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Passage West
A Recommended Book from BookRiot, Bustle, The Millions and Teen Vogue
A Los Angeles Times BEST CALIFORNIA BOOK of 2020 * A New England Independent Booksellers' 2020 NEW ENGLAND BOOK AWARD FINALIST
A sweeping, vibrant first novel following a family of Indian sharecroppers at the onset of World War I, revealing a little-known part of California history
1914: Ram Singh arrives in the Imperial Valley on the Mexican border, reluctantly accepting his friend Karak’s offer of work and partnership in a small cantaloupe farm. Ram is unmoored; fleeing violence in Oregon, he desperately longs to return to his wife and newborn son in Punjab—but he is duty bound to make his fortune first.
In the Valley, American settlement is still new and the rules are ever shifting. Alongside Karak; Jivan and his wife, Kishen; and Amarjeet, a U.S. soldier, Ram struggles to farm in the unforgiving desert. When he meets an alluring woman who has fought in Mexico’s revolution, he strives to stay true to his wife. The Valley is full of settlers hailing from other cities and different continents. The stakes are high and times are desperate—just one bad harvest or stolen crop could destabilize a family. And as anti- immigrant sentiment rises among white residents, the tensions of life in the west finally boil over.
In her ambitious debut novel, Rishi Reddi, award-winning author of Karma and Other Stories, explores an enduring question: Who is welcome in America? Richly imagined and beautifully rendered, Passage West offers a moving portrait of one man’s search for home.
A Los Angeles Times BEST CALIFORNIA BOOK of 2020 * A New England Independent Booksellers' 2020 NEW ENGLAND BOOK AWARD FINALIST
A sweeping, vibrant first novel following a family of Indian sharecroppers at the onset of World War I, revealing a little-known part of California history
1914: Ram Singh arrives in the Imperial Valley on the Mexican border, reluctantly accepting his friend Karak’s offer of work and partnership in a small cantaloupe farm. Ram is unmoored; fleeing violence in Oregon, he desperately longs to return to his wife and newborn son in Punjab—but he is duty bound to make his fortune first.
In the Valley, American settlement is still new and the rules are ever shifting. Alongside Karak; Jivan and his wife, Kishen; and Amarjeet, a U.S. soldier, Ram struggles to farm in the unforgiving desert. When he meets an alluring woman who has fought in Mexico’s revolution, he strives to stay true to his wife. The Valley is full of settlers hailing from other cities and different continents. The stakes are high and times are desperate—just one bad harvest or stolen crop could destabilize a family. And as anti- immigrant sentiment rises among white residents, the tensions of life in the west finally boil over.
In her ambitious debut novel, Rishi Reddi, award-winning author of Karma and Other Stories, explores an enduring question: Who is welcome in America? Richly imagined and beautifully rendered, Passage West offers a moving portrait of one man’s search for home.
429 pages, Hardcover
First published April 21, 2020
235 people are currently reading
6394 people want to read
About the author
Rishi Reddi
3 books54 followersRishi Reddi was born in Hyderabad, India, grew up in the United Kingdom and the United States, and is a long-time resident of Massachusetts. She attended Swarthmore College and Northeastern Univeristy School of Law. She is the author of Passage West (2020), a Los Angeles Times "Best California Book of 2020," and Karma and Other Stories (2007), which received the L.L. Winship /PEN New England Award for Outstanding Fiction. An essayist, book reviewer and translator, her work appears in Best American Short Stories, was performed on National Public Radio, and was chosen for honorable mention in the Pushcart Prize. She's been awarded Fellowships from the National Book Critics Circle, MacDowell Artists Colony and Breadloaf, and received grants from the U.S. Department of State and Massachusetts Cultural Council, among others.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 145 reviews
September 13, 2020
My husband came to America in the 1960's to attend the University of Michigan as a foreign student. As a Sikh, he has vivid memories of going with his fellow classmates to California to work on the farms in order to earn enough money for the following year of his education.
This narrative rings true to the many tales he has been telling me for the past 50 years. Author Rishi Reddy has succeeding in making the history of the Sikhs in California come alive in a compelling, albeit often disturbing, tale of heroism, discrimination, love and loss. For its accuracy, truthfulness and character development, I count this book as one of the best historical fiction novels that I have ever read.
This narrative rings true to the many tales he has been telling me for the past 50 years. Author Rishi Reddy has succeeding in making the history of the Sikhs in California come alive in a compelling, albeit often disturbing, tale of heroism, discrimination, love and loss. For its accuracy, truthfulness and character development, I count this book as one of the best historical fiction novels that I have ever read.
April 6, 2023
A novel on injustice and identity during a little known part of American history. Against the backdrop of Southern California in the early 1900’s, Passage West examines the immigrant experience of Indian, Japanese, and Mexican farmers, as they grapple with familial tension, disillusionment from the American Dream, and racism from the nation who claimed to welcome them. This is also a novel of being torn between two nations; the nations from which people are born and made, and the nation where they attempt to make themselves anew. Although difficult to read at times, this is an incredibly relevant novel for fans of history, as many of these injustices have been long forgotten. Much of the political commentary remains just as urgent today as well, as so many are drawn to the land of opportunity, only to be left with empty promises.
December 13, 2020
4.5 stars
Readers of historical fiction such as Pachinko or Homegoing will love this. This will especially appeal to readers who enjoy reading about less known people or incidents that have been forgotten and erased. Here, finally, is the story of Indian farmers in Southern California before World War I. These immigrant farmers, along with the Japanese helped build and develop this land into the profitable and needed crops while given very little respect and civil rights. Through the eyes of a new immigrant, as well as those who arrived, this family saga will stay with you and show, despite over a 100 years, treatment of ‘others,’ who love this country, remain the same.
I received this arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
ETA: May & December 2020 staff pick
Readers of historical fiction such as Pachinko or Homegoing will love this. This will especially appeal to readers who enjoy reading about less known people or incidents that have been forgotten and erased. Here, finally, is the story of Indian farmers in Southern California before World War I. These immigrant farmers, along with the Japanese helped build and develop this land into the profitable and needed crops while given very little respect and civil rights. Through the eyes of a new immigrant, as well as those who arrived, this family saga will stay with you and show, despite over a 100 years, treatment of ‘others,’ who love this country, remain the same.
I received this arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
ETA: May & December 2020 staff pick
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February 11, 2022I heard about PASSAGE WEST through the grapevine a few weeks ago. My understanding is that it was a debut novel about the Indian American immigrant experience in the United States during the 1910s and 1920s. My curiosity was piqued to the nth degree because my knowledge of that aspect of U.S. history was non-existent. I was filled with a keen desire to read this novel. So, I put in a request for it from the local library and was able to borrow it a week later.
