Immigration and identity: Turmoil, treatment, and transformation. by Salman Akthar Northvale, NJ:  Jason Aronson Inc. pp.  220

An ocean away past voices

Beckoning with promises of rickshaws, bindis and saris.

Part of my soul inside unknown.

I yearn to learn more,

To be brimming, spilling over

With brown friends who look like me.

Words like chapatti and Om.

Waiting to be found and claimed.

This poem by the 16-year-old daughter of an American-Indian immigrant expresses one of the book's major theses—the yearning for and the mourning of the loss of the familiar smells, sounds and language of the old country, a yearning that may extend to the next generation. These twin processes of yearning and mourning, the author tells us, have to be accompanied by a profound change in identity if adjustment to the new country is to be successful.

This is a comprehensive and scholarly book. The data supporting the author's conclusions were gathered from a wide variety of sources—personal recollections and experiences as well as interviews conducted with fellow immigrants from many parts of the world. Although psychoanalytic theory is used most extensively to explain the psychological processes involved, the author also relies on anthropology, sociology and fiction to give depth and breadth to the issues related to immigration. The strategically placed poems throughout the text enhance the book's readability and bring an aesthetic dimension to it.