The Zoya Factor
Dec. 2nd, 2013 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glass_icarusPosting this as part of deepad's Anuja Chauhan reading club! I inhaled The Zoya Factor the same day I received it; predictably, it took me a while longer to gather enough brain to talk about it.
Zoya Singh Solanki was born at the minute India won the World Cup in 1983. When she's assigned to work with India's cricket team for a Zing! ad for her agency, the team starts winning whenever she eats breakfast with them, and her reputation as a "lucky charm" begins to develop. She also finds herself butting heads with the captain of the cricket team, Nikhil Khoda, who doesn't believe in superstition.
I don't often read chick lit, but Chauhan's narrative voice is incredibly entertaining. People who actually understand cricket may enjoy this even more, though I don't think understanding is necessary to enjoyment: I know nothing about cricket, and in fact am pretty uninvested in team sports of any kind (funny, given my narrative kinks). The feeling of being swept up in national fervor is something that Chauhan describes quite well, as are the commercial/social media/gossip rag aspects of society, which are very much in the forefront thanks to Zoya's career field. While these things are likely to annoy me irl, in the story they're addressed in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way that made me laugh and shake my head rather than roll my eyes. The toinnnnnggggg commercial, for instance, made me lose it and actually cackle on the bus.
Other things I liked, only slightly spoilery: the loving and detailed descriptions of food! The street food scene with Zoya and Nikhil is where I really started to like Nikhil, ahaha. Zoya and her friends and family! So realistically complicated and quirky and lovable! The language bits- Zoya's reflections on monolingual Australia, hee! I also really enjoyed Zoya's romance with Nikhil- it was maybe somewhat uneven, but their interactions were so amusing and reminiscent of some actual relationships I've observed that I didn't care. Zoya's not being a cricket fan herself made things interesting too.
Finally, I think there are many interesting discussions to be had on the book's theme of superstition/luck and the clashing cultural realities resulting from "modernization" and globalization and Western cultural imperialism. Alas, I am not brainful enough today to make any coherent points, but if anyone would like to start that conversation, I am all ears!
--
PS: So excited for your prompts for December posts; keep them coming please! :)
deepad's Anuja Chauhan reading club! I inhaled The Zoya Factor the same day I received it; predictably, it took me a while longer to gather enough brain to talk about it.Zoya Singh Solanki was born at the minute India won the World Cup in 1983. When she's assigned to work with India's cricket team for a Zing! ad for her agency, the team starts winning whenever she eats breakfast with them, and her reputation as a "lucky charm" begins to develop. She also finds herself butting heads with the captain of the cricket team, Nikhil Khoda, who doesn't believe in superstition.
I don't often read chick lit, but Chauhan's narrative voice is incredibly entertaining. People who actually understand cricket may enjoy this even more, though I don't think understanding is necessary to enjoyment: I know nothing about cricket, and in fact am pretty uninvested in team sports of any kind (funny, given my narrative kinks). The feeling of being swept up in national fervor is something that Chauhan describes quite well, as are the commercial/social media/gossip rag aspects of society, which are very much in the forefront thanks to Zoya's career field. While these things are likely to annoy me irl, in the story they're addressed in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way that made me laugh and shake my head rather than roll my eyes. The toinnnnnggggg commercial, for instance, made me lose it and actually cackle on the bus.
Other things I liked, only slightly spoilery: the loving and detailed descriptions of food! The street food scene with Zoya and Nikhil is where I really started to like Nikhil, ahaha. Zoya and her friends and family! So realistically complicated and quirky and lovable! The language bits- Zoya's reflections on monolingual Australia, hee! I also really enjoyed Zoya's romance with Nikhil- it was maybe somewhat uneven, but their interactions were so amusing and reminiscent of some actual relationships I've observed that I didn't care. Zoya's not being a cricket fan herself made things interesting too.
Finally, I think there are many interesting discussions to be had on the book's theme of superstition/luck and the clashing cultural realities resulting from "modernization" and globalization and Western cultural imperialism. Alas, I am not brainful enough today to make any coherent points, but if anyone would like to start that conversation, I am all ears!
--
PS: So excited for your prompts for December posts; keep them coming please! :)
no subject
Date: 2013-12-02 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-03 03:13 pm (UTC)