SHIT HAPPENS: Desi Boy In America by Karan Puri

what it's about (from goodreads.com)

Anurag Sinha, a thoroughbred nerd, leads a cocooned life, confined more or less to the four walls of his room. A one-of-a-kind dad, a weepy mother and weird relatives complete his life. Average girls ignore him, hot girls bully him and school studs abuse him. His Delhi existence goes on until the big day arrives. Our hero gets a scholarship. To University of Rochester. To New York. To united States of Bloody AMERICA! Life must only look uphill from now on. America must be at least hundred times better than india. A roller-coaster American ride leads our desi boy to an exeptional journey rippling with twists and turns. Nonchalant blondes, mugless washrooms, strange slangs, good-hearted friends, beefy encounters, boozy nights and even a white girlfriend??? America shows Anurag itself in all its psychedelic craziness. But dreams and roller-coaster rides don't go on forever. What will happen to our hero? Will he return to his life in India or will he stay on? Dream on!


review

The description of the book made me pick it up right away. Shit Happens seemed like a fresh, fast paced and fun read- just what I needed after a week of tests in college! And it WAS fast paced. And fresh. The name 'Shit Happens' says it all. It was a roller coaster of a ride- exploring identity, love at first sight, making it in a new country, a new environment and coming back a changed person. The characters seemed genuine, though they could've done with a few quirks. Anurag, who the story was about, was the typical geeky underdog and his transformation into a confident and well rounded person was believable though, as I said before, it was all VERY fast paced.


For the skinny book that it was, Shit Happens managed to touch all of those obvious as well as subtle yet hilarious desi-boy-doing-his-postgrad-in-the-US (which is very, very common)-isms. But at times, I found myself wishing for a little more elaboration on the angst and maybe the introduction of more characters (His Professors? People he ran into? The only people other than Anurag and his family who are mentioned are Lizzy, who he falls for and her boyfriend Aaron. And university is a BIG place) and interactions that could've spiced things up!


BUT for what it is, it is a pretty good book. It is a decently written and very cute first effort! I especially liked the way things were wrapped up. The conclusion was very effortlessly awesome! I even had a tear in my eye ;) It was the middle that could've been fleshed out a bit more!

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars