The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar – Review

The World We Found
by Thrity Umrigar
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: January 3, 2012
ISBN: 9780061938344
320 Pages (Hardcover)
Fiction

The World We Found combines a timeless theme of female friendship with the constantly evolving culture of India. The story begins with the revelation that Armaiti, one of four Indian girlfriends who haven’t seen each other in years, has terminal cancer. Armaiti lives in the US and calls Laleh and Kavita, two of her old friends from India, asking them to track down their other friend Nishta so that they can all visit her one last time before she dies.

Initially I wasn’t sure if this was going to be one of those sob-stories like the movie Beaches, but was surprised that it was focused far more on the lives of the ladies – how they had developed and changed over the years since they had been close friends in college. As the two in India search for their estranged friend they reevaluate their own lives and wonder at how their idealism has changed in the face of day to day life. They also get to see how one of the people they used to hang around in college became an extremist after years of hardship, and this makes them reflect even more on their own lives.

With all of this reflecting and self-evaluation you might think that this book would become mired in emotional jibber-jabber, but it really doesn’t.  The reflections the characters went through were quite thought-provoking as to the state of friendships with some of my old girlfriends. The story also takes a surprising turn and becomes suspenseful near the end, and I couldn’t put the book down during the last few chapters because I had to know if things were going to work out for one of the ladies.

I was expecting that the story would have a lot more to do with the friends surrounding Armaiti in her time of need, and going through the process of preparing for death. Instead it was all about how each woman dealt with the circumstances that life had thrust upon them, and how their friendships had changed over the years.

The writing was very powerful in that it triggered my own memories of precious friendships of days gone by, and made me wish that I was in closer contact with old girlfriends from high school. Even though this story amplified my longing for old friends, it also reaffirmed that it is normal for friendships to change over time. As adults we just don’t have the time to keep up the same level of intensity and involvement in friendships that we did during our student days, and long distances are not conducive to close relationships.

Those who love good drama should appreciate the intense ending involving a very controlling husband. Fans of stories about India and friendship should also find much to love.

Rating: 4/5

I received a free copy of this book for review.

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