Lucky Boy by Shanthi SekaranMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I can't remember how I first heard about Shanthi Sekran's novel Lucky Boy, but when I added it to my reading list I had no idea it would prove to be as timely as it did. Lucky Boy is the story of two women and their love for one "lucky boy." It is also a story of undocumented immigration and a system that wrenches children from their parents. The novel is a compelling, beautifully written reminder of the human faces behind an issue that is hotly politicized but at its basis about human beings and human rights.
The story is told from alternating points of view of two women. Solimar "Soli" Castro Valdez is, at 18 years old, on the cusp of adulthood and living in a depressed, rural village outside of Oaxaca, Mexico. Soli longs for more than life in her village has to offer, so she decides to embark on a perilous journey to Berkley, California, where her cousin Sylvia already lives. When she shows up without documents at Sylvia's doorstep, she is pregnant with the son she will name Ignacio.
Solimar's journey to America inside and on the top of freight trains is filled with the terror and brutality that one might expect but also with moments of joy and excitement. (view spoiler). When she arrives in America, the details of her everyday life as a housekeeper and nanny are juxtaposed with the fear she lives in because of her undocumented status. Eventually she is placed in an immigrant detention center and Ignacio is placed into the care of Kavya Reddy and her husband, Rishi.
Kavya recently awakened to her desire to have a child, but when she struggles to conceive, she and Rishi explore fertility treatments, adoption, and, finally, much to the chagrin of Kavya's traditional Indian parents, fostering. As she and Rishi watch Ignacio grow from infancy to toddlerhood, they nurture hopes of being able to adopt him and suppress their knowledge that Ignacio's birth mother is alive and well and fighting to be reunited with her child.
Sekram treats all her major characters sympathetically. Both Soli and Kavya are clearly bound by love to Ignacio, who truly is a lucky boy to be placed in a loving, stable home rather than stuck in a "tender age shelter." Rishi plays somewhat of a lesser role, but he too comes to fully embrace fatherhood. Sekram draws upon her personal experience as an Indian American in depicting Kavya and Rishi, and she contrasts their experiences as the children of immigrants with those of Soli while showing how they are alike as well. She also draws upon her experiences as a resident of Berkely, depicting the hipsterish "Gourmet Ghetto" and nearby Silicon Valley. Rishi's job at "Weebies," an internet mega-provider of baby gear, wasn't as believable to me, though. He works as a ventilation engineer on Weebies' sprawling campus, and his job seems to be a metaphor for something to do with purity, babies, keeping babies safe...I wasn't exactly sure. I know Silicon Valley is a strange place, but unlike other details in the book, it just didn't ring true.
But that's a minor complaint. As well as being incredibly timely and humanizing, Lucky Boy is, aside from a few instances of purple prose, a beautifully written story. Evocative and moving, it is a must-read for the times we live in.
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