Review: Quarantine: Stories by Rahul Mehta

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Genre: Short Stories

Published: 2010

Goodreads Summary:

"Reminiscent of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies and the work of Michael Cunningham, Rahul Mehta’s debut short story collection is an emotionally arresting exploration of the lives ofIndian-American gay men and their families. Manil Suri, the New YorkTimes bestselling author of The Death of Vishnu and The Age of Shiva calls Quarantine “an insightful and compellingly readable collection of stories in which Rahul Mehta masterfully explores the emotions, the conflicts, the complex accommodations of being gay and Indian American."

Review:

Whoo! Please excuse that awkward title. Too many colons.

I was unsure at first of how much I would like this collection; I picked it up at the library on a whim from the Pride Month display because it sounded vaguely interesting. I love short story collections, but they're really hit or miss, depending on the writer. This book, though, was pretty good overall! 

The stories were raw and very atmospheric. At times, they could get depressing - one called What We Mean was just the agonizing death of a relationship between two pretentious writers. But they could also be very sweet and/or poignant, like Citizen, about an older woman who struggles to study for her citizenship test and gets help from her grandson, or the aforenamed Quarantine, about the effect a grandfather has on his family after immigrating from India to live with them.

I would recommend this to people who aren't looking for something cheerful but are looking for honest portrayals of 21st-century relationships, whether it's between family, friends, or lovers, and the struggle to assimilate into American culture.