Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via the Goodreads First Reads program. (Awesome!)

Let me preface this review by saying that I liked this collection of short stories a lot. They were all very well written and edited, etc. I love the quality of this author’s writing. Individually, each story was interesting and engaging and compelling.

As a collection, however, it became obvious that the main characters featured in each of the stories were more than a little autobiographical. There were several hallmarks of the author’s life that were repeated throughout: the American son of Indian immigrants living in West Virginia, he lived in New York City as a young gay man, returned to India to care for/visit relatives, then moved to upstate New York to further his career. Each character in each story is ostensibly different – they have different names, and different personal details, but they all seem to have lived an identical life path to that of the author. I understand the advice is to “write what you know,” but it gets to be a little much for the reader, especially when reading the entire book in one sitting.

Which is what I did, because the writing was so great.

I REALLY wish that this story had been included in the collection, as an afterward or epilogue – the author writing clearly as himself.
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I desperately hope that this author considers writing an actual memoir. After reading this book, I want to know more about HIS life story, his thoughts and feelings and experiences. The stories in this book had an air of superficiality, since they were skimming the surface of the lives of strangers – they lacked the depth and emotional insight the author can clearly portray when writing about himself.

From my perspective, as someone who is not Indian-American, gay, or a man, the most powerful and touching stories were the second and third in the collection. “Floating” describes an American couple on a trip to India, where they connect with a young artist, and only fully discover who he really is after they return home. “Citizen” is about a woman and her grandson, who is helping her study for the US citizenship exam.

My least favorite story was “Yours” – it was a little too personal and had a narrow first person perspective, without really engaging the reader or connecting with the audience.

I wish the author had gone more into depth about what it means for these men to be disconnected from their “cultural in-group” (as it says on the back of the book) – in many ways it was unclear if the issues that they struggle with are due to cultural or generational differences. It is clearly intentional that all of these threads are woven together in the book, but I wish that the author had used the individual stories better to tease these themes apart and explore them individually.