In Mrs. Sen's, Eliot, an 11-year old boy is looked after by the wife of a university professor when he gets home from school. He must go to her house however, because she can't drive.
He learns to leave his shoes at the door and watches her cut up vegetables every day as she prepares for dinner. Mrs. Sen wears a sari and bemoans the lack of fresh fish in the nearby markets.
One day, desperate to buy fish from a fish monger that has promised her fresh fish, she tries to drive the car with Eliot and gets in an accident. Neither she nor Eliot is seriously hurt, but it leads to significant changes for them both.
The Third and Final Continent is about a young man at MIT who had just come to America after an arranged marriage in India. His wife would be meeting him in a few months. His first few weeks were spent at a YMCA and then he found a room he could rent for 8 dollars a week. He spent the next 6 weeks there until his new bride Mala showed up.
He found an apartment they could both live in and brought his new bride home to the apartment and they then tried to learn to love and live with each other. Things were awkward at first, but they slowly got used to the other one and they learned to build a life that encompasses each other.
This book is full of detail that is both rich and subtle at the same time. The detail becomes the backdrop of the story and brings you in making you want to read more about each of these people's lives.
Rating: 10 / 10
ISBN: 9780395927205
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Edition: Paperback