Meera Syal won her way into readers hearts with Anita and Me, her first novel, but Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee arguably hits much closer to home. Syal dedicates the book to her fellow Asian women, who apparently lead the polls in both graduate degrees and self-harm statistics. Attempting to shed light on these two stats, she writes her second novel about three friends, young women just diving into the deep end of adulthood.
Sunita is the oldest. She left university to marry a psychotherapist named Akaash, and now she's a bustling mother of two who also holds down a drab job during the day. For her part, Tania rejected marriage. She's thrown herself into her career and become quite successful. Moving away from her home city, she has all but abandoned the culture of her childhood, but she's wealthy. Finally, Chila has recently gotten engaged to the renowned Deepak Sharma, a sort of legendary bachelor figure.
As each of these women discover, life is full of surprises. None of them find satisfaction in their chosen life paths. In fact, they're largely miserable. Torn between the message of tradition to raise a family and care for the home and the message of society that women should be achieving in the workplace, there appears to be no satisfaction in either situation. Sunita loses career to family, but she's lonely and claustrophobic and endlessly busy. Tania skips the family bit in favor of career success, but she's just as lonely and removed from any dear friend. And Chila finds the man of her dreams, only to learn of his seemingly endless list of exes -- including Tania -- whom he cared nothing for but used anyway. There's a strong sense of disillusionment which these women experience, despite their apparent strengths of character and commitment to success. It's a somber message which seems to naturally drive these friends apart.
