A review by roseleaf24
The Windfall by Diksha Basu

4.0

This was closer to 3/3.5 Stars for the first two-thirds of it. The Windfall is written in 3rd person, but our perspective switches between five characters. Two of them, Mrs. Jhu and Mrs. Ray, I liked the whole time. But the men, Mr. Jhu, Mr. Chopra, and Rupak, were unlikeable. How much of that is the satire, how much is cultural, and how much is a female author but writing men as sympathetically as she writes women, I'm not sure. All of these five characters experience growth and come out of the satirical worlds they were trying to fit into by the end. Basu does an excellent job of showing the negative assumptions we make about others at all levels of status, the toxic nature of gossip, and the interaction between the Indian and American cultures.