HarperCollins, 2012.
Overview: The World We Found follows four Indian women who were extremely close friends in college, but trace their drift apart to the Hindu-Muslim riots. When Armaiti, the only one of the group to move to the United States, discovers she is dying of a brain tumor, she asks her friends to visit her. Most of the book revolves around the dredging up of the past, as Laleh and Kavita reconnect with Nishta, who had not been in touch with any of them for years, and Armaiti reflects on her girlhood and that of her American daughter.
My reaction: This was an amazing book. I enjoyed Umrigar's writing so much that I want to read the rest of her books, regardless of whether they have lesbian characters. This was not the "gayest" book reviewed here, but the lesbian content wasn't negligible. There were some really beautiful scenes that pulled my heartstrings in a good way, and felt so natural. To be honest, the relatively small word count devoted to this part of the story was actually a nice change of pace; with some of the more "decent" and "meh" books, I feel like authors rely on the character's sexual orientation being something of a novelty in fiction to carry the story. Obviously, I don't mean to suggest that all books should function like this one, because I'm all for well-written books that have a predominant focus on lesbian characters, but it was good to see a book where lesbian sexuality is a significant part of a character's life without it being THE THEME. I wouldn't put any of my"recommended" titles in this category, even The Night Watch, which was mostly about lesbian Londoners in the 1940s, since those characters (in my opinion) were shaped more by the war than their queerness, although that obviously played a large part in their identities as well.
Yes, Umrigar's character had to grapple to come to terms with her sexuality, but the real crux of the story focused around the friend whom none of them had been in touch with for years. In other words, I'm a huge fan of multi-dimensional lesbian characters dealing with life!
On that score (and just about every other), I highly recommend The World We Found.
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