Book Review: No Ordinary Thursday by Anoop Judge

No Ordinary Thursday by Anoop Judge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A riveting story and compelling reading.

From the publisher:

“A family, broken by the shattering turns of a single day, will do anything to find their way back to one another.

Lena Sharma is a successful San Francisco restaurateur. An immigrant, she’s cultivated an image of conservatism and tradition in her close-knit Indian community. But when Lena’s carefully constructed world begins to crumble, her ties to her daughter, Maya, and son, Sameer—both raised in thoroughly modern California—slip further away.

Maya, divorced once, becomes engaged to a man twelve years her junior: Veer Kapoor, the son of Lena’s longtime friend. Immediately Maya feels her mother’s disgrace and the judgment of an insular society she was born into but never chose, while Lena’s cherished friendship frays. Meanwhile, Maya’s younger brother, Sameer, struggles with an addiction that reaches a devastating and very public turning point, upending his already tenuous future.

As the mother, daughter, and son are compromised by tragedy, secrets, and misconceptions, they each must determine what it will take to rebuild their bonds and salvage what’s left of their family.”

My review:

No Ordinary Thursday by Anoop Judge is the immersive tale of an Indian American family living in the San Francisco area, facing tragedy and censure in their tightly-knit cultural community. Judge is a consummate storyteller, and I was completely drawn into this family in crisis and utterly invested in the outcome.

The small Sharma family was torn apart by divorce after Lena discovered her husband Goldie’s infidelity. A further rift occurred when she eventually remarried, and her son decided to go live with his father. Lena depends on her lifelong female friends, Pinkie and Anita, to get her through these hard times, and she has a shoulder for them whenever it is needed.

Living with Goldie wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and the teenage Sameer is basically neglected, left without needed guidance or a proper male role model. Goldie is an awful father, and his skewed attitudes toward women and Lena, in particular, color the now-adult Sameer’s core beliefs. A car accident and his actions afterward have tragic results.

Sameer’s sister Maya has fallen in love with the much younger son of her mother’s best friend, Pinkie, and their engagement has the entire community judging her harshly. Worse, though, is the rift this liaison causes between their mothers, so a critical part of Lena’s support system is out of reach. Maya doesn’t escape unscathed, either. While she loves Veer, she despises the idea of being seen as a cougar, and because his family has money, some are adding the label of gold digger as well. She also feels guilty about letting her relationship with her brother drift away, thinking she could have prevented his current situation.

From the shocking opening chapter, the plot is rife with twists and surprises. The story unfolds from multiple family members’ points of view, but their voices are so distinct I had no trouble keeping their stories straight. Each character is well-developed. I felt like I knew these people intimately and had to know what was going to happen to them next, and I had no idea where things were going to end up.

The author does a wonderful job describing the Sharma family dynamics and those of the larger community. I felt like I got a good picture of the traditional relationships, values, and attitudes that were sometimes at odds with younger members who were born and reared in California.

I recommend NO ORDINARY THURSDAY to readers of literary fiction, ethnic family dramas, and women’s fiction.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy through WOW! Women On Writing Book Tours.


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