America for beginners

Leah Franqui

eBook - 2018

Recalling contemporary classics such as Americanah, Behold the Dreamers, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a funny, poignant, and insightful debut novel that explores the complexities of family, immigration, prejudice, and the American Dream through meaningful and unlikely friendships forged in unusual circumstances. Pival Sengupta has done something she never expected: she has booked a trip with the First Class India USA Destination Vacation Tour Company. But unlike other upper-class Indians on a foreign holiday, the recently widowed Pival is not interested in sightseeing. She is traveling thousands of miles from Kolkata to New York on a cross-country journey to California, where she hopes to uncover the truth about her beloved son..., Rahi. A year ago Rahi devastated his very traditional parents when he told them he was gay. Then, Pival's husband, Ram, told her that their son had died suddenly-heartbreaking news she still refuses to accept. Now, with Ram gone, she is going to America to find Rahi, alive and whole or dead and gone, and come to terms with her own life. Arriving in New York, the tour proves to be more complicated than anticipated. Planned by the company's indefatigable owner, Ronnie Munshi-a hard-working immigrant and entrepreneur hungry for his own taste of the American dream-it is a work of haphazard improvisation. Pival's guide is the company's new hire, the guileless and wonderfully resourceful Satya, who has been in America for one year-and has never actually left the five boroughs. For modesty's sake Pival and Satya will be accompanied by Rebecca Elliot, an aspiring young actress. Eager for a paying gig, she's along for the ride, because how hard can a two-week "working" vacation traveling across America be? Slowly making her way from coast to coast with her unlikely companions, Pival finds that her understanding of her son-and her hopes of a reunion with him-are challenged by her growing knowledge of his adoptive country. As the bonds between this odd trio deepens, Pival, Satya, and Rebecca learn to see America-and themselves-in different and profound new ways. A bittersweet and bighearted tale of forgiveness, hope, and acceptance, America for Beginners illuminates the unexpected enchantments life can hold, and reminds us that our most precious connections aren't always the ones we seek.

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Subjects
Published
[United States] : Harper Collins Publishers 2018.
Language
English
Corporate Author
hoopla digital
Main Author
Leah Franqui (author)
Corporate Author
hoopla digital (-)
Online Access
Instantly available on hoopla.
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Physical Description
1 online resource
Format
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
ISBN
9780062668776
Access
AVAILABLE FOR USE ONLY BY IOWA CITY AND RESIDENTS OF THE CONTRACTING GOVERNMENTS OF JOHNSON COUNTY, UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, HILLS, AND LONE TREE (IA).
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Review by Booklist Review

Pival Sengupta has a secret reason for booking a trip to America. The Indian widow has arranged for a tour starting in New York and seeing the country's sights while working her way to her ultimate destination, Los Angeles, where she intends to confront the man she believes stole her son from her. Her guide, a young man from Bangladesh, and the struggling American actress who will chaperone the pair have no idea of Pival's intentions. But as they travel together and almost unwittingly come to learn more about each other, this unlikely trio begins to form bonds that transcend their different backgrounds. Franqui deftly juggles her characters' competing perspectives, mining small moments in the narrative for larger insights into cultural and personal differences. As they travel west, each character is making an internal journey as well, which is a delight to watch unfold. This is a humorous and heartfelt excursion into the promise that America represents, to both natives and immigrants, and an emotional examination of what that promise means in practice.--Thoreson, Bridget Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Franqui's debut is a satisfying, heartfelt novel about three strangers whose lives are altered on a trip across the U.S. Widow Pival Sengupta is a quietly determined Bengali woman intent on leaving Kolkata for the first time to discover what really happened to her son, Rahi, in the U.S. After Rahi came out to his parents as gay nearly a year ago, Pival's late husband told her Rahi died suddenly, but she refuses to believe it. Satya Roy is a young, inexperienced travel guide chosen by his boss to lead Pival on the First Class India USA Destination Vacation Tour under the guise of being Bengali, although he's Bangladeshi. Rebecca Elliot is a young, struggling actress with poor impulse control who is also along on the tour. Satya pretends to be knowledgeable in Americana as the trio travel from New York across the country, and Satya and Rebecca are under the mistaken impression that Pival is fascinated by the tour stops, but she's actually biding her time until they reach Los Angeles. Interspersed through the travels are chapters about Rahi and his relationship with his partner, Jacob. In this story of mistaken impressions, Franqui adroitly balances all the characters, making them distinct and refreshing. Readers will be taken by this emotionally rewarding novel. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.


Review by Library Journal Review

DEBUT When their only child, Rahi, living and working in California, came out to his parents, Pival Sengupta's husband, Ram, forbade any mention of him and furiously blamed Pival for their son's orientation. After a years-long estrangement, Ram takes a call from America and tells Pival that their son is dead. She doesn't believe him, and now that Ram himself is dead, she leaves Kolkata, India, to discover the truth about Rahi. After booking a tour with an American travel company that caters to upper-class Indians, she quickly puts tour guide Satya in his place when he tries to pass himself off as Bengali (he's from Bangladesh) and accepts Rebecca, an unemployed actress, as her companion for propriety's sake. Off this ill-matched trio head on a cross-country road trip to California, each wrestling with inner demons they hope to quell as they explore the wonders of America and surprise one another with self-revelations and tentative friendship. VERDICT Debut author Franqui, an award-winning playwright living in Mumbai, writes a tender, funny, wrenching, beautifully executed tale of three lost souls who traverse the chasms of cultural, generational, and geographical divides to forge some bonds strong and true enough to withstand life's gut punches. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/18.]-Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A Bengali widow embarks on a road trip of the U.S. with a Bangladeshi guide and a young American woman.When Pival Sengupta's husband dies, leaving her alone in their Kolkata house, what she mainly feels is relief. Ram had been a difficult, angry man who blamed his wife for all his woes. The most difficult of these had to do with their son, who moved to Los Angeles to study marine biology and, before long, called home to come out to his parents. He's then effectively cut out of their lives. When Ram dies, Pival, who has never left Kolkata, decides to invest in a two-week tour of the United States, ending in LA. She'll get to know the country her son loved before reconnecting with himif he's still alive; he might not be. To help with her trip, Pival enlists the First Class India USA Destination Vacation Tour Company, which sets her up with Satya, a nave young Bangladeshi guide who's always hungry, and, for modesty's sake, a female companion named Rebecca. The three then set out on a road trip, chock full of all the tacky tourist traps, cultural clashes, and sappy heart-to-hearts you can imagine. This is Franqui's first novel, and it's tolerable, if not utterly original. She engages in quite a few road trip-novel clichs as well as greenhorn-in-America stereotypes. Worse, she has a habit of overexplaining her characters' inner lives. She writes, for example, that "Ram's authority destroyed Pival's own sense of herself and replaced it with a version that Ram created." This had already been clear; it doesn't need to be spelled out. Still, the book is occasionally charming and occasionally engaging; despite everything, you'll want to find out what happens in the end.Clichs and overexplaining get in the way of the humor and genuine sentiment that this novel strains toward. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.