Dial A is a cinematic read; it was no surprise to learn from the acknowledgments that it's going to be a Netflix movie. Or at least it was going to be? I'm not seeing much about it in 2022. Anyway, the aunties are Meddy's Indo-Chinese mother's sisters: two older and one younger. Big Aunt is a baker, Second Aunt does hair and makeup, Ma is a florist, Fourth Aunt is the entertainment, and Meddy is the photographer in the family wedding business (Don't Leave Anything to Chance; Leave it to the Chans or something like that).

The aunties and Meddy's mom are intrusive and loving, bickersome, and have their own moral code and expectations. They are always available in a crisis, even if a bit of cat-herding is required to keep them focused. The crisis helpline is invoked when Meddy involuntarily manslaughters (my legal hot take) her date/would-be rapist and rather than leave him by the side of the road, throws him in her trunk and brings him home to her mother, who immediately calls her sisters. Ma serves everyone mangoes before they get down to the business of determining what to do with the body because you can't have people over and not feed them!

I appreciated that while Meddy does have her frustrations with her mother and Aunts and laughs at their stereotypical Asian/immigrant-parent priorities, this isn't as much of a 1.5-generation problems novel as it might be. Meddy likes and loves her aunty posse; she doesn't seem to feel oppressed by them. Her sense of obligation is a struggle sometimes, but an internal one.