America for Beginners

May 15, 2018
A Bengali widow embarks on a road trip of the U.S. with a Bangladeshi guide and a young American woman.When Pival Sengupta's husband dies, leaving her alone in their Kolkata house, what she mainly feels is relief. Ram had been a difficult, angry man who blamed his wife for all his woes. The most difficult of these had to do with their son, who moved to Los Angeles to study marine biology and, before long, called home to come out to his parents. He's then effectively cut out of their lives. When Ram dies, Pival, who has never left Kolkata, decides to invest in a two-week tour of the United States, ending in LA. She'll get to know the country her son loved before reconnecting with him--if he's still alive; he might not be. To help with her trip, Pival enlists the First Class India USA Destination Vacation Tour Company, which sets her up with Satya, a naïve young Bangladeshi guide who's always hungry, and, for modesty's sake, a female companion named Rebecca. The three then set out on a road trip, chock full of all the tacky tourist traps, cultural clashes, and sappy heart-to-hearts you can imagine. This is Franqui's first novel, and it's tolerable, if not utterly original. She engages in quite a few road trip-novel clichés as well as greenhorn-in-America stereotypes. Worse, she has a habit of overexplaining her characters' inner lives. She writes, for example, that "Ram's authority destroyed Pival's own sense of herself and replaced it with a version that Ram created." This had already been clear; it doesn't need to be spelled out. Still, the book is occasionally charming and occasionally engaging; despite everything, you'll want to find out what happens in the end.Clichés and overexplaining get in the way of the humor and genuine sentiment that this novel strains toward.

July 16, 2018
Franqui’s debut is a satisfying, heartfelt novel about three strangers whose lives are altered on a trip across the U.S. Widow Pival Sengupta is a quietly determined Bengali woman intent on leaving Kolkata for the first time to discover what really happened to her son, Rahi, in the U.S. After Rahi came out to his parents as gay nearly a year ago, Pival’s late husband told her Rahi died suddenly, but she refuses to believe it. Satya Roy is a young, inexperienced travel guide chosen by his boss to lead Pival on the First Class India USA Destination Vacation Tour under the guise of being Bengali, although he’s Bangladeshi. Rebecca Elliot is a young, struggling actress with poor impulse control who is also along on the tour. Satya pretends to be knowledgeable in Americana as the trio travel from New York across the country, and Satya and Rebecca are under the mistaken impression that Pival is fascinated by the tour stops, but she’s actually biding her time until they reach Los Angeles. Interspersed through the travels are chapters about Rahi and his relationship with his partner, Jacob. In this story of mistaken impressions, Franqui adroitly balances all the characters, making them distinct and refreshing. Readers will be taken by this emotionally rewarding novel.

June 1, 2018
Pival Sengupta has a secret reason for booking a trip to America. The Indian widow has arranged for a tour starting in New York and seeing the country's sights while working her way to her ultimate destination, Los Angeles, where she intends to confront the man she believes stole her son from her. Her guide, a young man from Bangladesh, and the struggling American actress who will chaperone the pair have no idea of Pival's intentions. But as they travel together and almost unwittingly come to learn more about each other, this unlikely trio begins to form bonds that transcend their different backgrounds. Franqui deftly juggles her characters' competing perspectives, mining small moments in the narrative for larger insights into cultural and personal differences. As they travel west, each character is making an internal journey as well, which is a delight to watch unfold. This is a humorous and heartfelt excursion into the promise that America represents, to both natives and immigrants, and an emotional examination of what that promise means in practice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from May 15, 2018

When their only child, Rahi, living and working in California, came out to his parents, Pival Sengupta's husband, Ram, forbade any mention of him and furiously blamed Pival for their son's orientation. After a years-long estrangement, Ram takes a call from America and tells Pival that their son is dead. She doesn't believe him, and now that Ram himself is dead, she leaves Kolkata, India, to discover the truth about Rahi. After booking a tour with an American travel company that caters to upper-class Indians, she quickly puts tour guide Satya in his place when he tries to pass himself off as Bengali (he's from Bangladesh) and accepts Rebecca, an unemployed actress, as her companion for propriety's sake. Off this ill-matched trio head on a cross-country road trip to California, each wrestling with inner demons they hope to quell as they explore the wonders of America and surprise one another with self-revelations and tentative friendship. VERDICT Debut author Franqui, an award-winning playwright living in Mumbai, writes a tender, funny, wrenching, beautifully executed tale of three lost souls who traverse the chasms of cultural, generational, and geographical divides to forge some bonds strong and true enough to withstand life's gut punches. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/18.]--Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2018

Award-winning playwright Franqui unfolds the story of Pival Sengupta, who flies from Kolkata to New York, then travels to California to discover what happened to her son, Rahi, who had announced that he was gay. Pival won't believe it when she's told that he is dead.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.