Manjula Padmanabhan, Getting There (2000)

For some time now, I have been working my way through the work of the Indian writer Manjula Padmanabhan. I came to her via science fiction, but Padmanabhan is a master of many genres: literary fictions, comics, and in this case, memoir.

Getting There by Manjula Padmanabhan

Originally published: 2000
Acquired: January 2011
Read: March 2026

Getting There is about her time in Bombay, the United States, and Holland in 1977 as a young woman, as she tries to figure out how to navigate the expectations her family has for her and the ones she has for herself. My Picador UK edition came out in 2002, and I feel like it's trying to position the book in "chicklit" genre of the era: Bridget Jones and Shopaholic and such. There are some resonances (well, so I'd guess I can't actually claim to have read any of those books... or even seen the films!), but overall I don't think it quite fits. It's a period piece, I don't really think it's about someone seeking romance despite having a sexual subplot, it's not overall a comedic book. I can see why the publishers tried to ride that trend, but I'm not convinced someone who enjoyed Bridget Jones would pick up Getting There and feel satisfied!

The first third of the book, set in India, was my favorite. Here, Manjula is a young woman trying to make it as an artist, while she struggles with weight loss. While I wouldn't say the book as a whole is comedic, the weight loss clinic subplot is quite hilarious. But I also enjoyed her interactions with her strange housemates and her tyrannical brother.

After this she goes to the U.S. This definitely has its moments; I of course particularly enjoyed her introduction to Star Trek... though I also of course feel compelled to point out that the mention of the Cardassians is anachronistic! 

I found the last section, set in Holland, the least interesting. Manjula has travelled there to be with a man she met in India, one she was cheating on her boyfriend with. In the end, I don't know that I ever totally grasped what point the story was trying to make here. Obviously Manjula is trying to fill some kind of a void in her life, but I found the character dynamics here were, in the end, not very interesting to me.

Still, it's a fun book. I understand that for the 2020 Hachette edition, Padmanabhan reinstated material cut from the original draft (I think material cut because of the publisher trying to make the book more chicklit) and also rewrote the ending. Unfortunately, I bought my copy in 2011, before this happened or was even an inkling, and I wasn't about to rebuy it before I'd even read it. Maybe someday... but I have a bunch of other Padmanabhan to read for the first time first!