The Golden Son

Do no harm. It was not, as he'd learned, an easy principle.

This was mostly a pleasant read. It took a bit for me to get into this book, and even then it never actually grabbed me exactly, but I was entertained enough to finish. The book follows Anil, eldest son of an Indian family, going to America to be a doctor. Mild culture clash ensues as Anil finds his footing, but he also soon realizes that it's not easy to leave behind his Indian family and heritage. With one foot in America and one foot, by necessity, in India, he has to figure out how to reconcile the two parts of his life while also doing what he wants to do. It sounds cliché, and in some respects it is, but I think this book handles it well. There's lots of themes of family, of separation, of old ways confronting new ways, and the book also incorporates issues of racism as part of its plot.

I felt like the dialogue and writing was a little flat, and that's what stops me from giving this a higher rating. It sort of reads like a Hallmark movie, with everything seen, shown, nothing left to the imagination, or anything really to think about or contemplate. While the India portions are written with care and detail, the America portions, particularly the characters, felt flat and undeveloped. In particular, Anil's brief fling with Amber never really went anywhere except as a plot device to hang racism issues on. Once that plot point ends, Amber's written out and Anil never really thinks about her again.

A decent book. Not a lot of wow factor, but there's still a lot to like here.