The last movie was Bratz (Boo's choice), which is pretty much two hours of my life I'll never get back, but tonight's movie made up for it in spades.

Tonight's movie was The Namesake--a visually beautiful and emotionally moving film about the experience of an Indian family, their Hindu heritage and their immigrant experience in the US. It is subtle and slow, trusting us to understand what is happening without having it explained to us. By the time the movie is over, each of the characters is so dear to us and we're truly sad to see the relationship end.

Interestingly, the book I read this week happened to be Digging to America, which is also a slow and subtle story about an Iranian immigrant family and their experience of America, as well as their American friends' experience of them. We see how the generations and the genders struggle in different ways to gain acceptance and identity and we see how relationships are shaped and sometimes damaged by those almost imperceptible slights, assumptions, and expectations that we all bring to our interactions with each other.

So, two lovely experiences this week . . . which should more than make up for two hours spent with the Bratz.