When Vikram invites three of his col­lege friends to his son’s grad­u­a­tion from MIT, they accept out of oblig­a­tion and curios­i­ty, view­ing the par­ty as a twen­ty-fifth reunion of sorts. Vil­lage genius Vikram, now the founder of a lucra­tive com­put­er com­pa­ny, is hav­ing the par­ty against his son’s wish­es. Frances and Jay regret accept­ing: Frances, a real estate agent, has­n’t sold a house in a year; Jay’s mid­dle man­age­ment job isn’t brag wor­thy; and their daugh­ter is fail­ing the eleventh grade. Lali plans to hide the fact that her once-hap­py mar­riage is crum­bling because her Amer­i­can hus­band is dis­cov­er­ing his Jew­ish roots. Each had left UCLA expect­ing to be suc­cess­ful and have even more suc­cess­ful chil­dren. At Vikram’s New­port Beach man­sion, some con­front their prob­lems, while oth­ers find a solu­tion. Jay and Frances dis­cov­er even greater issues than poor finances and an aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly chal­lenged daugh­ter; Lali learns she might have a Jew­ish ances­tor, while Vikram reluc­tant­ly real­izes he should not force his dreams on his son. The fol­low-up to A Good Indi­an Wife, Anne Cherian’s nov­el res­onates with the poignan­cy of real life col­lid­ing with expec­ta­tions unmet.

Read Anne Cheri­an’s Posts for the Vis­it­ing Scribe

Wan­der­ing Moth­er, Won­der­ing Daugh­ter