Book Review: Born Confused

Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Born Confused is the story of 17 year old Dimple Lala, an Indian-American girl who feels "not quite Indian and not quite American." Dimple is best friends with blonde-haired, blue eyed Gwyn. Dimple's identity crisis comes to a head when her parents decide to fix her up with a "suitable Indian boy" hoping that she will marry one eventually. They introduce her to Karsh, the son of their friends from India. Dimple is not impressed with Karsh on first meeting him but Gwyn is so Dimple helps Gwyn pursue him. Along the way she embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

I liked this book a lot and learned a lot about Indian-America culture and perspectives from it. I listened to the audio book and the narrator, Marguerite Gavin did a fabulous job. She did a wide range of Indian, British, and Teenager accents flawlessly.

The only thing I didn't like about this book was that the pace could be really slow at times. The author had several times when she got on a descriptive tangent, using all kinds of over the top metaphors when I really just wanted her to get on with the story. The book is told in first person from Dimple's point of view and it was pretty unbelievable that a 17 year old had that kind of language skills, especially since this book is classified as young adult.
View all my reviews >>