The novel begins in a hospital room in Los Angeles in April 1974. Ram Singh, a proud old man in his early 80s is standing at the bedside of Karak Singh Gill, who is 10 years his senior. Both men have had a long, extensive, complicated relationship that has spanned decades. Karak in his much younger years, had been a charming, handsome (he had a winsome way with women), ambitious man, determined to be a success upon arriving in the U.S. in 1913 from Hong Kong (where he and Ram first became acquainted). And also, a gambler. But with the passage of time, it seems that the lives of both men had reached a certain balance or parity -- with Ram perhaps a bit ahead.
Karak was dying and he wanted to pass on something to Ram. He "had sat up in the bed and, with trembling fingers, placed the key to his apartment in Ram Singh's hand. Ram protested; he did not want it. Karak thrust it toward him. 'Keep the box', he insisted, 'of things only you and I know about.' " Shortly thereafter, Karak dies and Ram ventures into Karak's apartment, where he finds the box just where Karak said it was, "tucked behind stale clothes in the bedroom closet, two feet by three feet of cardboard." Ram takes the box to his home and places it in the corner of his bedroom. He "reached for the box and scooted it beside the armchair, delved to the bottom, where he had not reached this morning. Karak's papers stared up at him, aged and yellow and brittle. There, he saw it --- an envelope addressed to Karak in the Imperial Valley, with Ram's return address of Hambelton, Washington --- a letter that Ram himself had written more than six decades ago, his own script beckoning to him through the years."
Ram then "settled back into the chair with his letters and Karak's own, allowing them to rest for a moment on his lap. He was at the end of things now; he could not resist the return to the beginning. Not when he was the only one who remained. Not when all the others --- Jivan, Amarjeet, Kishen, even little Leela --- had died years before. He sat until he could no longer bear the loneliness. His letter to Karak was sixty-one years old. Slowly, he picked it up and began to read."
The reader is then propelled back 61 years. Upon the arrival of Ram and Karak in the U.S., Ram goes to Washington State (where he works in a lumber yard with several other immigrant laborers) and Karak goes to the Imperial Valley in Southern California, where he lives and works with an Indian family (headed by Jivan Singh Gill) on an extensive spread of land they've been allowed to rent (and plant and harvest produce for sale) from a kindly absent-tee landlord in Los Angeles.
Both Ram and Karak maintain a correspondence over a year. During this time, Karak invites Ram to come to the Imperial Valley to work with him on the land and build wealth for themselves. Ram (who, like Karak, grew up in the Punjab) has extensive farming experience. His only reason for coming to the U.S. is to be able to fulfill a family obligation from one of his uncles (who had cared for him and mother after his father's death by allowing them to live with the uncle and his family) and send remittances home to help his extended family, his young wife and son (who he had yet to see, as his wife was pregnant at the time of his departure). Ram worked in Hambleton until a tragedy impelled him to take up Karak's offer and take the train to California. He arrives in Freedonia (a city in the Imperial Valley) in July 1914 nursing injuries that he takes pains to conceal from Karak, Jivan and his family.
The novel goes on to give the reader access to a world now largely forgotten. That is, a world largely controlled and dominated by Europe - with the United States embodying a thoroughly Eurocentric ethos in which people of color (be they Black, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, or Indian) are marginalized and prohibited by custom or law from enjoying the full blessings of democracy.
"Passage West" was a thoroughly absorbing reading experience for me. For a debut novel, Rishi Reddi did a fantastic job at creating characters whose lives became so real and tangible to me. I hesitate to provide details for fear of spreading spoilers. There were times that I was angered by some of what I had read, witnessing some of the injustices and indignities Ram, Karak, and others like them had to endure. There were also many tender moments in the novel that were very moving. As well as some funny, entertaining moments.
One of the things that the novel made very clear to me is what happens to a person when he/she leaves their home country to make a new life in a country very different from all he/she knew before. Indeed, as Rishi Reddi points out so artfully and cogently, "There is, after all, a land of one's birth, and a land of one's work and action. Which should one call home?"
For anyone in search of a book in which one can become wholly absorbed and engaged, by all means, read PASSAGE WEST.
The novel begins in a hospital room in Los Angeles in April 1974. Ram Singh, a proud old man in his early 80s is standing at the bedside of Karak Singh Gill, who is 10 years his senior. Both men have had a long, extensive, complicated relationship that has spanned decades. Karak in his much younger years, had been a charming, handsome (he had a winsome way with women), ambitious man, determined to be a success upon arriving in the U.S. in 1913 from Hong Kong (where he and Ram first became acquainted). And also, a gambler. But with the passage of time, it seems that the lives of both men had reached a certain balance or parity -- with Ram perhaps a bit ahead.
Karak was dying and he wanted to pass on something to Ram. He "had sat up in the bed and, with trembling fingers, placed the key to his apartment in Ram Singh's hand. Ram protested; he did not want it. Karak thrust it toward him. 'Keep the box', he insisted, 'of things only you and I know about.' " Shortly thereafter, Karak dies and Ram ventures into Karak's apartment, where he finds the box just where Karak said it was, "tucked behind stale clothes in the bedroom closet, two feet by three feet of cardboard." Ram takes the box to his home and places it in the corner of his bedroom. He "reached for the box and scooted it beside the armchair, delved to the bottom, where he had not reached this morning. Karak's papers stared up at him, aged and yellow and brittle. There, he saw it --- an envelope addressed to Karak in the Imperial Valley, with Ram's return address of Hambelton, Washington --- a letter that Ram himself had written more than six decades ago, his own script beckoning to him through the years."
Ram then "settled back into the chair with his letters and Karak's own, allowing them to rest for a moment on his lap. He was at the end of things now; he could not resist the return to the beginning. Not when he was the only one who remained. Not when all the others --- Jivan, Amarjeet, Kishen, even little Leela --- had died years before. He sat until he could no longer bear the loneliness. His letter to Karak was sixty-one years old. Slowly, he picked it up and began to read."
The reader is then propelled back 61 years. Upon the arrival of Ram and Karak in the U.S., Ram goes to Washington State (where he works in a lumber yard with several other immigrant laborers) and Karak goes to the Imperial Valley in Southern California, where he lives and works with an Indian family (headed by Jivan Singh Gill) on an extensive spread of land they've been allowed to rent (and plant and harvest produce for sale) from a kindly absent-tee landlord in Los Angeles.
