In her first book, THE BRIDE WORE RED, Robbie Clipper Sethi established herself as a skilled cultural translator as she explored the lives of three American women and the families of the Indian men they married. Now, with FIFTY-FIFTY, she introduces her readers to yet another Punjabi Sikh family, this one spread over four continents and struggling to adapt to their adopted lands. Told with startling compassion and insight, this novel offers a complex and realistic view of what it means to be an immigrant.

Like Sethi's first book, which was described as a "novel-in-stories," FIFTY-FIFTY is told through multiple voices, each with its own titled chapter. From the Gill family matriarch Biji to her four children to her grandchildren, they each tell their part of the family history. Although the chapters could stand alone as short stories, their real power comes from their compilation. The best chapters are "Exile," "Three Sisters," "The Curse of Life," and "Double Mind." Sethi writes with a no-nonsense style; however, the moments she chooses to reveal are lyrical. I could not help feeling for every one of these displaced individuals. By the time I finished FIFTY-FIFTY, I did not want to leave these self-exiled characters who, despite all that they have suffered, continue to harbor hope.

I highly recommend this for readers of literary fiction and those interested in cross-cultural and immigrant issues.

Fans of The Bride Wore Red will love Sethi's gem of a novel about complex multicultural relationships. In Fifty-Fifty, Sethi writes in the voices of an American teenage girl, her Punjabi Sikh grandmother, aunts, and other relatives. Sethi's lively writing makes the characters' individual stories sing. A fun book from a small press hitherto unknown to me.

Sethi's second novel is a clever, daring, and sharply insightful panorama of a family's struggle to transcend the inevitable entropy of the family structure as a result of time, distance, and tradition. The children of Biji have, by choice or obligation, traveled disparate paths, spanning continents and generations, and through their darkly realistic struggles to satisfy both their roles as members of a family and their individual desires, we are given not only a powerful and profound lesson on culture, spirituality, and imperialism, but a carefully sharp and gripping portrayal of the universal struggles that all humans share. Unlike the conventional novel, Sethi's tale is told through a series of stories, each presenting a unique's character's perspective in his or her own voice. From the compelling story of young Rosa Gill's attempt to identify in a suburban California culture that treats "the other" as a form of boutique cataloguing, to the dark descents into self-destruction of cousins Kunti and Rajit, and even the tale of Biji herself, a political refugee and dominant head of the family, these tales intertwine in a way that is brilliant and wholly fulfilling. No stone is left unturned, and the reader is left with a mosaic of human existence that is much more than a "multicultural" tale, but a beautiful and frightening commentary on the universal struggle against loneliness, responsibility, identity, and alienation. The expansive scope at the book does, at times, create a somewhat off-putting separation between character and reader, but Sethi's ability to mold, color, and develop a versatile stock of voices is brilliant enough to bring you into a universe that crosses continents, cultures, and personalities, and shows that the deepest emotions are those that do not know such boundaries.

A group of short stories that are supposed to fit together but just seem fragmented. Could have had potential but does not live up. Disappointing. Kind of dull.

Finally a book that discusses interracial marriages. Rarely do you find a book that discusses modern times in indian american culture. I would like to see more detailed stories. The author kept the stories interesting. For the most part, the stories are true. I look forward to more books on this subject.

Robbie Clipper Sethi writes well. Her images are powerful and vivid. Her brutal honesty is refreshing to someone like me (an Indian who grew up in the U.S. and married an American man. I escaped the suffocating presence and expectations of Indian in-laws). However, most of her stories lack compassion for the Indian paradigm of family. I may have avoided the "down-side" of the extended family network but I am also missing out on the love, support and togetherness of an extended Indian family. Also, not all families are so difficult, ethnocentric, egocentric and--basically crazy. This book is a great starting point but clearly there are many more stories to tell.