He asked her to accompany her to New York City after graduation: he’ll work for a famous consulting company and she can pursue her dream of becoming a photographer. She refused to risk introducing him to her ma and aunts. Is it true? Am I doomed to stay with them forever, just because I’m the only one not heartless enough to leave? I force a smile and nod benignly as they fuss about me, and I try to look forward to the rest of my life, living here in the same house with my mom and aunts.įlashback to the love of Meddy’s life, Nathan Chan, her college beau.

They were so pleased that Meddy went to UCLA-after college, according to their game plan, she’ll be her ma’s forever companion, a prospect that she finds chilling. She applied to eight Californian schools, including Berkeley, anathema to her mother: how can she “drop by randomly and clean my dorm and nag at my roommate to go to sleep early and drink lots of water.” The aunties are the original helicopter parents. Meddy’s six cousins have escaped, but not her. Well, that and also the fact that my mother and aunts meddle enough for the whole family.

Growing up, my cousins called me Meddlin’ Meddelin, which is why I never, ever meddle in anyone’s business, ever. Meddy’s name, Meddelin, exemplifies the influence of the Chinese-Indonesian culture into which she was born where it’s de rigueur to name children after “famous people and/or brand names” (like her cousin Gucci). Dial A for Aunties is a “deep dive into Chinese-Indonesian culture,” in San Gabriel, LA. She is the embodiment of “filial piety, the foundation of Asian parenting.” These loving, interfering, outspoken women shower Meddy with advice, instructions, and directives, in three languages no less.

What a debut-Sutanto has whipped together a frothy mixture of “murder mystery, rom-com, and a celebration of mothers and daughters.” Meddy has not one but four mothers, her ma and her three aunties (which rhymes with Ant).

Dial a for aunties by jesse q sutanto