The Prayer Room

In 1974, the young and callow Englishman George Armitage goes to Madras in the hopes of returning with at least the beginning of his Ph.D. dissertation. Instead, he comes home with a bride named Viji, an Indian woman he barely knows. This seemingly unlikely pair eventually wind up in Sacramento, where they buy a ranch house and give birth to triplets. In this new American world of shag carpets and pudding pops, Viji seeks consolation in her prayer room, which she visits frequently to gossip, sass, and seek advice from the framed portraits of her dead relatives. It is here where Viji feels most herself, where she immerses herself in the comforts of home, and where these deceased family members “felt as real to her as she’d been to them.” The relative calm of Viji’s California existence is interrupted when George’s father shows up on their doorstep, unexpected and unannounced. Granddad Stan encourages the triplets to pee in the rosebushes, beds the neighbor’s maid, and takes every opportunity to flummox Viji in every way he can. So when Viji’s sister sends an out-of-the-blue invitation to visit India, she prepares for her first trip home in nearly eleven years, not knowing for sure if she’ll ever return to the States. A hilarious and heartfelt debut, The Prayer Room re-examines the meaning of family—the people who live down the hall, the people who exist only in our memories, and the people who roll their eyes at you from within their picture frames.

Sekaran’s introspective and culturally enlightening debut opens with the unlikely mismatch of a marriage between Englishman George Armitage, a visiting scholar in Madras, India, working on his art-history dissertation, and Viji, a young Indian woman he has barely met. They spend three months back in England with George’s parents, each still wondering why they married, when George gets a teaching job in Sacramento. Totally estranged from home and family, Viji feels as if she’s been “handed someone else’s life to hold until they got back.” They have triplets a year later, Indian in name, but growing up wildly American. Viji retreats daily to her prayer room, which is filled with photos of her dead family members, from whom she seeks advice and solace. Her discomfort is magnified with the unexpected arrival of George’s father, who seduces their neighbor’s maid and encourages the triplets’ unorthodox behavior. Viji bolts for India, the children in tow—unsure when, if ever, she might return to George. A probing, often humorous view of a culture clash and its many repercussions. --Deborah Donovan