Both Ram and Karak maintain a correspondence over a year. During this time, Karak invites Ram to come to the Imperial Valley to work with him on the land and build wealth for themselves. Ram (who, like Karak, grew up in the Punjab) has extensive farming experience. His only reason for coming to the U.S. is to be able to fulfill a family obligation from one of his uncles (who had cared for him and mother after his father's death by allowing them to live with the uncle and his family) and send remittances home to help his extended family, his young wife and son (who he had yet to see, as his wife was pregnant at the time of his departure). Ram worked in Hambleton until a tragedy impelled him to take up Karak's offer and take the train to California. He arrives in Freedonia (a city in the Imperial Valley) in July 1914 nursing injuries that he takes pains to conceal from Karak, Jivan and his family.
The novel goes on to give the reader access to a world now largely forgotten. That is, a world largely controlled and dominated by Europe - with the United States embodying a thoroughly Eurocentric ethos in which people of color (be they Black, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, or Indian) are marginalized and prohibited by custom or law from enjoying the full blessings of democracy.
"Passage West" was a thoroughly absorbing reading experience for me. For a debut novel, Rishi Reddi did a fantastic job at creating characters whose lives became so real and tangible to me. I hesitate to provide details for fear of spreading spoilers. There were times that I was angered by some of what I had read, witnessing some of the injustices and indignities Ram, Karak, and others like them had to endure. There were also many tender moments in the novel that were very moving. As well as some funny, entertaining moments.
One of the things that the novel made very clear to me is what happens to a person when he/she leaves their home country to make a new life in a country very different from all he/she knew before. Indeed, as Rishi Reddi points out so artfully and cogently, "There is, after all, a land of one's birth, and a land of one's work and action. Which should one call home?"
For anyone in search of a book in which one can become wholly absorbed and engaged, by all means, read PASSAGE WEST.
August 18, 2021
Once I muscled through the beginning, this book took off spectacularly. "Passage West" forgoes the romanticized American dream stereotype to present the unrelenting story of these Punjabi Sikh men struggling to survive and dream in a country/time period steeped in racism and xenophobia. Discovering that Reddi (a lawyer!) actually drew inspiration from the very real Supreme Court case that she weaves into the plot—United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, which held that Thind, a Punjabi Sikh man who had enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I, was ineligible for U.S. citizenship—also introduced to me a whole new lens through which to consider the moral grounding of this book. This debut is a marvel.
October 25, 2020
The writing is solid. But it's the historical context that captured and held my attention.
Set in the 1910's, this story of Sikh farmers in Imperial County (a county in Southern California that borders Mexico) is fascinating. It speaks of other groups, Japanaese, Mexicans, Chinese, etc., who worked in agriculture and whose contributions are felt today. It speaks of the racist people and racist immigration policies that were present then and unfortunately relevant to today's so-called administration and today's America. It refers to Angel Island and other markers of the time.
The author did significant homework; and the trials and challenges that Ram and Karak face often have to do with overcoming or enduring racism. There are a few instances when there is too much explanation in a clunky fashion (though interesting nonetheless).
If anything this story shows how the world can be very small; that we're connected at times through history and/or geography.
As an aside, the author liked the word "loam"; it's used 7 times in the first 117 pages.
As a further aside, I just noted a recent tweet where the tour guide of the radical history of South Asians in Berkeley counted 120-some South Asian names by the 1920's in various archival sources. (Kamala adds to that part of history.)
Set in the 1910's, this story of Sikh farmers in Imperial County (a county in Southern California that borders Mexico) is fascinating. It speaks of other groups, Japanaese, Mexicans, Chinese, etc., who worked in agriculture and whose contributions are felt today. It speaks of the racist people and racist immigration policies that were present then and unfortunately relevant to today's so-called administration and today's America. It refers to Angel Island and other markers of the time.
The author did significant homework; and the trials and challenges that Ram and Karak face often have to do with overcoming or enduring racism. There are a few instances when there is too much explanation in a clunky fashion (though interesting nonetheless).
If anything this story shows how the world can be very small; that we're connected at times through history and/or geography.
As an aside, the author liked the word "loam"; it's used 7 times in the first 117 pages.
As a further aside, I just noted a recent tweet where the tour guide of the radical history of South Asians in Berkeley counted 120-some South Asian names by the 1920's in various archival sources. (Kamala adds to that part of history.)
September 17, 2024
3.5 stars
Not usually the type of stuff I read, I only read it for school, but it was still more enjoyable than I thought!!! It took a bit of time for me to actually get into the story but when I did it was pretty good!!!
It's the 1900s, and Ram has immigrated from Punjab to America in order to earn more money for his family back home. At first, he lived in Hambelton, but after surviving a serious act of violence, he moves to California with Karak, and the two of them work together to earn money by growing crops. There's also a very large cast of characters, which really immerses you and puts you into the 1900s along with the characters, but at the same time I think the cast was a little overwhelmingly large (which is what I usually think LOL).
To be honest, I never really connected with any of the characters in the book, but that doesn't mean that I didn't feel for them whenever something bad happened to them. For example, there is tons of racism in this book (it's America in the early 1900s. . .) and it really really made me mad. I thought the descriptions were really incredibly well done and Rishi Reddi was really able to portray the injustices really well. There's also some other things, such as a specific immigration scene and Padma, which incredibly angered me. But overall, I thought that the book and the storyline was very well written. I felt for the characters, but I didn't necessarily think they were too multidimensional. The characters aren't really fully developed in my opinion, and it didn't really help that there was such a large number of characters. Characters like Adela and Rosa are such interesting characters because they sort of defy the norms of America in the 1900s, but we barely hear from them at all.
Reddi is really good at making you feel like you're there in the 1900s with them. The atmosphere and the setting is so beautifully written and the descriptions are so so so nice. You really feel like you're on the fields in the sweltering heat farming with the men and women, and the intensity of the racism certainly just adds to the intensity of the heat. Basically I really believed that this was in the 1900s and it was very cool to read!!!!
I read this for my Asian American fiction class, and it's a class mainly centered around Asian American food, and I thought reading this book through that lens is quite interesting. Through food and farming, you really see how food brings families together and defines such large aspects of our lives, such as our ethnicity, our gender, and our family. Cool stuff!!!!
But I also thought the story overall was just meh. Maybe it's just because it's not my type of story, but it's also because I couldn't really connect with any of the characters. I didn't really find any of the characters too interesting and I wasn't really attached to any of them, which kind of made the story feel like a chore to read. It's a good read, and it's a good insight to how life was for immigrants in the 1900s, so I'm really glad I was able to learn more about that stuff!!!! Anyway it's an alright book, but I guess I would recommend it if historical fiction and cultural studies is your thing. Ok bye!!!!!!!
