Lively and evocative, Mother Land is a deftly crafted exploration of identity and culture, with memorable and deeply human characters who highlight how that which makes us different can ultimately unite us.” —Amy Myerson, author of The Bookshop of Yesterdays and The Imperfects 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. Neither character is "the good guy." Both have difficulty listening to views other than her own, and both are apt to see the other's actions as directed at her. Rachel's fantasy of easing into an exciting new life is challenged. She finds herself looking for other ex-pats, but then becomes uncomfortable with what she finds, realizing many of the biases she sees in them are her own as well. Meanwhile, Swati is obsessed with teaching Racel the "right" way to live in India, despite the fact that the culture she's forcing on Rachel is the very culture she was fleeing when she left her husband.

Throughout the book, Rachel (protagonist) was portrayed as “an independent and loving spirit with a curious mind.” White, Peter (9 June 2023). "ABC Pilot Watch: Comedies Public Defenders& Motherland Remake Keeping It Together& Dramas The Hurt Unit& Judgement Not Moving Forward". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 10 June 2023. At times, I squirmed vocally while reading. You may never have read such a cruel, demanding, willful, spiteful, petty, savage mother in literature. Short of murder, this may be the worst behaving mother I’ve seen in literary history. Yet she somehow delivers her spite with a façade that appears kind and fair to those outside the family. The kids, now middle-aged, are a furious, depressing lot, some more than others. The story is narrated by one of the writer sons, Jay. In the end the multi faceted aspects of relationships, knowing oneself, personal development, courage and regret all mingle to make a fascinating read.

Mother/land

Franqui doesn’t demonize either Indian customs or American ones. Yes, Swati inserts herself into Rachel’s life in Mumbai, but she’s accepting when Rachel drinks alcohol, smokes cigarettes, and associates with male friends. When Rachel calls Swati by her first name and not an honorific for mother-in-law, Swati holds her tongue: when Swati was a young bride, she could never have gotten away with any of these things, nor would she ever even have thought of doing them in the first place. This realization is what convinces Swati to divorce her husband, Vinod, after forty years. The problem with moving was that it made you alien. Everyone was a stranger, and you were the invader, the outsider, the one desperate to achieve closeness with others.” Cultural cannibals, she liked to call them, people so in love with another culture that they wanted to become a part of it. Expats in Paris who said things like My soul is French and really believed them, deeply. When it came to India, that desire for ingestion took the form of a devotion to faux-Hindu wisdom, declamations in praise of the “spiritualism” and “simplicity” of the people, and the burning of a great deal of incense. I have read many books that take place in different parts of India and somewhat expected to read the traditional new wife under the mother in law’s rules story but this one fell outside of that trope. Told in dual POVs of both Rachel and her mother in law, Swati, we are present when Swati shows up one day to live with Rachel and her husband Dhruv. Initially the pair of women are predictable in their actions and thoughts but it is not long before we see them each being affected by the other.

One of the best books I've read al year, this short collection was powerful and heartfelt and moving and beautiful. It helped me understand immigration and motherhood and even the USA a little better. 'When they come for us on the 7 train' was heartbreaking but I think my favorite was PB&J: While Rachel would define herself as a modern, western, woman with the ability to stand up for herself, she comes to find that she can learn from Swati. And Swati makes changes in her own life based in part on how she views her daughter in law and son’s relationship. One can read Mother Land, then, in a state of appalled fascination, the transgression of full-on family hatred licensed, but also safely displaced on to another family. The portraits of Mother’s children, themselves ageing and succumbing to illness as she lives on past a century in fine fettle, are especially well done, and the novel’s climax, with its hints of an inversion of Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust, are sharp and subtle. But since these four years began, this is the first time I read a Brazilian poet writing in English and by extension also in Brazilian Portuguese - something I feel deserved more attention, because I first though the author was Portuguese and not Brazilian. There’s a different, even so slightly, between these two languages and that should be pointed out -, and doing so beautifully. Another thing I love about writers who have English as their secondary language (instead of their primary), it’s how they bleed - or switch, per se - into their mother-tongue while writing, while expressing themselves. I believe my first encounter with such a method was while reading Ocean Vuong’s poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds, where he makes some remarks in Vietnamese instead of English. And I LOVED that. As someone whose mother-tongue isn’t English, I feel a different sort of connection while reading someone express themselves in something other than English. I understood that so deeply. So that might be one of the reasons why I loved this poetry collection so much.

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A timid Irish mum with several children who seems to be perpetually pregnant. She is one of Amanda's friends, although Amanda treats her poorly, leading her to grow closer to Julia, Liz, and Kevin as the series progresses. She is extremely over-protective of her children. The school receptionist, moody and blunt towards many of the parents, but especially towards Julia. Julia hires Lyndsey ( Sarah Kendall), a well-organised Australian nanny, apparently solving her child care problems. Unfortunately, Lyndsey has an abrasive and domineering personality, leading Julia to fire her, making the excuse that she was moving to the United States. Meanwhile, Amanda is keeping a low profile following Kevin's revelation. A strange book, it made me feel slightly uneasy - like listening in to a conversation I shouldn’t have been privy to.