SATYA AND SMITH

Kumar offers a comprehensive self-help guide wrapped in the tale of a suffering salesman reconnecting with a long-absent friend.

Smith is a sales manager in New Orleans whose life has become a series of tragic circumstances. At work he feels overlooked and underchallenged; his home life suffers as he and his wife argue constantly, and he carries on a secret affair with a woman at his office. His two children struggle in school with their grades and behavior, he worries over his debts, and dual medical crises loom—a speeding biker who struck his car is in critical condition, and his wife is diagnosed with colon cancer. Overwhelmed, he retreats to Louis Armstrong Park for a walk and is surprised to run into his old friend, Satya, who has recently returned to the country after being in India for three years. Satya is upbeat and bromidic, well read and quick with quotations from various famous figures including Norman Vincent Peale, Dale Carnegie, and Mahatma Gandhi. When implored by Smith to help, he agrees to pull the man out of his three-year-long “downfall” during a course of evening walks together, with the proviso that Smith must swear to keep them secret. The author has a unique prose style—the novel’s narration and dialogue are both presented in a flat affect, rarely wavering even in moments of crisis for the characters. (“He was having trouble with his wife Tina, who suspected him of having an extramarital affair. This was indeed true.”) The dialogue often omits articles and conjunctions, and all of the characters talk with a consistent, stilted manner of phrasing. This awkwardness does not take away from the intrinsically clever conceit of the novel, which is to house a self-help resource within the confines of a prose story. Smith’s numerous troubles (many of which, at their core, are relatable struggles of finance and family), Satya’s advice, and the friendly relationship between them convey numerous lessons without Kumar ever taking the imperious writer-to-reader tone found in many self-improvement texts. An expansive reference section provides further reading for those curious to dive deeper into the story’s influences.

A fusion of fiction and self-help in which the former well serves the latter.