Fireflies is the story of the Khojas, an affluent Hindu Indian family in Trinidad. They are an old money clan and seem to be careless and a bit spontaneous in the art of generating new money. The back of the book claims "they seem to have triumphed more by default then anything else." However "Baby" Khoja is said to be much different. I will give you the run down of the first 80 pages of this 400+ page classic.
Baby is arranged into a sad, sad, marriage to an unattractive sloth of a city bus driver, Mr. Lutchman. It seems that she was traded down to the Lutchman family because technically she was a cousin to the Khojas and not an immediate daughter to mr and mrs khoja. Her husband drinks, has sex with many a prostitute in the Port of Spain, and beats her. Eventually is drinking causes a problem at work and he runs his bus into a lamp post. Also, his father dies and so Mr. Lutchman takes his inheritance and buys a new home in the Port of Spain. Govind Khoja feels bad for Baby and her loser husband, so he hooks him up with a new job at the Ministry of Education. There he meets some ugly chic named Doreen who lures him into an extra marrital affair. Baby doesn't care much because she comes to the conclusion that because her marriage was not founded in love and her heart doesn't really belong to Mr. Lutchman anyway. She does become very lonely. That's all for now. When I get through 200 pages I will update again.
If you like reading about other cultures here are are a few good ones. Most of these books are stories of women, however Colors of the Mountain is the biography of a man.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See (China)
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy (India) - my favorite favorite
Breath, Eyes, Memory - Edwidge Danticat ( Haiti )
Colors of the Mountain - Da Chen (China)
Lucky, Alice Sebold (US)
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