Thrity Umregar has been one of my favorite authors for a very long time. I bought the paperback version of this book and the font size was big enough for me to enjoy the book.

This is her memoir of growing up in India from early childhood to when she flew to Ohio to get her graduate degree.

Thirty was an avid reader and hard to hide her books from her mother who thought they were a waste of time. There was always quarrels at home between her parents and between her aunt who lived with them and her mother. Her mother abused her verbally and physicallly, even digging her fingernails into the throat of Thrity when she was very mad. The mother love that she received came from her aunt, Meeroo.

Thirty was very honest about her family, and things that she learned while growing up, like hating the hunger of the poor and not being able to make a change due to society's rules and her very unkind mother. I felt a kinship with her when she attended her first protest. I also learned of the many cruelities under the Emergency under Indira Ghandi, I had no idea of how oppressive and frightening that time was for India and now I know that I need to learn much more about India's history and government. I even learned more about Bombay food.

I hope that you read this book. ( )

Umrigar gives us a view into her life in the Bombay of the 1970's by sharing memories of her family, education and political climate. ( )

First Darling of the Morning is a series of glimpses into author Thrity Umrigar’s childhood, growing up in Bombay at a time when the country of India was still new and unstable. The stories start at a very young age with some of Umrigar’s earliest memories and continue until she is twenty years old and leaving India for the great uncertainty of the United States.

This isn’t a solid memoir, though; there are gaps in between each story, sometimes of a few days, sometimes of a few years. It allows the author to pick and choose which of her memories she wants to share with the reader. Sometimes they are humorous and sometimes they are incredibly painful. Each is a part of a larger story: the tale of Umrigar’s coming of age in an uncertain time.

Though First Darling of the Morning is a memoir, it reads like literary fiction. This is the perfect book for those people who want to read more nonfiction but have trouble with writing styles or pacing. The book itself is relatively short and the words flow like a smoothly moving water; Umrigar’s writing is simply beautiful. She writes with such longing, in some ways desperate to once again be the child she left behind, to correct all those mistakes she made. However, there is also wisdom behind her words, the realization that she can never return.

Her words also hold great passion. Umrigar portrays what it was to be a conflicted youth in Bombay at a time of unrest. There is no preaching here about what India was or what it has become; it is simply memories, thoughts and observations from someone who lived at a turbulent time. In some ways, India was coming of age at the same time that Umrigar was. And that’s what this is at its core: a coming-of-age story. It has all the pain of what it is to grow up, to be a teenager. Anyone of any culture will recognize Umrigar’s self-doubt and inner turbulence. You don’t need to be Indian to sympathize with her and understand her plight; it is a story that has been told again and again since the beginning of time in a thousand different ways.

However, it is those Indian elements that make First Darling of the Morning special, in many ways Umrigar’s tribute to her heritage, to where she came from. It is her signal that she will never forget and never push it aside in shame. She writes proudly with her head held high.

Between the poignancy of the stories and the gravitas and beauty of Umrigar’s writing, First Darling of the Morning is a gem that is absolutely not to be missed. I can’t recommend it highly enough; I only wish there was more to read. For now, though, readers must settle for this small but satisfying look at one girl’s journey to adulthood.

From S. Krishna's Books ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed Thrity Umrigar's memoir. I met her a the Sioux Falls Book Celebration and it was great to read about what this quiet, well spoken professor was like as a child in Bombay. ( )