Not usually the type of stuff I read, I only read it for school, but it was still more enjoyable than I thought!!! It took a bit of time for me to actually get into the story but when I did it was pretty good!!!
It's the 1900s, and Ram has immigrated from Punjab to America in order to earn more money for his family back home. At first, he lived in Hambelton, but after surviving a serious act of violence, he moves to California with Karak, and the two of them work together to earn money by growing crops. There's also a very large cast of characters, which really immerses you and puts you into the 1900s along with the characters, but at the same time I think the cast was a little overwhelmingly large (which is what I usually think LOL).
To be honest, I never really connected with any of the characters in the book, but that doesn't mean that I didn't feel for them whenever something bad happened to them. For example, there is tons of racism in this book (it's America in the early 1900s. . .) and it really really made me mad. I thought the descriptions were really incredibly well done and Rishi Reddi was really able to portray the injustices really well. There's also some other things, such as a specific immigration scene and Padma, which incredibly angered me. But overall, I thought that the book and the storyline was very well written. I felt for the characters, but I didn't necessarily think they were too multidimensional. The characters aren't really fully developed in my opinion, and it didn't really help that there was such a large number of characters. Characters like Adela and Rosa are such interesting characters because they sort of defy the norms of America in the 1900s, but we barely hear from them at all.
Reddi is really good at making you feel like you're there in the 1900s with them. The atmosphere and the setting is so beautifully written and the descriptions are so so so nice. You really feel like you're on the fields in the sweltering heat farming with the men and women, and the intensity of the racism certainly just adds to the intensity of the heat. Basically I really believed that this was in the 1900s and it was very cool to read!!!!
I read this for my Asian American fiction class, and it's a class mainly centered around Asian American food, and I thought reading this book through that lens is quite interesting. Through food and farming, you really see how food brings families together and defines such large aspects of our lives, such as our ethnicity, our gender, and our family. Cool stuff!!!!
But I also thought the story overall was just meh. Maybe it's just because it's not my type of story, but it's also because I couldn't really connect with any of the characters. I didn't really find any of the characters too interesting and I wasn't really attached to any of them, which kind of made the story feel like a chore to read. It's a good read, and it's a good insight to how life was for immigrants in the 1900s, so I'm really glad I was able to learn more about that stuff!!!! Anyway it's an alright book, but I guess I would recommend it if historical fiction and cultural studies is your thing. Ok bye!!!!!!!
March 11, 2020
4.5 stars
I enjoyed this novel thoroughly. Did you know that Sikh Indian farmers were some of the pioneers in California's Imperial Valley, that rich citrus land hugging the Mexican border? Rishi Reddi has written a moving and powerful story of a small group people in an unlikely place at an unlikely time.
When Ram SIngh arrives in a tiny town of Fredonia along the Mexican border, he's already been in the US for a while working in sawmills in Washington State. A new friend he met on the ship coming over has written him, inviting him to join him in farming cantaloupe. Karak Singh is a former British soldier, bold and hardworking but also hot tempered. Ram arrives on the train after barely escaping from a riot that drove all Indian workers out of town. He's taken in by Karak and Jivan SIngh, the most highly respected Punjabi in the valley.
Fredonia ia blazing hot and the work is hard, but in this period before WWI, Indians, Japanese, Mexicans and whites do business, work together and celebrate with each other. This is very odd to Ram who left a wife and child at home. He doesn't know what to make of the Mexican women who look you in the face and have opinions. Or the fact that his nephew's best friend is Japanese. He just wants to make enough money to go home.
World War I and the following years of economic hardship turn this balanced world upside down, as pro-white legislation and attitudes challenges their hard work,success, and the ties they've woven among the different communities.
This is a riveting story, and I was disappointed to close the book without knowing what became of many of the characters I'd grown to care about.
~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader
I enjoyed this novel thoroughly. Did you know that Sikh Indian farmers were some of the pioneers in California's Imperial Valley, that rich citrus land hugging the Mexican border? Rishi Reddi has written a moving and powerful story of a small group people in an unlikely place at an unlikely time.
When Ram SIngh arrives in a tiny town of Fredonia along the Mexican border, he's already been in the US for a while working in sawmills in Washington State. A new friend he met on the ship coming over has written him, inviting him to join him in farming cantaloupe. Karak Singh is a former British soldier, bold and hardworking but also hot tempered. Ram arrives on the train after barely escaping from a riot that drove all Indian workers out of town. He's taken in by Karak and Jivan SIngh, the most highly respected Punjabi in the valley.
Fredonia ia blazing hot and the work is hard, but in this period before WWI, Indians, Japanese, Mexicans and whites do business, work together and celebrate with each other. This is very odd to Ram who left a wife and child at home. He doesn't know what to make of the Mexican women who look you in the face and have opinions. Or the fact that his nephew's best friend is Japanese. He just wants to make enough money to go home.
World War I and the following years of economic hardship turn this balanced world upside down, as pro-white legislation and attitudes challenges their hard work,success, and the ties they've woven among the different communities.
This is a riveting story, and I was disappointed to close the book without knowing what became of many of the characters I'd grown to care about.
~~Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader
May 29, 2022
The story of Indian farmers in the 1910s-1920s and their struggle to make it in California.
To me there is such a gulf between how white people thought at the time and how I think. It was frustrating to see how the “Hindus” and Japanese were treated, the laws that restricted their lives was so unjust.
The characters are great. I especially liked Ram, the man who came for a season but stayed years, and Amarjeet who made a 360, believing in something, abandoning it and coming back to it.
Beautifully written, lovely characters and development; looking forward to this authors work in the future.
To me there is such a gulf between how white people thought at the time and how I think. It was frustrating to see how the “Hindus” and Japanese were treated, the laws that restricted their lives was so unjust.
The characters are great. I especially liked Ram, the man who came for a season but stayed years, and Amarjeet who made a 360, believing in something, abandoning it and coming back to it.
Beautifully written, lovely characters and development; looking forward to this authors work in the future.
September 20, 2020
Really enjoyed this a lot, and it is a niche that has been barely explored in fiction. The novel centers around Ram Singh, a Punjabi farmer who comes to the west coast of the US while it's being cultivated pre-WWI to make money to send back home. The writing very adeptly explores that liminal space between cultures that comes when someone leaves their home country for another country, one that in some ways (for some people, many ways) becomes their home and in other ways never can. This is a very fresh look at an immigrant experience that isn't often discussed. My one criticism is that some characters' stories and arcs didn't feel fully fleshed out.
