Though less expansive than her last novel, Umrigar’s intimate portrayal of a mother and son divided by culture is a...
Umrigar’s latest (The Space Between Us, 2006, etc.) offers a tender portrait of a Bombay widow and her Americanized son, and the culture clash that ensues.
Tehmina Sethna has been emotionally adrift since her beloved, charismatic husband Rustom died. She was hoping to find some solace with her only child Sorab in Cleveland, but the long bleak winter and Sorab’s disapproving wife Susan has made the stay awkward at best. Sorab and Susan have invited Tehmina to leave Bombay for good, move in with them and start life anew, but there seems little on offer in America but bland opulence. Though her family is in America (including seven-year-old grandson Cavas) and Tehmina has a good friend in the spirited Eva Metzembaum, the lure of India and the memories she shared there with Rustom may prove more powerful than the ties of family. Umrigar shifts nicely between Tehmina and her son Sorab, who’s having problems of his own: In India there would be little question about Tehmina moving in with the family, but can the same deference be expected of an American wife? Acutely aware of Susan’s subtle complaints about Tehmina (she doesn’t rinse out the tub after each use, she’s too emotional about her dead husband), Sorab finds he’s becoming slightly afraid of his wife’s thin-lipped grimace. Furthermore, while his wife is suggesting they buy a larger house if Tehmina decides to stay, Sorab’s awful new boss is hinting his position is in jeopardy. Though Sorab and his Indian friends make for a vivid picture of assimilated life in the American Midwest, the story belongs to Tehmina, who must very soon make a decision about returning to Bombay (and all the vibrancy it represents) or staying with her remaining family. Though the ghost of Rustom is advising her, it is Sorab’s next-door neighbor who inadvertently helps Tehmina with her decision—a mother who is abusing her two young sons spurs Tehmina into action, helping her become the robust, independent woman she was before her husband’s death.
Though less expansive than her last novel, Umrigar’s intimate portrayal of a mother and son divided by culture is a convincing testament to the enduring power of place.Pub Date: June 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-124023-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2007
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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