Micah Phua is a writer and editor, passionate about stories that inform as much as they entertain.
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Book Review - The Abundance
Parenthood and Profession is Reconciled by Food in The Abundance
Amit Majmudar’s latest novel, The Abundance, paints a picture of motherhood that speaks to the vast array of cultural divides in immigrant families. While the detailed exposition—alongside his emphasis on the culinary motif of Indian food—Majmudar employs to shed light on these divides between the narrator’s family proves to be heavy-handed at times, they, more often than not, enable the reader to witness, with startling clarity, the manner in which immigrant families fragment, and come together, in their home away from home.
The unnamed narrator is diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the novel, and her husband, Abhi, and two children, Mala and Ronak—along with their families—are forced to navigate the emotional labyrinth that sickness entails. The narrator’s family suffers as many immigrant families do, with the values of tradition, upheld by the parents, constantly battling with the children’s desire for change and progress. This battle is made only more toxic with the introduction of the narrator’s illness, and throughout the novel she is forced to evaluate, and re- evaluate, what she believes to be important to the well-being of her family.
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Amit Majmudar’s latest novel, The Abundance, paints a picture of motherhood that speaks to the vast array of cultural divides in immigrant families. While the detailed exposition—alongside his emphasis on the culinary motif of Indian food—Majmudar employs to shed light on these divides between the narrator’s family proves to be heavy-handed at times, they, more often than not, enable the reader to witness, with startling clarity, the manner in which immigrant families fragment, and come together, in their home away from home.
The unnamed narrator is diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the novel, and her husband, Abhi, and two children, Mala and Ronak—along with their families—are forced to navigate the emotional labyrinth that sickness entails. The narrator’s family suffers as many immigrant families do, with the values of tradition, upheld by the parents, constantly battling with the children’s desire for change and progress. This battle is made only more toxic with the introduction of the narrator’s illness, and throughout the novel she is forced to evaluate, and re- evaluate, what she believes to be important to the well-being of her family.
...
(Read more)