Reviewed by Jeanne
Nathan Whitlock is startled to receive a call from the
hospital about his mother-in-law, Malti Patel.
Well, soon to be ex-mother-in-law. With her daughter Kavya studying in
India, Nathan is the only contact they can find and he dutifully goes to check
on Malti.
Trouble is, Malti and Nathan have never really gotten
along. From Nathan’s point of view,
Malti is stubborn, judgmental, and unreasonable. Of course, from Malti’s point of view, Nathan
is the same. Can these two possibly
stand each other for a week?
I love good characterization and this book relies on exactly
that. It’s pretty much just these two
characters trying to navigate a constrained space, butting heads, and coming to
some interesting realizations. Shroff
uses these two to provide some thoughtful commentary about gender divides,
cultural divides, and even generational divides, and does so in a delightful manner. There is so much humor in the book, which is
a great disarming technique. I found
myself agreeing with both characters, even as they gradually let down their
guards to consider another point of view, and to examine assumptions they have
made. It’s quite the feat for the author to have created two sympathetic
characters who are so at odds. The one thing they both agree on is that they
love Kavya, and that both of them have let her down. They also realize that
they are more alike than is comfortable. Malti even says at one point that she
was so determined to keep Kavya from marrying a man like her father that she
didn’t notice she married her mother.
The other thing that I love is that even as the two learn to
view each other differently, it doesn’t make everything all hunky-dory. They
still butt heads and get on each other’s nerves; they’re also just a little
more open—maybe because they are also both aware that when the divorce is
final, they won’t have any ties to each other. They can feel free to say what
they like, because soon it won’t matter.
It also gave me food for thought about my own relatives and,
well, I guess myself. Because Shroff isn’t into pointing fingers or declaring
one thing right and another wrong, it’s all but impossible to get defensive. As Nathan points out, we are more than the
sum of our mistakes. And we can’t control what other people perceive or
remember.
Funny, moving, and wise, this is a real gem. And did I mention funny?
