Gita Audhya’s literary novel, ALL THOSE TEARS WE CAN’T SEE, is a smorgasbord of painful delight as the traditions of one Indian family clash with the desires of a first generation American daughter while they reside in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Traveling between past and present, things haven’t always been easy for Shimonti (later known as Samantha). Just about everything is different in America from the food to the morals. But Samantha eventually manages to achieve the American Dream. She marries Amit, a wonderful doctor who feels one can live in harmony in this country as both an Indian and an American. This is not, however, what Shimonti believes. In her mind, if one accepts this country’s principles and customs, that is the same as denying the traditions and values of their homeland — a conflict which becomes only too apparent as Samantha and Amit embark upon the adventure of having a child of their own. As cherished young Monica grows up, she has plenty of things on her mind — and in her own independent heart — which have little to do with attempting to remain steeped in her mother’s ideas about correct social mores. Monica is certainly not interested in the husband-finding parties her family begins to host regularly, trying to hook her up with a Hindu Bengali guy. According to Samantha, no other suitor will do, though Moni herself seems overly disinterested in participating in this matchmaking scheme. A very strong connection with a certain white, American Christian named Brandon — who totally loves her back — may have something to do with that. Monica isn’t willing to cooperate on the career front either. While Amit would love Moni to sit for the medical entrance exams so she can follow in his footsteps and partner at the clinic with him, instead she becomes, of all things, a journalist.
This story is ripe with authentic conversations that reflect palpable heat, especially within the mother-daughter bond. The characters, who deeply care for one another, desperately alternate between trying to understand each other and pushing their own beliefs regarding what is unquestionably, unassailably right. Though it is obvious in places that English is not the writer’s native language, it doesn’t distract from the story as a whole. Overall readers are likely to come to care about the characters that are portrayed as conflicted, headstrong, yet ultimately beautiful regardless of the sometimes questionable decisions they make.
The novel ALL THOSE TEARS WE CAN’T SEE by Gita Audhya takes a brave look at a range of true-to-life multi-cultural injuries from the physical to the psychic to the little deaths sometimes initiated against those we say we love the most.
~C.S. Holmes for IndieReader