#430 Invitation To a Party- Sandip Roy

#430 Invitation To a Party- Sandip Roy

Avinash is a married man, with an adult child in America. He has been living a lie for his entire adult life. He has hidden his sexuality from nearly everyone in his life and had denied himself the pleasure and happiness that only a true partner could offer.

He has never been unfaithful to his wife, but he has recently joined an internet peer group that helps connect homosexual men and gives advice on how to come out to their families. He is not active in the group and when they advertise a party he is hesitant to attend, he has never gone to such a function, But his wife is out of town, and its kind of now or never.

At the party he starts out awkward and lonely, but as he meets a younger man, he looks to be having the type of experience he has been needing. But things take a turn for the worse and he is reminded of the dangers of living with secrets. The oucome is a bit terrifying and lot tragic.

Ten stories in and I’m going to put this collection down for a while. Any worries I had at the start of a “Novel in Stories” not being individual enough to be good as short stories have not come to pass. This has been a joy to read, I look forward to finishing it later in the project (or after).

Rating: 8-8-9-8 Total= 33

#402 White Christmas- Sandip Roy

#402 White Christmas- Sandip Roy

It was Christmas, and this was Amit’s first year away from Calcutta, from home. He was in Binghamton, NY going to school, and couldn’t afford the trip back. He learned a lot this year, mostly about the differences in culture, His school mentor, Satsih, a PhD student gave him advice. “…he was Amit’s authority on all things American, like health insurance, bars, and race.”

It was race that confused him the most, the importance of it, the stereoptypes used by both Satish and his mother. He found that he had his own attractions to race as well. On this Christmas he went looking for something to eat and found himself in a bar alone for the first time. It would be a night of firsts.

Rating: 8-7-8-8 Total= 31

#382 Gifts of Summer- Sandip Roy

#382 Gifts of Summer- Sandip Roy

As the stories in Don't Let Him Know get deeper, we see the threads forming into shapes. The strength of these characters is the foundation of their family. Romola talks with her sister-in-law about America, a place they have both lived at some point. When asked why she doesn’t return, Romola says: “It wasn’t home. I thought if I had a child…he needed to grow up among his cousins and grandparents.”

They live in their family house, thick with memories and love. And even as Calcutta is described with the stench of garbage and the overwhelming summer heat, the confines of the house sound intoxicating:

“Amit grew to love the afternoons best of all. Upstairs his mother and aunt would lie in bed…their conversations slowly losing steam and trickling away into nothingness as they fell asleep. All over the house the windows would be shut against the heat. Skinny drips of sunlight would leak in through cracks in the shutters and puddle on the floor.”

As much a story about family as it is about social class and privilege. Amit gets gifted a watch that cost half a year’s salary for their family maid. When the watch disappears, the maid’s granddaughter is wrongfully blamed, and generations of trust are thrown away for a lie from a naïve rich boy, trying to protect only himself from a mere scolding.

Rating: 9-8-9-8 Total= 34

#351 Father’s Blessing- Sandip Roy

#351 Father’s Blessing- Sandip Roy

Romola is ten, almost eleven. She knows that something is wrong. Her father is in the “sick” room, and her mother is wearing yesterday’s clothes. Her neighbor makes her lunch for school and tales her to and from classes.

She wishes that somebody would tell her what’s going on. “She wishes grown-ups would not lie like that.” Eventually she learns of the tragedy that has befallen her family and she accepts it as an adult.

If this collection is a pile of snapshots of Romola’s life, this is an important one, a very touching story.

Rating: 8-7-8-7 Total= 30

#340 Great Grandmother’s Mango Chutney- Sandip Roy

#340 Great Grandmother’s Mango Chutney- Sandip Roy

In this collection, Don’t Let Him Know, the stories are connected in what should come together as “a novel in stories.” The hope for me was that each would be independent enough of a snapshot that they would stand as short stories.  So far, so good. However, this fifth story, Great Grandmother’s Mango Chutney doesn’t quite work without the context of the others. It might work as different kind of short if you didn’t read any of the other chapters, but there would be something missing. As a part of the larger piece, this works to propel the characters along, rather than act as a set piece.

That said, it adds a lot to the feeling of the book. Amit is the youngest in a house that holds four generations of the family. His mother runs the house and butts heads with the grandmother, and great-grandmother who is suffering with the frailty of her remaining time on earth. Amit is remembering this time of his life from twenty-five years later, in San Francisco, feeling homesick while he searches for a taste of home.

Rating: 9-6-6-5 Total= 26

#319 The Discipline of Haircuts- Sandip Roy

#319 The Discipline of Haircuts- Sandip Roy

Looks make the man, or the boy too, I guess. Avinash hated getting haircuts, sitting outside his house for his neighbor friends to watch, afraid the barber was going to cut his ear. So when he turned seven his mother allowed him to go to a proper barber, thinking that the act of independence would make his feel older and not mind so much.

When he began attending private school, long hair was forbidden, it was for slobs, slackers and movie stars (meant as a negative). His short hair became a kind of status symbol he didn’t want:

“In his clean white school uniform with his striped school tie, Avinash felt like a creature from another planet. He was a mother’s boy without his mother to protect him.”

The story is about coming of age, or Avinash not quite being ready to come of age. The haircuts, drinking milk instead of tea, being scared by sudden sexual desire. There is also a theme of class and generation gaps.

Rating: 8-7-8-8 Total= 31