Mother is an incredible cheapskate. On the other hand, she expects the best. Jay brings her a pineapple as a bribe at one point, which actually works as she's delighted. The opening quote has to do with her reminiscence of Fred's enrolling her in the Fruit of the Month Club. So, what she really meant was more along the lines of “I expect a nice piece of fruit!”

When Rachel ends up with a cleaner coming more frequently and a cook she definitely doesn't want things start to fall apart, and yet mysteriously they also come together, just not in the way either Rachel or Swati expected. For Rachel cooking is important, for Swati one has servants for that. Franqui handles these conflicts deftly, keeping the mood of the book light, without undermining the seriousness of her topic. Mother Land is a delightful read, which will leave readers knowing more about themselves as well as about Franqui's characters. In this book, we follow the journey of two women starting over in their own way. Rachel, a young Jewish American, has recently moved to Mumbai, India with her new husband. And Swati, Rachel’s new Mother-in-Law, has just left her husband and moved in with her son. The two women could not be more different and clash early on as they both have their own ways of running a home. But as this beautiful dual narrative book so eloquently displays, they are experiencing the same things, just in their own ways. To those in her Cape Cod town, Mother is an exemplar of piety, frugality, and hard work. To her husband and seven children, she is a selfish, petty tyrant. She excels at playing her offspring against each other. Her favorite, Angela, died in childbirth; only Angela really understands her, she tells the others. The others include the officious lawyer, Fred; the uproarious professor, Floyd; a pair of inseparable sisters whose devotion to Mother has consumed their lives; and JP, the narrator, a successful writer whose work she disparages. As she lives well past the age of one hundred, her brood struggles with and among themselves to shed her viselike hold on them.

Wilson, Benji (7 November 2017). "Motherland reaches similar comedy heights to Fawlty Towers". The Telegraph . Retrieved 8 November 2017. Reading this poetry collection was a life-changing experience. I’ve been an avid poetry reader for about four years now, and I admit that most of my reading revolves around American poets. So, at this point, I’m very familiar with the English language. But, from the beginning, I’ve always sought more diverse poets, maybe because I latched with their poetry more than the average white poet (even though I’m white myself). What I loved the most about these poets, was the way they talked about their identity through their poems, be it their race or ethnicity, sexuality, gender, etc. To me, that was what brought those poems to light and made them so damn gorgeous. It is easy to be afraid. Everyone stays where they are because they do not know what will happen to them when they go to a new place. But they are still the same. They can do more than they think.”

I’ve been reading a lot of character driven stories this month and I am getting kind of bored of them. So unfortunately I may have read this one at the wrong time. If you have any good plot driven stories, please let me know! It feels like a love letter to a misunderstood city with its lush descriptions of food, people, and culture. She also dives into the complexities of marriage, friendship and family. What it means to be a woman and have courage to speak up and ask for what you want. To look inside yourself for your needs. Leah Franqui had me in awe for much of the book - her rendering of India, especially Mumbai, was so nuanced and perceptive. Her voice is unique: we get to see India through the eyes of Rachel, a Jewish American, married to Dhruv, and her mother-in-law, Swati. In the end the multi faceted aspects of relationships, knowing oneself, personal development, courage and regret all mingle to make a fascinating read. I enjoyed the story and the writing although the character of Rachel seemed a bit immature and whiny and not always likeable. I had fun watching Swarti takes risks to break through her cultural norms to give herself a better life. While I enjoyed having a 'tour' through Mumbai, I didn't get as deep a sense of the city as I would have liked, but I think that might be harder to do with contemporary fiction over historical fiction. Despite this, I still enjoyed 'exploring' the city with Rachel. I appreciate that the author uses her experience to write this story as that always adds another level to my enjoyment as well.This is such an underrated novel. I keep searching for that smart Indian novel - one that doesn’t endlessly talk about quaint villages, steepling poverty, and happy slums. And this is one such novel. And funnily enough, it’s not even written by an Indian.