This one is based on real life stories from nurses from the time period, about an English midwife (in training) and an Indian doctor who pursue adventure, life ambitions, and eventually love! So the name Monsoon Summer holds many meanings and ways of interpreting the meaning of it, if you get my drift. Haha.
However, this book was underwhelming to me. I really really wanted to like it more than I did. I really did. It starts off boring and doesn't do enough to capture my attention in the beginning. In thinking it was just me, I found out that my room mate read it as well. That is what I get for having book geeks in the house- never a dull moment. When I found out, I asked him his thoughts on it. He thought the same thing about it.
And quoted to the tee from him: "It was a waste of 300 pages."
That may be a little harsh. I don't completely agree with the sentiment he holds towards it.
I think the book would be great for a few afternoons where I have nothing to do and have the patience, ability, and time to be able to get completely into it without it having to force myself to refocus or go back to read because I felt that there was something I wasn't getting or missed because there was so much information there.
I literally have picked up the book and put it back down again many times because it has lacked something in it enough to keep my attention on it for more than a few pages. This I think can be explained by the fact that it didn't completely capture me first then do all the background explanations after it already had me.
What I did appreciate was that there is a lot of thought that went into it and there is a lot of knowledge of things that that referenced in the book. That I like and appreciate. She traveled to India, got accounts from nurses them selves, did a lot of research for it. That is awesome and definitely shows.
It's like a slow motion movie that I am stuck in... because it is written for a screen play or movie- which it would make a great movie or screen play, by the way. It is great for setting a scene and being able to get context but it was almost too much. I felt like I was getting into the dramaturgy of a play. It was tedious. It was frankly boring in the beginning. Too much. But would be great to watch as a movie.
It may be someone else's cup of tea, but it was definitely not mine. There needs to be more omitted to make it more of an intuitive read.
Why? Because it would be like standing in the room and instead of saying, 'there is an English tea cup there', it became, ' there is an English tea cup there. I don't know why they got it at the faire. The faire only serves people who are high class and this place isn't that. It was too purple and it should have been brown. Plus, there is a crack in it because Susan kept slamming it hard on the table every time she took a sip. Why? Because she was angry. Why was she angry? Who knows. It could have been the relationship with her daughter. Who passed by the way. Who her daughter was in a relationship five years ago and because she didn't accept the daughter didn't speak to her again. But this English tea cup sat there unused now. It feels so lonely. Now, they are serving the butter cake." But even worse. And by the way that is not in the book, but I just literally made that up as an example.
This bugs me because it doesn't allow for the imagination to see it. And when I read a book some things are best left unsaid because otherwise it distracts. The example of the tea cup was done for many things, items, and situations.
That being said, as I read on, it got more interesting but it took me until Chapter 5 or 6 or 7, I lost count, to actually want to be interested in the whole story and to keep reading.
I think it is well written and like I said, I look forward to finishing the book when I have more time to be able to read with little time and things on my mind to be able to fully immerse or get lost in without having to having worry about it capturing me beyond the intuitive level.
Otherwise, it really is written well.
* I received this book in exchange for my honest review*
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