September 18, 2020
“…there is a land of one’s birth, and there is a land of one’s work and action. Janma bhoomi and karma bhoomi. Separate places. The distinction was meant to explain the pain of being broken in two. As if using the words to describe the separation made it natural. But it was not. He knew that now. He existed in two places at once…To divide the world into janma bhoomi and karma bhoomi explained nothing. He would be forever suspended between two lands, never whole.”
Passage West is a sweeping narrative that explores the immigrant experience of Indian American (Punjabis in particular) in early 20th century California. This book is well-researched and offers a fascinating look into the history of Sikh settlement in the agricultural valleys of California at the beginning of the 20th century. This is not the path that I walked on several decades later, in my own Indian American immigrant journey. However, the underlying experience felt very relatable to me. Like any other immigrant story, this is also a story of resilience, ambition, sacrifice, hard work, grief, loss and gain. The book is written in simple language and is easy to read, so despite its length at 400+ pages, I flew through it. I had some minor frustrations with the book, but overall I enjoyed learning about how Indian American immigrants were treated back in the day.
There were clippings from newspapers and other journals in between chapters from those days that I found quite fascinating. It was interesting for me to see how the Sikh men gave up their Dastars (turbans), learned new languages and new ways of dressing to be able to blend in to their adopted country, while the younger generation from the same clan (Amarjeet) went back to embrace the same tradition again. The story ties into the Mexican and the Japanese American immigrant experience also because they were also into farming agricultural lands in California at that time. The inter-racial marriages, the natural camaraderie between various races of people going through the same immigrant experience, despite their language barriers, was also very interesting to me. The laws back in the day, the overt racist attitudes & behaviors, the strong bond among the Sikh immigrant community in California were all very interesting to read about. I wish there was atleast one strong Sikh immigrant woman in the story. I felt that the characters overall could use a little more depth. And I felt the book was a bit too lengthy. Despite these complaints, this is one book that I don’t regret reading at all. It was a well-researched work of Historical Fiction.
Passage West is a sweeping narrative that explores the immigrant experience of Indian American (Punjabis in particular) in early 20th century California. This book is well-researched and offers a fascinating look into the history of Sikh settlement in the agricultural valleys of California at the beginning of the 20th century. This is not the path that I walked on several decades later, in my own Indian American immigrant journey. However, the underlying experience felt very relatable to me. Like any other immigrant story, this is also a story of resilience, ambition, sacrifice, hard work, grief, loss and gain. The book is written in simple language and is easy to read, so despite its length at 400+ pages, I flew through it. I had some minor frustrations with the book, but overall I enjoyed learning about how Indian American immigrants were treated back in the day.
There were clippings from newspapers and other journals in between chapters from those days that I found quite fascinating. It was interesting for me to see how the Sikh men gave up their Dastars (turbans), learned new languages and new ways of dressing to be able to blend in to their adopted country, while the younger generation from the same clan (Amarjeet) went back to embrace the same tradition again. The story ties into the Mexican and the Japanese American immigrant experience also because they were also into farming agricultural lands in California at that time. The inter-racial marriages, the natural camaraderie between various races of people going through the same immigrant experience, despite their language barriers, was also very interesting to me. The laws back in the day, the overt racist attitudes & behaviors, the strong bond among the Sikh immigrant community in California were all very interesting to read about. I wish there was atleast one strong Sikh immigrant woman in the story. I felt that the characters overall could use a little more depth. And I felt the book was a bit too lengthy. Despite these complaints, this is one book that I don’t regret reading at all. It was a well-researched work of Historical Fiction.
tried-and-dumped
December 5, 2021DNF. I got 20% of the way through and with a heavy heart decided I was not going to be able to finish. I really do want to know what happened, but the writing just could not hold me.
I get that Reddi is trying to showcase the formal and unschooled cadences of speech and letter writing, but all of it got in the way.
and the number of times X knows and Y knows that X knows what an action means or implies something annoyed me! I kept re-editing what I was reading and finally had to stop.
There's a wealth of history and research embedded in this book; the stories from these Sikh pioneers must have been stupendous.
I ended up looking a lot of it up online ... I do want to know more, but this book at this time did not work for me.
I get that Reddi is trying to showcase the formal and unschooled cadences of speech and letter writing, but all of it got in the way.
and the number of times X knows and Y knows that X knows what an action means or implies something annoyed me! I kept re-editing what I was reading and finally had to stop.
There's a wealth of history and research embedded in this book; the stories from these Sikh pioneers must have been stupendous.
I ended up looking a lot of it up online ... I do want to know more, but this book at this time did not work for me.
July 18, 2021
This jewel of a novel opens a window onto a fascinating and important hidden history that every American deserves to learn about. Rishi Reddi brings to life the multicultural world that existed in California's Empire Valley and the complex relations between white landowners and the Indian, Mexican, and Japanese tenant farmers working the land. Her characters are complex and vibrant, the story based on an actual court case and on the true history of Punjabi-Mexican intermarriage. There's so much to discuss here--a perfect book club pick!
September 30, 2022
This book did not get good reviews and never made it to paperback. I started the book skeptical but curious and found it and grossing and enjoyable. It’s a fascinating lens into the life of migrants Sikh farmers in California during World War I. The historical detail woven into the story is fascinating, as are many of the characters. Sure, aspects could have been tightened up or better resolved, but, if you like historical fiction, it’s well worth the read.
November 15, 2020
The language is easy to read, but the content was so difficult to process. I have never read a book like this and the parallels between 1910s and the 2010s are distressing. I deeply appreciate a book that complicates our very basic understanding of contemporary American history. An absolute must read for all.
Read
March 11, 2020[Excerpt from my slightly longer review on Paperback Paris]: Passage West is, at its heart, a story about the difference between languages and the tragedy of not being understood. The writing itself almost feels translated; the word Reddi uses isn’t always the word that would fit perfectly as if the direct meaning got lost in translation. This narration works in Reddi’s favor because you can feel the way Ram is figuring out how to communicate his experiences in a language that doesn’t come naturally to him. Even after he becomes fluent in English, he always feels as if there is something missing, something he will never be able to grasp.
That being said, the strangely structured plot and the undeveloped characters of this book erode the edges of a story that had the potential to be an exciting and theatrical debut. There are some moments in Passage West where the characters do or say things that do not feel earned. In a book that is so reliant on its characters, Reddi doesn’t seem to know who she wants them to be. Some choices they make throughout the book seem to have no motivation or meaning behind them. I wish that Reddi had focused less on clichéd tropes like jealousy and affairs and more on the politics and historical events of the time period.
