This was a really ambitious, multi-dimensional coming-of-age story. Narrator Neal (Neeraj) Narayan is growing up in the pressure-cooker environment of a diaspora community of competitive, striving immigrant families. He knows he should have been aiming for Harvard admission, but instead finds himself mostly aiming himself at the girl next door; the magical realism element kicks in surprisingly late (that of literally distilling parental ambitions for their children), but is worked in really well. Then the narration hops forward to present day, where Neal gets to follow up with a bunch of the kids and see where they ended up; after a bit of meandering, the book abruptly veers into a fast-moving heist story. I found the second half to be weaker and less focused than the first half, but still an enjoyable read; mostly I really liked how the portrait of the contemporary immigrant’s focus on wealth via American Dream was set against the much more literal quest embodied in the historical California gold rush.