The Unknown Errors of Our Lives, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Anchor, 2001

In this short story collection, Divakaruni explores the lives of Indians facing the differences of the American way of life versus the Indian way. A mother living in America with her son’s family finds herself with no real place there while her friend in India thinks she must be living a wonderful life of leisure in America. A young Indian-American mother fights with her feelings about the father who abandoned her to go to America, who now wants to meet his only grandson. A young woman strikes out on her own, only to find herself in the middle of a soap opera situation- living with her boss’s ‘second wife’ and having two people fall in love with her. The expectations of the elders is that woman will be subordinate and do all the child care and housework; the younger generation- especially those born in America- think that is nonsense. The older generation embarrasses the younger with their old country ways. Traditional Indian ways hit up against the tide of change. These are lovely little stories of the juggling acts that immigrant families sometimes have to face.

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