Title: The Rummy Club
Author: Anoop Ahuja Judge
Publisher: Daggerhorn Publishing
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Pages: 308
ISBN: 978-0-991081-01-1
Reviewed by: Marsha Joseph
Hollywood Book Review
The Rummy Club is a delightful story of four girlfriends who meet at a private posh high school in India, and continue to stay connected through the joys and trials of adulthood. There’s Divya, who is trying to find her place in the world, particularly among friends who enjoy a higher social status. There’s Alka, a beautiful girl related to one of the wealthiest families in India. Mini and Priya complete the group of these four relatable girls. Their ritual of playing rummy together is a thread that is woven throughout the book.
We’re drawn into the story of their lives, and their challenges in balancing their dreams with that of their parents. Author Anoop Ahuja Judge successfully shares a glimpse of Indian culture, with parents striving to get their children into the best schools, arranged marriages that will be most advantageous to the family, and the types of hopes and dreams that span across all cultures. We’re treated to rich descriptions of Indian food, and insights about the challenges of integrating into a culture that is far from home as they move from India to the United States.
The pace of the book is leisurely, but in the best possible way. We’re not rushed, but rather are drawn into their stories as if we were there with them, as fellow friends. This is the kind of book that you may want to enjoy with a pot of hot tea, curled up in your favorite chair – it has that sort of comfortable, familiar quality to it, particularly in the first half of the book. (But the reason you need a pot of tea, not just a cup, is that this book is hard to put down.)
As the story moves from India to the United States in the second half of the book, more tension unfolds for each of them, and each of their stories is interesting in its own unique way. With boyfriends, husbands, children, and both the simplicity and complexity of everyday lives, we’re introduced to dramas that might be familiar to our own. Conflicts with husbands, high hopes for our children, trying to afford buying our dream homes, creating a better life for ourselves and our families, facing insecurities, crises, and relationships that twist and turn. The author is adept at telling the unique story-lines of each of the four women, while bringing them together in a way that emphasizes the importance of forming and maintaining bonds with those who matter most.
Above all, The Rummy Club is a wonderful story of good friends, who have long lasting, real and true relationships. And in our current world of more and more on-line “fake friends” on social media and less time for sustaining true friendships, this seems like a story that everyone should read to remind us of the importance of genuine friendships in our own lives.