We chat with author Uzma Jalaluddin about Dina Gets Lucky, which sees two former friends rediscover their own love story and the lies that tore them apart in a chaotic and swoony second-chance romance.
What inspired you to write DINA GETS LUCKY?
I initially wrote this story as a screenplay, as a sort of creative exercise. It was so much fun, and I absolutely fell in love with Dina and Lucky. I knew from my work as a novelist that I could further explore their story by turning it into a book. It was a delight to revisit their love story!
You have a gift for taking tried and true genres and giving them your unique spin. What are some of your favorite tropes, and which tropes did you take on in DINA GETS LUCKY?
Every romance writer enjoys a good trope; they are the mainstays of the industry. In DINA GETS LUCKY, I made good use of one of my favs, the second-chance romance. Dina and Lucky were in love with each other in law school, but for various reasons, it didn’t work out. It was so fun to explore how they found their way back to each other over the course of the story. A few smaller tropes in the book are ‘he falls first’ and ‘wedding shenanigans.’
I love how you seamlessly interweave South Asian traditions and beliefs into the plot of DINA GETS LUCKY, especially the marriage preparations. Can you tell us what is typical for a traditional Muslim South Asian wedding? There are quite a lot of festivities involved!
South Asian weddings are as diverse as the sub-continent, and differ by region, faith, and preference. My family are originally from India, a vast and diverse country, though we have one thing in common – we all love a good party. In my experience, many South Asian/desi weddings are multi-day affairs. Three pillars of the South Asian Muslim wedding however are the mehndi, nikah and walima. The mehndi is a party held before the wedding ceremony. It was traditionally a time for the women in the family to gather, put henna on their hands and feet, sing folk songs, and dance. The event has evolved into a more elaborate party which includes both the bride and groom’s side, with no henna applied, but plenty of singing and dancing. Sometimes the dances are highly choreographed performances put on by both the bridal and groom’s party. The nikah is the traditional Muslim wedding ceremony, a relatively brief process officiated by an Imam or a trusted family or friend. This is followed by the walima, which is a large wedding reception. Some South Asian families have a rukhsati, when the bride officially leaves her family home with her new husband, as well as other smaller parties like a mayoon, and dholkis which occur before the wedding, and usually involve wedding prep, eating, dancing, and singing. It’s a lot, and plenty of fun.
You have a gift for writing laugh-out-loud moments, Uzma, and some of the funniest moments center around Dina’s baby sister and bride-to-be, Hania. Some of the scenes with Hania and her social media entourage are hilarious. Did you research Instagram and Tik Tok beauty influencers? Your descriptions are spot on!
Thank you! Like most people, I consume a fair bit of Instagram reels and videos. I think like a comedy writer, and have a tendency to find the ridiculous in every day moments. Most of my comedy comes out of my own reimagining of regular scenarios, taken to a silly and hilarious extreme. I’m glad Hania and her entourage were relatable and funny.
You don’t shy away from difficult subjects in this book. Lucky makes great sacrifices for his family, and people are judgmental of the profession he chose in order to rescue his family from homelessness. Why is this an important story for you to tell now?
Many of my stories are as much commentaries on social class, financial hardships, family challenges, discrimination and cultural expectations as they are about love and relationships. I want my characters to be nuanced, with complete lives that include family, friends, co-workers, and the realities of living in a complicated world. I hope readers will always enjoy my character portrayals of people who find love despite the challenges they face.
Your supporting characters are just as fully realized as your main protagonists. Are your rich cast of characters inspired by people you know?
I love writing side characters, and they have a tendency to sometimes overtake the main narrative with their quirks and hilarious one-liners. They aren’t inspired by anyone I know, but rather the funny things and situations I think about as I go about my day.
What were some things that surprised you while writing this book in terms of new plot twists or how the story developed while writing?
One of the things that surprised me was how different a screenplay is from a novel. I’ve had a few of my books optioned for film and tv, and the screenwriters hired have done a wonderful job, but they also changed a lot of details from my books in the process, which is normal of course. So, when I had the opportunity to turn my screenplay of DINA GETS LUCKY into a novel, I had the opposite experience – I had to add back the details that are sometimes stripped away in a screenplay. It’s really a question of math: A novel tends to have more interiority and exposition than a movie or show as a result of the word-real-estate. Full length adult novels are anywhere from 65,000 to 100,00 words or more, while feature length screenplays are usually in the 15,000 word range. One form is not better than the other, it’s just different. I enjoyed writing both versions of this story.
What are some of the key takeaways you hope readers will reap from this novel?
I always hope I leave my readers entertained. I have a soft spot for Dina, and the transformative journey she goes on over the course of the story. I also hope readers laugh at the funny beats, and perhaps even relate to the challenges both Dina and Lucky experience. Since the novel takes place over the course of an over-the-top and chaotic South Asian wedding, I hope they enjoy learning about the culture, or perhaps feel nostalgia about wedding festivities they have participated in themselves!
