Words as musical notes, a book as symphony—so it is with this debut novel, occasionally rippling with pidgin English and yet always sparkling with literary insights, all set within the landscape of a forgotten corner of South America.
A young writer from India travels to Guyana to report on a cricket tournament, and he becomes fascinated by the country, with its mixture of Chinese, Indian, Portuguese and African cultures. He soon returns for a year's stay, seeking a thing he cannot articulate in a setting where his Indian culture was once identified as coolieman—an indentured laborer. Both intrigued and repelled, the nameless protagonist, sometimes called "Gooroo" by Guyanan friends, takes up residence in Kitty, a dilapidated Georgetown neighborhood. There he meets Baby, a "scamp," a man who lives by lies and wiles. The two set off for the interior, Guyana's violent frontier border where "porknockers" dig into the jungle seeking gold and diamonds. Bhattacharya laces his story with colloquial conversational references—bai, skunt, banna, cyan—but meanings are mostly clear in context. The narrative is also expanded by references to reggae and ska. The novel's middle portion is less character-driven, but it does present an interesting social, racial and political history woven into a visit to Guyana's coastal rice and sugarcane producing areas. The last part finds the narrator residing on vibrant Sheriff Street in Georgetown. There he meets de Jesus and Moonsammy, and tags along on a trip to Boa Vista in Brazil, which includes an illicit border crossing. He meets Jan, an exotic mixed-race beauty, and there is an immediate sexual attraction. The novel concludes with the couple traveling in Venezuela, a sometimes idyllic, sometimes ugly sojourn. Unlike the narrator, Jan knows what she wants from life, and the romantic interlude ends and the story concludes in a fashion as bitter and unsatisfying as real life sometimes can be. An exotic locale and lyrical language make for a dazzling debut.
Pub Date: May 3, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-26585-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
A unique and unexpectedly revealing English language debut.
A sly take on modern work culture and social conformism, told through one woman’s 18-year tenure as a convenience store employee.
Keiko Furukura, a 36-year-old resident of Tokyo, is so finely attuned to the daily rhythms of Hiiromachi Station Smile Mart—where she’s worked since age 18—that she’s nearly become one with the store. From the nails she fastidiously trims to better work the cash register to her zeal in greeting customers with store manual–approved phrases to her preternatural awareness of its subtle signals—the clink of jangling coins, the rattle of a plastic water bottle—the store has both formed her and provided a purpose. And for someone who’s never fully grasped the rules governing social interactions, she finds a ready-made set of behaviors and speech patterns by copying her fellow employees. But when her younger sister has a baby, questions surrounding her atypical lifestyle intensify. Why hasn’t she married and had children or pursued a more high-flying career? Keiko recognizes society expects her to choose one or the other, though she’s not quite sure why. When Shiraha—a “dead-ender” in his mid-30s who decries the rigid gender rules structuring society—begins working at the store, Keiko must decide how much she’s willing to give up to please others and adhere to entrenched expectations. Murata provides deceptively sharp commentary on the narrow social slots people—particularly women—are expected to occupy and how those who deviate can inspire bafflement, fear, or anger in others. Indeed, it’s often more interesting to observe surrounding characters’ reactions to Keiko than her own, sometimes leaving the protagonist as a kind of prop. Still, Murata skillfully navigates the line between the book’s wry and weighty concerns and ensures readers will never conceive of the “pristine aquarium” of a convenience store in quite the same way.
A unique and unexpectedly revealing English language debut.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8021-2825-6
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
A near-anthropological study of male insecurity.
Wayne’s latest foray into the dark minds of lonely young men follows the rise and fall of a friendship between two aspiring fiction writers on opposite sides of a vast cultural divide.
In 1996, our unnamed protagonist is living a cushy New York City life: He's a first-year student in Columbia’s MFA program in fiction (the exorbitant bill footed by his father) who’s illegally subletting his great-aunt’s rent-controlled East Village apartment (for which his father also foots the bill). And it is in this state—acutely aware of his unearned advantages, questioning his literary potential, and deeply alone—that he meets Billy. Billy is an anomaly in the program: a community college grad from small-town Illinois, staggeringly talented, and very broke. But shared unease is as strong a foundation for friendship as any, and soon, our protagonist invites Billy to take over his spare room, a mutually beneficial if precarious arrangement. They are the very clear products of two different Americas, one the paragon of working-class hardscrabble masculinity, the other an exemplar of the emasculating properties of parental wealth—mirror images, each in possession of what the other lacks. “He would always have to struggle to stay financially afloat,” our protagonist realizes, “and I would always be fine, all because my father was a professional and his was a layabout. I had an abundance of resources; here was a concrete means for me to share it.” And he means it, when he thinks it, and for a while, the affection between them is enough to (mostly) paper over the awkward imbalance of the setup. Wayne (Loner, 2016) captures the nuances of this dynamic—a musky cocktail of intimacy and rage and unspoken mutual resentment—with draftsmanlike precision, and when the breaking point comes, as, of course, it does, it leaves one feeling vaguely ill, in the best way possible.
A near-anthropological study of male insecurity.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63557-400-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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