欧宝娱乐

The scenario for this book is promising: Rakhi, a young divorced artist, her relationship with her parents, her ex and her child, as well as the coffee shop she and her best friend run, when a large Starbucks-like chain opens up across the way . . . And the mother, a gifted dream-interpreter, who's had to maintain a distance from both daughter and husband because of who she is and what she can do.

The problem is that Rakhi is angry almost all the time, and her interactions with the other characters seem unreasonable. It's just hard to sympathize with her. And we don't know enough about her art -- that's something that needed more development.

On the other hand, Divakaruni's novels/short stories often include a woman leaving an abusive relationship; here the ex is actually an appealing and essentially decent person, so that's a change of pace. And post-9/11 response to Americans and immigrants of South Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds is explored effectively. That bumps the novel up from two stars to three.