Mehra's nuanced and thought-provoking work resonates on multiple levels—from the immigrant experience and race relations to accepting one's sexuality, adoption, parenthood, and more. Excellent for readers interested in family and issues of identity in America.
Many of the essays cover the same biographical content (the death of her father, her early relationship with her wife, the adoption of her son), but they mine deep and distinct emotional terrain. Mehra delves unflinchingly into each of her identities and their sharp intersections ... Mehra’s prose is clear and heartfelt whether she’s writing as daughter, queer, wife, mother or teacher ... Readers may finish these pages a bit freer themselves.
It’s rare to come across an essay collection that is unequivocal in addressing the systemic norms that impact identity while also being compelling and incisive about the relationships that form us ... Mehra’s memoir achieves this by recounting her experience as a queer woman, and as a child of Indian immigrants in a segregated Southern town, and in addressing her own internalized biases while being transparent about the challenges of raising a Black child in America ... Through frank, clear prose Mehra explores what it means to be a part of a family that the world does not often recognize.
Thoughtful ... Mehra brings [her] now-5-year-old child, Shiv, to vivid life in affectionately rendered details ... looks at experience in a measured, nuanced way, empathizing with both marginalized people and the dismayed parents of gay kids who have just come out, and notably with her father, who wanted her to have long hair and marry a man. This insightful, searching book will appeal to anyone contemplating race, family, or growing into oneself.
The essays feature a mostly smooth, engaging mix of pride, passion, frustration, and anger. Numerous times Mehra has been unnecessarily questioned about her life. With this book, she makes a strong statement about the importance of moving beyond gender and racial barriers toward a more inclusive view of family life ... Full of a wide range of insights and emotions, these essays effectively show the difficulties of being a mixed-race, same-sex family in America.