Passage West longs to be a novel of epic proportions, but the result falls a little short of its mark. However, there are certainly elements of Reddi’s writing and moments of political power in her debut that call to a larger purpose and make the book worthy of a sound readership.
That being said, the strangely structured plot and the undeveloped characters of this book erode the edges of a story that had the potential to be an exciting and theatrical debut. There are some moments in Passage West where the characters do or say things that do not feel earned. In a book that is so reliant on its characters, Reddi doesn’t seem to know who she wants them to be. Some choices they make throughout the book seem to have no motivation or meaning behind them. I wish that Reddi had focused less on clichéd tropes like jealousy and affairs and more on the politics and historical events of the time period.
Passage West longs to be a novel of epic proportions, but the result falls a little short of its mark. However, there are certainly elements of Reddi’s writing and moments of political power in her debut that call to a larger purpose and make the book worthy of a sound readership.
June 16, 2021
DEAR DIARY,
Edited to 5 stars: Another great one!! I feel like this would be the East of Eden of the American-Punjabi experience in 1910s but also I haven’t read EoE so lol not sure. It’s a lot of farming though, like a lot, like maybe too much haha and I did feel like it dragged on at parts but overall really liked it even though my white ass probably missed out on a lot of cultural references
My knowledge of Sikhs farming in the Cali Valley pre WW1 was at absolutely zero so I feel like I learned a lot about that immigrant perspective which is not as well known or written about and I really appreciated it from that regard. I also think the ending is extremely powerful - to protect someone you disagree with fundamentally in order to preserve and save your own identity is such a weird form of cognitive dissonance and I think the writing really captured the emotion well
Best,
Nora
Edited to 5 stars: Another great one!! I feel like this would be the East of Eden of the American-Punjabi experience in 1910s but also I haven’t read EoE so lol not sure. It’s a lot of farming though, like a lot, like maybe too much haha and I did feel like it dragged on at parts but overall really liked it even though my white ass probably missed out on a lot of cultural references
My knowledge of Sikhs farming in the Cali Valley pre WW1 was at absolutely zero so I feel like I learned a lot about that immigrant perspective which is not as well known or written about and I really appreciated it from that regard. I also think the ending is extremely powerful - to protect someone you disagree with fundamentally in order to preserve and save your own identity is such a weird form of cognitive dissonance and I think the writing really captured the emotion well
Best,
Nora
January 21, 2024
Rishi Reddi has written a well-researched and heartbreaking saga of the struggles of immigrant sharecroppers in the Imperial Valley of southern California in 1913-1924. Her main characters are from the Punjab region of India. They live and work among Japanese, Mexican, and white farmers.
Not only do they face the obstacles of weather and the vagaries of farm life, the laws and culture of USA also disempower them through racism, prejudice, shifting labels for skin color, barriers on bringing wife and family, harder requirements for citizenship, treatment of veterans after WWI, exclusion from places of power, and as the economy flounders in the 20’s, a prohibition on owning land. The white landowners ultimately mistreat and cheat the immigrant sharecroppers, because they can.
Through the personal experiences of three interconnected Indian men, Ram, Karak, and Jivan, Ms. Reddi recreates this period of American history. I knew nothing of this slice of history, and I’m really glad that I came across this book. This well-written historical novel is well worth your time!
Not only do they face the obstacles of weather and the vagaries of farm life, the laws and culture of USA also disempower them through racism, prejudice, shifting labels for skin color, barriers on bringing wife and family, harder requirements for citizenship, treatment of veterans after WWI, exclusion from places of power, and as the economy flounders in the 20’s, a prohibition on owning land. The white landowners ultimately mistreat and cheat the immigrant sharecroppers, because they can.
Through the personal experiences of three interconnected Indian men, Ram, Karak, and Jivan, Ms. Reddi recreates this period of American history. I knew nothing of this slice of history, and I’m really glad that I came across this book. This well-written historical novel is well worth your time!
September 7, 2020
The main appeal of the novel for me is its exploration of a history I was unaware of--that of immigrant Sikhs (and others from South and East Asia) to California in the early 20th century, and their interactions with the Anglo and Mexican populations of the region. The novel benefits from the author's extensive research in its rich detail and storylines--but it suffers as well, because the narrative urgency and drive one typically expects in a historical novel are absent, made secondary to the exposition of a complex and unfamiliar history. While this is well done, I can't say I was ever gripped by the writing or all that caught up in the details of the plot--but I learned a lot, and I would recommend the book on that basis.
Read
April 21, 2020Reddi is a meticulous researcher, history buff and, like her character Ram, a fascinating storyteller. She skillfully embeds the ubiquitous bigotry of the time in her narrative. Although the novel provides readers with a detailed view of our nation’s past indignities, the book’s themes of racism, discrimination and anti-immigration, disconcertingly resemble the divisiveness of the United States today.
Read our full review here:
https://www.booktrib.com/2020/04/pass...
Read our full review here:
https://www.booktrib.com/2020/04/pass...
May 17, 2021
I had a bit of a hard time getting into this book, as it started with an ending. There was also a long list of characters at the beginning, which I found to be a bit overwhelming.
I stuck with it, and I am glad that I did. It is a moving story about how Asian immigrants, in this case Sikhs, were treated in California’s Imperial Valley in the early 1900s. I think that everyone should read this book. There is a lot to learn about the history of racism in this country - much of it applicable today.
I stuck with it, and I am glad that I did. It is a moving story about how Asian immigrants, in this case Sikhs, were treated in California’s Imperial Valley in the early 1900s. I think that everyone should read this book. There is a lot to learn about the history of racism in this country - much of it applicable today.
February 14, 2021
This is one of those stories that will wreak havoc on your heartstrings even if you resist it. Sometimes plot lines drop off suddenly and return a little awkwardly, but it’s not irksome, and it’s far outweighed by the novel’s grandeur and skillful ambition. Reddi’s use of primary sources and archival material is poignant. A marvelous read!
October 6, 2021
This is a gorgeous, engrossing, and heartfelt novel. I was deeply invested in the characters. There were several scenes/moments where Reddi just nails it. She understands the human condition in the way she has rendered her charaacters so intimately and with so much heart. The description of watching the ship leave SF Bay, the courtship between Ram and Adela, the epilogue were just so wonderful. It's a big book, and I was sorry to finish reading it.
January 9, 2023
The more I learn about American history the more I learn about how race and racism was written into our laws framing the world as we know it today. This book is so beautiful and real, a story and history I knew nothing about.
