Archive · 4 Oct 2026
Book Review: A Difficult Mother-in-Law and Forced Intimacy
Some People is a story about Malti, an older woman who has had a hard life.
She raised her daughter, Kavya, mostly on her own.
Kavya travels to India to study and stays with her father, which deeply upsets Malti.
Then Malti has an accident and needs someone to stay with her for a week.
Nathan, Kavya’s estranged husband, agrees to help.
Malti and Nathan do not get along at first.
As they talk, they share more about their lives and their relationship with Kavya.
The reviewer says the book is funny, though some conversations feel repetitive.
The story asks whether talking can help people understand one another.
Parini Shroff’s novel Some People centers on Malti Patel, a divorced mother in her seventies.
Malti’s daughter, Kavya, leaves the United States for a two-year graduate course in India and stays with her father.
After Malti has an accident, the hospital requires her to have a companion for a week, and Nathan comes to care for her.
Malti and Nathan initially clash, but their conversations reveal their troubled relationships with Kavya and their personal histories.
The review praises the novel’s humor and witty dialogue, while noting that some conversations repeat the same ground.
- Who
- Malti Patel, her daughter Kavya, and Nathan; the novel is by Parini Shroff.
- What
- A review of Some People, a novel about strained family relationships and an unlikely week of caregiving.
- When
- The review does not specify when the story takes place.
- Where
- The story involves the United States and Gujarat, India.
- Why
- After Malti has an accident, she needs a companion for a week, bringing her into close contact with Nathan.
- Book
- Some People
- Author
- Parini Shroff
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Length
- 287 pages
- Price
- Rs 599
- Central characters
- Malti Patel, Kavya, and Nathan
- Reviewer's criticism
- Some conversations between Malti and Nathan revisit the same ground.