"Orbiting" by Bharati Mukherjee

“Orbiting” by Bharati Mukherjee was an interesting story about an Americanized Italian Family celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. It tells the narrator’s story of how her family celebrates the Thanksgiving holiday and her family's adjustment to American life and how her relationships have come about in America. Her family have changed their names not only to understand but to make them more common. The narrator’s name formally “Renata” is changed to “Rindi” and her sister “Carla” to “Cindi.” “Renata and Carla are what we were christened. We changed to Rindi and Cindi in junior high.” This story reminded me of my favorite Thanksgiving movie “Home for the Holidays.” I found it interesting how all of Rindi’s boyfriends have been foreign or Americanized, like the boyfriend her family meets, “Ro” or “Roashan.” However, you can tell Ro still abided by his culture, by not drinking and dressing appropriately. Sometimes, the narrator weaves her Italian heritage, old ex-boyfriends, and early childhood growing up, into the story. For an Italian family making a Traditional Thanksgiving dinner of cranberry sauce, turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes was a nice sight to read. “Every Thanksgiving she served two full dinners, one American with the roast turkey, candied yams, pumpkin pie, the works, and another with Grandpa’s favorite pastas.”

            The story becomes more serious when Rindi discovers the scars on Ro’s body. Although we have scars in our life, mainly rough experiences we face, Ro’s scars came from torture and isolation from his past in Afghanistan. I believe Ro is a different kind of man that Rindi never expected to enter into her life. Ro is an intelligent engineer who dresses well. Even her family seems to think he is out of place during their Thanksgiving gathering. Ro even says, “You are undoubtedly correct Brent. I am deferring to your judgement because currently I have not familiarized myself with these practices.” Comparing to her ex-boyfriend, “Vic”, Ro is an enormous upgrade. Vic was never grounded in his career and did whatever he wanted.

            The words that I didn’t understand were “squabble” when Rindi’s mom laughs about her husband and “petulant.” “Petulant” means irritable, impatient, or sullen in a peevish or capricious way and “Squabble” means to engage in a petty quarrel.

            Overall I enjoyed this Thanksgiving family gathering. Although it seemed to have awkward family moments between not only Rindi’s new boyfriend, but also between the family members as well. Mukherjee’s flow of writing in developing his story line and the way his characters interact in the story and understandable. For example, the information and way he introduced Rindi’s family experiences and her relationship past and childhood.