The Bones of Grace

The Bones of Grace is the third book in the Bengal Trilogy.  I had not previously heard of the trilogy when I saw this book at my public library so I have not read the first two books.  Because I had some difficulty with how the story was told I will not be reading them.

The inside front cover blurb summarizes the book as follows:  "On the eve of her departure to find the bones of the walking whale-the fossil that provides the missing link in our evolution-Zubaida Haque falls in love with Elijah Strong, a man she meets in a darkened concert hall in Boston.  Their connection is immediate and intense despite their differences: Elijah belongs to a prototypical American family; Zubaida is the adopted daughter of a wealthy Bangladeshi family in Dhaka. When a twist of fate sends her back to her hometown, the inevitable force of society compels her to take a different path: she marries her childhood best friend and settles into a traditional Bangladeshi life..."

I did not continue with the blurb summary because I did not read any further than the above part of the story. It is told from Zubaida's perspective but is only told through her thoughts and her thoughts are not written in a straight storyline.  The storyline jumps back and forth without chapter breaks.  I do not even remember if the storyline changes by paragraph. All I know is that I could not follow the plot with Zubaida's random thought process.

While I have a rule to stop reading a book if I cannot get interested by the 50th page, I read to page 175 (out of 407 pages) because the plot seemed so interesting and I thought that the book would get better.  It didn't.  It is unfortunate as I had high hopes for the book because it is about Bangladeshi culture.