Near the start of Dreaming in Hindi, author Katherine Russell Rich says: "I took up with Hindi at a time when it seemed my life had buckled out from under me." In the wake of a bout with cancer and the discovery that her job didn't make her happy any more, Katherine decides to head for Udaipur in India to learn Hindi. She continues: "I no longer had the language to describe my own life. So I decided I'd borrow someone else's."
So begins a year long odyssey which is chronicled in Dreaming in Hindi. The book blends the author's memoirs from that period with the latest thinking on linguistics and second language acquisition. An assignment for a magazine starts the ball rolling, and on her return from India she begins taking Hindi lessons. Soon that's not enough and she makes the decision to leave her old life behind and take a course in India.
A Memoir of India
The story of her linguistic and personal journey is told in 19 chapters. Author Katherine Russell Rich discovers that a different language provides a different way of viewing the world, such as drinking a cigarette rather than smoking it or basking in the sun rather than simply sunbathing. Dreaming in Hindi features often hilarious incidents as the author attempts to make sense of her new milieu. The backdrop to the story is more sinister, however. Katherine arrives shortly before the events of September 11, 2001 and she highlights reactions to this event among different ethnic and religious groups in the region.
At times, Dreaming in Hindi seems like two books shoehorned into one. One part of the book relates Katherine's physical journey to India and back again, giving us snapshots of life in India during that period and of the many characters who cross her path. While some characters seem two dimensional (such as members of host family the Jains), others are memorably described (such as Helaena) and the reader wants to know much more about them.
Second Language Acquisition
But often, just as the reader has settled into the narrative, Katherine shifts to the other aspect of Dreaming in Hindi - her linguistic journey. This is told in three ways: in the entertaining chapter titles, in the stories of her experiences with the language and in the excerpts from modern linguistic theory which pepper the book. Those interested in the process of second language acquisition will find this as interesting as the details of Katherine's sojourn in India, if not more so.
If the reader can criticize Dreaming in Hindi for anything, it is that it leaves readers dissatisfied. Those who are interested in the memoir want more detail and more richly drawn characters, while those who are interested in language learning will find Katherine Russell Rich's memoir distracting. However, there is enough of interest to make Dreaming in Hindi worth a read.
(Dreaming in Hindi, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, ISBN 978-0618155453)
Sharon Hurley Hall is a professional web content writer, ghostwriter and blogger. She originally published this review on Suite101.
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