Writers, artists, and creators from all around the world and across generations find ways to share their stories of loss, triumph, perseverance, challenges, and more. And with our incredibly diverse America, so many stories about immigration and generational conflicts can be found. One writer, PJ Temple, decided to share her experiences with the world in her collection of essays, Essays of Night and Daylight: Undoing a Divided Nation. With authenticity and humor, she recounts growing up in an Indian household in America and fighting for her own space.
Book
Temple’s parents came to America from India, and held on tightly to their conservative Christian values. In order to live a life more aligned with American culture (and herself), she had to sneak around and keep secrets. Until those secrets begin to surface.
Much of Temple’s experiences reflect having brown skin in a country where skin color doesn’t necessarily narrow down the possibilities of one’s background. That doesn’t mean white Americans (well-meaning or not) didn’t try. Struggling both with fitting in with her peers in college, and stepping out from her parents’ strict parenting style, Temple eventually found her place in the world and as a writer.
Review
Yours truly is a white-skinned woman in America whose mother’s family is from Mexico. While I don’t share the same experiences, I definitely recognize and empathize what people like Temple endured in her lifetime thus far. Still, I appreciated Temple’s ability to share her experiences with insight and humor. With memoirs, you’re not sure what you’re going to get. But I was interested in what Temple had to say. And readers who understand such struggles will undoubtedly be able to relate to her story.
PJ Temple joins the Cantina Book Club Podcast to expand on her experiences in America and what she’s working on next. Keep an ear out for the interview in an upcoming episode and pick up a copy of Essays of Night and Daylight: Undoing a Divided Nation, available now.
