Mother Land: A Novel

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I loved it when Rachel begins to view India through the prism of her acquaintance Richard whose embraced India. The book is her powerful, witty response to the absence of an inclusive, accessible blueprint for navigating life as a multi-faceted mother. Brenner was writing a top-secret manuscript about robots who fell in love with trees, or about trees that could speak, Flora couldn’t remember. She examines recurring characters and places from as many angled refractions as possible until one of the richest, fullest New England spiritual topographies ever written emerges. The collection is heavily focused on the latter, including formal experimentation with hybridity and polyvocality, combining English and Portuguese, interrogating translation and transforming traditional repeating poetic forms.

This is a joint issue with Rachel and Dhruv - she puts herself in the position by seeking decisiveness externally, but he creates a whole problem on his own by trying to have one foot in both worlds but his mind in only one of them. Then there’s Richard, who goes by Rishi, an erstwhile LA surfer who epitomizes the caricature of foreigners who fetishize India. BookPage is a recommendation guide for readers, highlighting the best new books across all genres as chosen by our editors. I want to thank William Morrow for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion.While we can only send physical copies to addresses within the US, reviewers and educators outside the US are welcome to request an e-galley (PDF). She is a Puerto Rican Jewish American who lives in Mumbai with her Kolkata-born husband, and her perspective informs her latest novel. It was particularly nice for a mumbaikar to read most of all - I really appreciated the distinct perspectives on mumbai, its people, its pleasures, its contradictions, its landscapes, its pace and ruthlessness- from a foreign, yet non exoticed, lived pov. So when Eleanor is invited to spend a summer teaching in East Germany, she and Jess leap at the chance to see what the future looks like.

Flora thought if Eric would apply himself to useful things as much as he did to his lust and longing, the farm would be a showplace. The eight chapters range widely across time (1830-1939) and place, from exploring working class women's community sanctions and the perils facing collier's wife to the very different lifestyles of ironmasters' wives. I enjoyed the examination of biases on Indian culture and the descriptions of the country from a Western perspective and how they differ from that of a person born and raised in India. At least Rachel had been in charge of her life within the walls of her comfortable apartment, but that disappears when Swati takes Rachel and Dhruv’s bedroom and hires a cook behind Rachel’s back.The narration moves between Rachel and Swati's perspectives, giving readers a chance to grasp the cultural expectations of each and to sympathize with both of them.

A description of a family “enmeshed in perpetual contention”, the plot is slight but sufficient for Theroux’s purposes. A] tender tale of two women who are lost and alone, but who eventually become allies and each other’s biggest champions. Which is exactly the point: Theroux’s great hurts and rages may be difficult to behold but they are nothing if not readable.

Floyd, by the way, is no slouch himself, writing an eight-page hatchet job of his brother’s work, just as Theroux’s brother Alexander did. When she tells Jay that she can’t read his latest book because it isn’t in large print like all the bestsellers, it is a paper-cut of derision. I thought the alternating chapters between Rachel and her mother in law worked really well and helped me keep turning the pages. Heartfelt, charming, deeply insightful and wise, Mother Land introduces us to two ver