September 29, 2022
effective use of generational storylines with different POVs and opinions - learned a lot about californian history that i hadn't heard about before. my only issue is how much it jumps forward at the end, like so many questions are left unanswered/so much time is unaccounted for, i would've liked at least a vague mention of like X is now married to Y.
also justice for the cucumber grandson!
also justice for the cucumber grandson!
March 9, 2025
Really an eye opening novel about Mans inhumanity to Man. I found myself changing my outlook in immigration. These men fought under british rule in the first world war. They were promised Citizenship.and then it was taken away. Really good read.
April 24, 2022
The novel covers immigration experiences of Sikh, Hindu, Japanese and Mexican people in the land of the free during 1910s to early 1920s. It goes over a multitude of social aspects - culture, language, religion, traditions, nationality. Most of all, it covers on family values.
Ram is the protagonist and his story arch is a common one: going abroad just for a limited time to earn enough and settle back comfortably in homeland. He is newly wed and travels to US even before his son is born. He moves across from the lumber mills of Oregon to the farmland valley of California and settles with the people of his community (Punjabis). The landscape of the dessert and the life of farmers living there is described vividly.
Ram sends money back home and yearns to meet his wife and son. Financial duties to the extended family keep piling up . His limited US stay changes from 1 year, to a couple, and then to an unknown period of time driven by the circumstances which are beyond his control. The finishing line is always on the horizon but never within reach. He is unable to visit his family in India for fear of not being able to return back to US; his family isn't able to visit either. Being a married man, he is torn and guilt ridden for committing to a new relationship while in US. The reunification with his family is heart warming.
From personal experience, this rings true even in 21st for Indian nationals on high skilled work visas (H1/L1). During covid pandemic, many of us haven't been able to visit our family back home for multiple years. This is due to the uncertainty involved in return back to US due to insufficient visa appointments or other immigration technicalities even though the health risks of travel have subsided considerably.
Back to the novel, there is a complex hierarchy of class & discrimination, independent of wealth which takes into account the race, religion, nationality, gender and other societal factors. Being subservient is expected and can only help somewhat, you are ultimately shown your place when you try to rise above the ranks.
Being a victim of the system, the faith which the oppressed had in this hierarchy is distressing. In a divide and conquer rule, they are pitted against each other. There are several of these throughout the novel:
• Sikh farm employers and their interactions with Mexican labours.
• Mexican getting an upper hand for being labelled white.
• Role of woman in family and society; how Ram finds the western women too loose/powerful.
• Asians could fight alongside the whites unlike the blacks.
• Indians conforming to British rule and those who wanted to overthrow it (Ghadar Movement).
Especially poignant is how Karak feels betrayed of not being labelled as Caucasian even though he is a British subject. Whatever wealth he accumulates and however much he mingles with the white folks, he can never be an equal.
During WWI, the immigrants were enlisted and fought the war. But once the war was over and the economic downturn ensued, they were still treated as foreigners and their patriotism was questioned. They had to lose their jobs and land to make way for the privileged to feel safe and their lives to return back to normalcy. For a Japanese father, his son's valour in WWI to fight a war for America, save lives and still being considered a foreigner stuck a cord.
With his son's action, Tomoya achieved victory in a battle few knew that he fought.
I did not know about any of these experiences or the land laws of California, it will be a good followup exploration to read up more on that.
TLDR: It is easy to summarize that non-whites were discriminated against in the past, things have improved and hopefully are moving in the correct direction in the future.
But underneath the surface of such summary, the devil is in the details: the humiliation and hardships faced, sacrifices made and everyday struggles for living a normal dignified life which is assumed to be de-facto given but have to be fought for & earned by minority groups. These experiences could impact more than a lifetime which this novel explores effectively.
Ram is the protagonist and his story arch is a common one: going abroad just for a limited time to earn enough and settle back comfortably in homeland. He is newly wed and travels to US even before his son is born. He moves across from the lumber mills of Oregon to the farmland valley of California and settles with the people of his community (Punjabis). The landscape of the dessert and the life of farmers living there is described vividly.
Ram sends money back home and yearns to meet his wife and son. Financial duties to the extended family keep piling up . His limited US stay changes from 1 year, to a couple, and then to an unknown period of time driven by the circumstances which are beyond his control. The finishing line is always on the horizon but never within reach. He is unable to visit his family in India for fear of not being able to return back to US; his family isn't able to visit either. Being a married man, he is torn and guilt ridden for committing to a new relationship while in US. The reunification with his family is heart warming.
From personal experience, this rings true even in 21st for Indian nationals on high skilled work visas (H1/L1). During covid pandemic, many of us haven't been able to visit our family back home for multiple years. This is due to the uncertainty involved in return back to US due to insufficient visa appointments or other immigration technicalities even though the health risks of travel have subsided considerably.
Back to the novel, there is a complex hierarchy of class & discrimination, independent of wealth which takes into account the race, religion, nationality, gender and other societal factors. Being subservient is expected and can only help somewhat, you are ultimately shown your place when you try to rise above the ranks.
Being a victim of the system, the faith which the oppressed had in this hierarchy is distressing. In a divide and conquer rule, they are pitted against each other. There are several of these throughout the novel:
• Sikh farm employers and their interactions with Mexican labours.
• Mexican getting an upper hand for being labelled white.
• Role of woman in family and society; how Ram finds the western women too loose/powerful.
• Asians could fight alongside the whites unlike the blacks.
• Indians conforming to British rule and those who wanted to overthrow it (Ghadar Movement).
Especially poignant is how Karak feels betrayed of not being labelled as Caucasian even though he is a British subject. Whatever wealth he accumulates and however much he mingles with the white folks, he can never be an equal.
During WWI, the immigrants were enlisted and fought the war. But once the war was over and the economic downturn ensued, they were still treated as foreigners and their patriotism was questioned. They had to lose their jobs and land to make way for the privileged to feel safe and their lives to return back to normalcy. For a Japanese father, his son's valour in WWI to fight a war for America, save lives and still being considered a foreigner stuck a cord.
With his son's action, Tomoya achieved victory in a battle few knew that he fought.
I did not know about any of these experiences or the land laws of California, it will be a good followup exploration to read up more on that.
TLDR: It is easy to summarize that non-whites were discriminated against in the past, things have improved and hopefully are moving in the correct direction in the future.
But underneath the surface of such summary, the devil is in the details: the humiliation and hardships faced, sacrifices made and everyday struggles for living a normal dignified life which is assumed to be de-facto given but have to be fought for & earned by minority groups. These experiences could impact more than a lifetime which this novel explores effectively.
