Motherland
by
Vineeta Vijayaraghavan
A coming of age/ cultural identity novel set in India. The main character, Maya, was born and spent her first four years in India, then went to NYC to live with her parents. Now fifteen, she's being sent to India for the summer.
Maya has to deal with cultural differences, but since she is Indian the culture shock is lessened. Still, she isn't used to living with the daily realities of caste, rigid social rules of interaction with servants and with men, and arranged marriages. During her summer, she learns about her mother, with whom she has never been close, from her grandmother. She also learns a secret which helps her to understand her own history and her mother, and her relationships with her mother and grandmother.
Things to deal with:
Hinduism/horoscopes, cremation, terrorism, race/caste differences, arranged marriages, immigration/ sense of displacement, guilt, relationships, healing.
Disapproving reference to premarital misbehavior and birth control.
Maya's grandmother tells her that some social rules ought to be broken, but that she ought to consider carefully which ones are important enough to break, since breaking them will offend those she loves, like her very traditional aunt and uncle.
Be aware- Two uses of the Lord's name in vain by a character portrayed as flippant.
Recomend?
Recomend?
Well, it was more worthwhile than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. But not as satisfying as the third book in the Mitford series, which I just read.
I enjoyed learning more about India, though, and thought that the book was well written. I'd recommend it, but it isn't a 'you-must-read!' book.
No comments:
Post a Comment