lives.
Divakauruni, with a Ph.D in English literature from the University of California at Berkeley, and currently teaching creative writing at the University of Houston, is a master of her craft. Her work has been recognized with significant awards, and has been published in Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker. Divakaruni's talent is easily visible in One Amazing Thing, both in the careful creation of the setting, and in the development of the characters.
Divakaruni did not have life handed to her on a silver platter, and the experiences she gained by having to work at a wide variety of jobs to support the cost of her education, as well as those absorbed from her multi-cultural upbringing, may well be the source of the depth she is able to achieve with each of her characters. Some authors have a message for the reader that the characters become slave to. In One Amazing Thing, the richness and authenticity of the characters drive the message, and the message gains its power in the process.
What is that message? That WOULD be a spoiler, wouldn't it? But some clues are fair. A room with an angry Muslim fundamentalist, a married couple whose relationship is shipwrecked, an African American veteran of war in Asia, a boss that has tried to take advantage of his assistant, an assistant with both scruples and longing, a grandmother and her Gothic granddaughter, a young Indian-American on her way to visit her parents in India: none will come out of the experience with their preconceptions about each other intact.
Americans live, in this age of Facebook, My Space, Twitter, texting, YouTube, and 125 channel TV, in a suffocating avalanche of superficial information about each other. We know (because our Facebook page says so) that one of our friends went to Starbucks and had an oh-so-yummy caramel macchiato, but we know nothing about the deeper issues that make that friend who he/she is. Divakaruni, who writes with great warmth about the human race, wonders what it would take to reestablish the deep narratives that power all that is good about belonging to a caring tribe. Read One Amazing Thing, for a both literal and metaphorical answer to Divakaruni's question.
Four stars instead of five? There is more competence in the telling of One Amazing Thing than brilliance. It is a worthy tale that is more edifying than awe-inspiring. A very good story with a solid takeaway theme, I enjoyed it very much.

What would you do if you were suddenly trapped with nine other people?
In "One Amazing Thing" nine people who were waiting for Visas in the Indian Embassy are caught together in an earthquake. How they react, what they think, and what they feel makes the theater for this drama.
Early in the novel we get a quick introduction to the characters, and then experience with them the effects of a major earthquake. Divakaruni introduces each character and how they feel while they are testing their situation. Slowly they come to know their circumstance and a bit about each other. At first we get a superficial sketch of each character, then, while they are waiting for rescue, each character is asked to share one amazing thing that has happened in thier life. As each tells a tale about an event in their life we come to know them as people.
The nine stories are varied in style and attitude. The nine characters have little in common, and their tales are not related. However, the stories are absorbing and each has its attraction.
"One Amazing Thing" is a different book. Divakaruni's novel has many good qualities. The descriptions of the scenes are detailed and colorful. The characterization is clear, well developed, and the characters are three dimensional.
Normally people sitting in a waiting room together barely relate to each other. Each person participates in an individual activity. Some read, others knit, play games, work crossword puzzles, or simply meditate. But, put them in an emergency situation together and they interact, not always as they expect. While each character tells about events that amazed them, they reveal much about their inner self. This is an captivating book.
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