May 25, 2021
I almost put this down after about 20 pages but so glad I didn't. So relevant to today and truly an epic read. This book brought me to tears several times.
Ram Singh, newly married with a son on the way, left his young wife and family behind as requested by his uncle to sail to America and send money home for the family. One year, or two at most, Ram promised himself.
He settles with other family Singh's in the Imperial Valley of California, close to the Mexican border. Speaking only Punjabi, recently beaten almost to death by white men in Oregon, he is picked up by his friend Karak at the train depot and taken by mule and cart to the farm where the family grows cantaloupes. Their nearest neighbour is a Japanese family, also leasing their farm land from white owners.
Karak has plans to turn to growing cotton, and Ram, as first unsure and having difficulty in the new country eventually agrees. Ram comes from cotton country in India and knows how to irrigate properly.
Time goes on and the harvests do very well making Karak and Ram somewhat wealthy. Ram sends almost all his money back home to his grateful uncle, who always has another project that needs funding and prevents Ram from returning to his wife and son in India.
Ram and his wife write letters as the years roll by.
Karak takes a Mexican wife and mingling of races is tolerated, at least among some nationalities till after WWI. But it doesn't sit well with most Mexicans, or Anglos.
One of the Singhs, Amarjeet who is 22, joins up and fights in France alongside Harry, the Japanese son of his neighbours. In war, in their unit, whites, Japanese, Indians unite as one and colour is forgotten. Amarjeet is excited to get his American citizenship as an incentive used by the government to entice non white boys to enlist and serve.
Once he is back in the US, without Harry who was awarded a medal for bravery in the war, but died of Spanish Flu, Amarjeet is at a loss and finds that skin colour matters and the pre-war promises were made to be broken.
The drama builds and dreams are thought of and often dashed. This is well written, the writing doesn't get into melodrama. And historically it is a part of American history that is largely unknown I am sure.
"When the work was finished, the land lay neat, raw and pungent, sloping away from the canal head gate where the zanjero would meet them regularly to dispense water. Jivan Singh returned the borrowed leveler to Tomoya. Ram never acknowledged the loan; that way he did not have to feel indebted. Through the winter chill, he and Karak plowed and disked. When the threat of frost was past, they ready to plant. Then the early March winds grew strong and warm. Wildflowers dotted the scrub and desert prairie, and the earth was crusted with alkaline. Soon it was time for Jivan and Karak to harvest their cantaloupe. Of course, Ram would help. He had become part of them now."
"10 August 1916
My dear,
Karak Singh has taken a local girl for his wife. She is a Mexican, her family crossed the border some time ago - like those families that live in Patiala who were born in Kabul. She was under the guardianship of her sister's husband, who arranged the match. They are living now in the Eggenberger house, separately from the rest of us, but only a furlong away.
He sleeps indoor often now, like a respectable householder, even when the night is warm. He no longer comes for breakfast every morning to Kishen's table.
It is strange that his is comfortable with marrying an outsider. In so many ways he and I are different! But I can admit to you, my wife, that I am jealous of their happiness. When I see them together, I am reminded of me and you....."
Ram Singh, newly married with a son on the way, left his young wife and family behind as requested by his uncle to sail to America and send money home for the family. One year, or two at most, Ram promised himself.
He settles with other family Singh's in the Imperial Valley of California, close to the Mexican border. Speaking only Punjabi, recently beaten almost to death by white men in Oregon, he is picked up by his friend Karak at the train depot and taken by mule and cart to the farm where the family grows cantaloupes. Their nearest neighbour is a Japanese family, also leasing their farm land from white owners.
Karak has plans to turn to growing cotton, and Ram, as first unsure and having difficulty in the new country eventually agrees. Ram comes from cotton country in India and knows how to irrigate properly.
Time goes on and the harvests do very well making Karak and Ram somewhat wealthy. Ram sends almost all his money back home to his grateful uncle, who always has another project that needs funding and prevents Ram from returning to his wife and son in India.
Ram and his wife write letters as the years roll by.
Karak takes a Mexican wife and mingling of races is tolerated, at least among some nationalities till after WWI. But it doesn't sit well with most Mexicans, or Anglos.
One of the Singhs, Amarjeet who is 22, joins up and fights in France alongside Harry, the Japanese son of his neighbours. In war, in their unit, whites, Japanese, Indians unite as one and colour is forgotten. Amarjeet is excited to get his American citizenship as an incentive used by the government to entice non white boys to enlist and serve.
Once he is back in the US, without Harry who was awarded a medal for bravery in the war, but died of Spanish Flu, Amarjeet is at a loss and finds that skin colour matters and the pre-war promises were made to be broken.
The drama builds and dreams are thought of and often dashed. This is well written, the writing doesn't get into melodrama. And historically it is a part of American history that is largely unknown I am sure.
"When the work was finished, the land lay neat, raw and pungent, sloping away from the canal head gate where the zanjero would meet them regularly to dispense water. Jivan Singh returned the borrowed leveler to Tomoya. Ram never acknowledged the loan; that way he did not have to feel indebted. Through the winter chill, he and Karak plowed and disked. When the threat of frost was past, they ready to plant. Then the early March winds grew strong and warm. Wildflowers dotted the scrub and desert prairie, and the earth was crusted with alkaline. Soon it was time for Jivan and Karak to harvest their cantaloupe. Of course, Ram would help. He had become part of them now."
"10 August 1916
My dear,
Karak Singh has taken a local girl for his wife. She is a Mexican, her family crossed the border some time ago - like those families that live in Patiala who were born in Kabul. She was under the guardianship of her sister's husband, who arranged the match. They are living now in the Eggenberger house, separately from the rest of us, but only a furlong away.
He sleeps indoor often now, like a respectable householder, even when the night is warm. He no longer comes for breakfast every morning to Kishen's table.
It is strange that his is comfortable with marrying an outsider. In so many ways he and I are different! But I can admit to you, my wife, that I am jealous of their happiness. When I see them together, I am reminded of me and you....."
April 21, 2020
This book will take a little work to get into. It starts slow and it is hard to like the characters at first. Your patience will be rewarded since the characters are vivid and human and well rounded out. You will find yourself appalled if you are an evolved human being at the actions of our country. I always take the opinion that we shouldn't judge people of past times by our current enlightened state of awareness, but the truth be told, we are almost exactly the same today. There has been some limited progress in the availability of redress in our court system but ... not much and that's it. I learned things about World War I era immigration laws and how backward they were, just like, well, now.
February 18, 2020
Interesting history read. I learned about Indian farmers in Southern California that I had never heard before.
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