They Called Us Exceptional (e-book) (used book) | bookbook.eu

Description

An Indian American daughter reveals how the dangerous model minority myth tears families apart and wrecks mental health in this searing, brave, and heartfelt memoir.

As the daughter of Indian immigrants, family was the foundation of Prachi Gupta's existence. For Prachi and her brother, Yush, family offered a cultural identity, a community, and a safe haven from the racism in white suburbia. But their belonging was predicated upon a myth--the idea that Asian Americans, and Indian Americans in particular, have perfected the alchemy of middle-class life, raising tight-knit, high-achieving families that are immune to hardship.

In They Called Us Exceptional, Gupta articulates the dissonance, shame, and isolation of being upheld as an American success story while privately navigating traumas that the world says do not exist. By blending personal narrative with immigration history, postcolonial theory, and research on mental health, Gupta shows how she slowly made sense of her own story and freed herself from the pervasive myth that had once confined her. But tragically, the act that liberated her strained her relationships with the people she loved the most.

In this powerful, probing memoir addressed to her mother, Gupta tries to understand what stands in the way of their ability to share the love they feel deeply for each other. By charting her family's slow unraveling, and her determination to break the cycle, Gupta shows how traditional notions of success keep us disconnected from ourselves and each other--and argues why we must orient ourselves to seek connection and compassion over belonging.