The Orbiting

Im not sure why this story is called the orbiting. Maybe because it circumferences many different cultures within its plot. I do like how it involves a variety of cultures, it kept me reading and interested. Bharati Mukherjee does a good job at making the american-italian family feel authentic. I was surprised at how many different cultures were involved with and mentioned in the plot. Rindy's family hails from Northern Italy and Sicily i believe, her sister Cindi has a husband named Brent who comes from an Amish family, Rindy has a friend from El Salvador named Jorge, a "pakistani, who runs a spice store in SoHo," and of course Ro who comes from Kabul which i guess is in Afghanistan? There a brief mention of swedish furniture as well, "Swedish knockdown dresser." I really like the realism that Mukherjee brings in the description of the interactions between Ro and Rindy's father, the awkwardness of Ro's headshakes of agreement and the skeptism that her father has of him. "Ro nods. Even his headshake is foreign" and the father somewhat unapproving with "dad joins mom on the sofa bed, shaking his head." I liked the part when Ro was talking to her on the phone and talked about how he needed to help his cousin Abdul, itd be scary to have that feeling that you have to sort of stay under the radar in order to not get deported....which in Abdul's case, could mean death. "Ro's afraid Abdul will be deported back to Afghanistan. If that happens, he'll be tortured." It was funny when Rindy said "When i think of Abdul, I think of a giant black man with goggles on, running down a court." it brought the funny image in my head of Kareem Abdul Jabbar's lankyness with his bug-eyed goggles on slammin over some fool. When they begin the dinner and Rindy has Ro cut the bird, she realizes that she loves that man. She basically explains, he has a worn and torn body which some may find disgusting, but it turns her on, basically. It shows that he is a true man, that those scares were from a hard life, from torture, not little scars from a game or a mistake from roughhousing like that of her father and Brent. That he wasn't proud of them, he didn't use them as something to build up his manlyness. They are things that he finds embarrassing and is not proud of. When she talks about her father and Brent stating: "They have their little scars, things they're proud of, football injuries and bowling elbows they brag about." Also making the reference "Ro is Clint Eastwood, a scarred hero and survivor. Dad and Brent are children." When her mom asks in the last line of the story: "Why are you grinning like that, Renata?" you can get the picture in your head of her just gazing at him in awe and knowing that she loves him and is proud to be with him.