The Konkans by Tony D'Souza

• Publisher: Harcourt
• 
  
• Pub. Date: February 2008
• 
  
• ISBN-13: 9780151015191
• 
  
• Pages: 308pp

Some time ago I decided I had overdosed on the Indian immigrant story and decided to take a break from that particular genre but Tony D'Souza's "The Konkans" (a semi-autobiographical story of an Indian Catholic family's migration and assimilation into the US in the early '70's ) made me change my mind. My husband being from the Konkan community, I have a special affiliation with these people and I felt the book gave me the opportunity to get to know them better.



So, who are the Konkans? They are a people whose ancestors inhabited the Konkan coast of India. The Konkan coast has some of the most amazing beaches and includes Bombay, Mangalore and Goa among others cities. The Catholic Konkans are set apart from other Indians mainly due to their religion, food (they are one of the few communities in India that eat both, beef and pork) and their custom of giving their kids Christian names. Their ancestors were Hindus and Muslims originally but converted to Catholicism in the 16th century with the arrival of the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama and a priest called Francis Xavier who traveled along with him for the express purpose of gaining more Catholics for the Church.

There are two main protagonists (brothers) in the story and both leave India for a new (hopefully better) life in the US. The older brother, Lawrence D'Sai, does everything to shed his Indianness like it was an old tattered coat he was ashamed of. He embraces western clothes, buys a house in the suburbs, marries a white girl from Detroit and set his sights on getting membership to the local country club.

Sam, his younger brother, found it impossible to sever his ties with India. Although he now lived in the US he continued to eat his Indian food, dress in his traditional lungi (garment)when lounging at home and regaled his young nephew Francisco (also the narrator) with stories from India,especially the history of the Konkani people.

Even though both these brothers had such a different approach to assimilation in the US, neither one was accepted by their adopted country which leads one to ask the question : does race/skin color decide how successful one is at assimilating into American society? Do white people find it easier to integrate into a predominantly white society than colored people?

I think Tony D'Souza is a great storyteller...his tone is relaxed and laid back and he infuses his characters with enough strengths and flaws making them very human and not cardboard cutouts. I think he gets the immigrant experience right, but as with many second-generation Indians I think he slightly exaggerates the complexities of the Indian society with its caste and class structure and may offend some Indian (especially Konkan) males with his portrayal of them, still, on the whole, I think he does an admirable job of putting his story together.

Along with the compelling telling of the immigrant story, there are many illuminating passages in the book describing the history and culture of the Konkan people...I especially loved reading about the Konkan wedding. The author writes about it with such exquisite detail that it gave me goosebumps! Another favorite was the page-long explanation for why some of us Indians are prejudiced when it comes to skin color. One of the final chapters in the book "The Americans" is particularly hard hitting as it describes the Goa inquisition and the drive to abolish Hinduism on the Konkan coast.

This is a book I am going to have to keep for my daughters, after all, it contains a part of their history within its pages.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Title: "The Reluctant Fundamentalist"

Author: Mohsin Hamid;

Publisher: Bond Street Books;

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 192;

Price: $29.95;

Pub. Date: March 7, 2007

Listen to the author on NPR's "Fresh Air"



Over the past five years, bookshelves in stores are becoming increasingly heavy with titles that draw on 9/11. SOme books deal with the incident itself...what happened, how it happened and the bravery of the victims, the firefighters and the police force; others deal with the politics that may have caused the incident and still others deal with how it affected seemingly ordinary people directly or indirectly. Books in the latter category can be both, fiction or non fiction and a recent one that jumped out at me and which came highly recommended by both Laura and Sanjay is "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid (please click the name to find out more about this brilliant Pakistani novelist)

Written in first person it tells the story of Changez, a 22-year old Princeton graduate from Lahore in Pakistan. Months before 9/11, as an employee of an elite and reputed firm in New York, Changez seemed destined for the fast, jetsetting life of a young executive, but after the incident Changez couldn't help but notice that people (New Yorkers) treated him differently. It was subtle at first, but when he returned from a vacation in Lahore with a beard, their attitudes seemed to grow more hostile. This unfriendly reception, initially simply on account of his physical appearance, made him question his purpose in America, his goals, his loyalties, his patriotism, the cultural barriers between the east and the west and most of all, his identity. When formerly it would have been true to describe himself as a citizen of the world, he was now finding himself pulling for the people of his clan, which indicates to me that no matter how "globalised" the world gets, when it comes to the crunch many of us align with our tribal identities.

What I liked about the book:

• Hamid employs a wicked narrative strategy...telling his story (a monologue) to an unamed American over the course of a meal at a Pakistani cafe in Lahore. The concilliatory but patronising tone that Hamid gives Changez as he talks to the American contrasts sharply with the upbeat tone gives him while Changez was pursuing the American dream. Also, by employing a first-person narrative the reader gets a wonderful insight into how a person from the east might view 9/11.
• 
  
• It had the power to make me feel uncomfortable (and I like books that will do that to me) because Changez is quite critical of the American way of life, its culture, society, values, and government...criticisms most of us would shy away from bringing up in our conversations.
• 
  
• Also, it made me look at young Muslim men more compassionately realizing that it isn't always easy to walk in their shoes in this part of the world.
• 
  
• I liked reading a Pakistani perspective on India...it helped me see the Indo-Pak situation from the "other" side.
• 
  
• On a personal level, Hamid's book caused me to think about my dual identity and what it means to me to be a citizen of two countries.
• 
  
• FInally, who can resist a love story? Yes, it is that...read and find out more!

This is a wonderfully-written novel and depending on your viewpoint you will either love it or be discomforted by it, but I can't see anyone being indifferent to it.

At the time of writing this review, The Reluctant Fundamentalist was # 13 on the NYTimes' bestsellers list.