Chitra demands to go home, by Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay

 

I enjoyed this short novel about a woman who has been put into a senior care facility in the U.S. by her sons after she suffered a stroke and didn’t progress (or cooperate) with her physical therapy plan. Chitra thinks her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren should care for her as repayment for all she did for them growing up, but her self-centeredness and lack of empathy for their circumstances make them unwilling to keep her at home. She desperately wants to go home to India, but they sell the family home over her objections. Most of the book concerns her highly emotional interactions with them as well as other members and staff of the care facility. In spite of her bad behavior, another woman befriends her, but Chitra doesn’t let up on her plan to leave.  I found myself simultaneously sympathizing with Chitra, who has lost her husband and a daughter, and the rest of her family who clearly are struggling with their own challenges.