Evelina | AvalinahsBooks's Reviews > The Windfall: A Novel

It took me a while to warm up to The Windfall, but warm up I did. At first I was completely confused about where the book was going. Was it about how happy it is to suddenly move up in the world, or is it about how sad it is, on the contrary? Is this going to be about their life after their move? But if so, why is it taking them so long to move? And ultimately, it turned out this book isn't about life before or after - it's about change in life. And it's got about as many points of view as it has characters, and that makes it so very realistic.

Perhaps the part I enjoyed the most about The Windfall was the soft middle-age romance. More books should have this! I'm not a big fan of romance because it makes me feel very bad about my own histories and experiences, but if I found more romance stories like that, they would genuinely make me a happier person. The romance isn't a big part of the book at all, and it's so understated - it's not the Hollywood (or, in this case, maybe Bollywood) love story that is literally the meaning of everything - in my 30s, I dread that skewed view of romance. It's the quiet, soft, real people romance. People who have been disappointed in life, people who know romantic films are but fairytales of the modern world. The love story was so light, soft and comfortable it made me all warm inside. Love doesn't need to be world shattering to be love. And to be lovely.

Another great point this book made was how we construct what people must think in our heads, when those people are actually thinking the complete opposite, and are in turn making their own castle of clouds about what we think. It's expressed very well in The Windfall and I felt it was a large part of the book.

And lastly, to a foreigner, this was a great glimpse into the everyday world of New Delhi (I'm not saying India because India is vast and regions can be very different). It's always wonderful to read something genuine like that and have it available in another country.

I really enjoyed The Windfall. If it goes a little slow at first, give it time - it really does grow on you. It's a wonderful book.

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