Here we are : American dreams, American nightmares : a memoir

The Resource Here we are : American dreams, American nightmares : a memoir
Label
Here we are : American dreams, American nightmares : a memoir
Title remainder
American dreams, American nightmares : a memoir
Statement of responsibility
Aarti Namdev Shahani
Creator
Author
Narrator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
NPR Silicon Valley Correspondent Aarti Shahani shares the story of her immigrant family: shopkeepers who got a taste of the American Dream, and the American nightmare. After arriving in New York City in the 1980s, the Shahani family opens a small electronics store. Aarti, their youngest child, wins a scholarship to one of Manhattan's most elite prep schools. They are well on their way to the American Dream, until their fortunes turn. When they mistakenly sell watches and calculators to the wrong people'members of the Cali drug cartel'the family gets caught in a legal case that destroys them, incrementally, over the course of 15 years. Here We Are is the hearing the Shahani family never had, despite all the time they spent being judged. Aarti's father never recovers from the humiliation. And she, who has the chance to leave and live a better life, forever feels singularly defined by his (and their) crisis. She's torn between moving on and looking back. This family saga is full of colorful characters: a feisty mom who'll take sewing shears to anyone who threatens her blood; a big brother, caught between the Old World and New, who agrees to an arranged marriage; a big sister who refuses to lose her sense of humor, even in the notorious jail Rikers Island. As we follow the Shahanis' extreme ups and downs, Here We Are becomes a fascinating insider account of the elusive nature of legality and of the deep schism in American culture by which the "deserving" are deified and the "undeserving" demonized, at times relentlessly. Ultimately, Here We Are is a coming-of-age story, a love letter from an outspoken modern daughter to her soft-spoken Old World father. She never expected they'd become best friends
Accompanying matter
technical information on music
Cataloging source
RECBC
Dewey number
  • 305.891411073
  • B
Form of composition
not applicable
Format of music
not applicable
LC call number
E184.E2
LC item number
S535 2019
Literary text for sound recordings
  • autobiography
  • memoirs
Music parts
not applicable
PerformerNote
Read by the author
Transposition and arrangement
not applicable

Context

Context of Here we are : American dreams, American nightmares : a memoir

Work of

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