Together Tea is a poignant immigration experience, a mother-daughter relationship, and a culture-clash mixed with family dynamics story.

The setting is mid 90s in the US where the story opens with a clash between an American-educated daughter, Mina, and Darya, her American-Iranian mother who hasn’t quite internalized her new culture. The mother Darya’s quest in life is to get her daughter married to a successful Iranian, but the daughter is annoyed with her mother’s matchmaking efforts.

When Mina wants to visit Iran again, Darya insists on accompanying her. This sets up the catalyst for the path to resolution of the story.

Thus, after establishing the family’s story in the US, there is a throwback in the novel to an earlier time in Iran, starting with the last years of the Shah and the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war. The story then returns to the present time, after clarifying the roots of the family dynamics in Iran, and it underlines the repressive regime’s effects on the entire country and its one-time resident- tourists.

The ending is happy enough with everyone continuing life in more contented spirits and with greater tolerance and understanding of each other.

The success of this novel lies in its superb characterization, making the reader empathize with almost any character. The descriptions of the setting and customs are also told clearly and remarkably well. Insertions of Persian words and phrases, too, add color to the author’s almost poetic storytelling.

understanding the immigrant experience.

the characterization.

is Marjan Kamali and this is her debut novel.

It is a lesson in seeing other cultures as they are, instead of judging them in a hostile manner. Also the storytelling and the characterization are highly skillful.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Together Tea   from Amazon.Com!

Created Aug 11, 2013 at 8:34pm • Submit your own review...