Sari of the Gods
Reviews

"For many years G.S. Sharat Chandra has been exploring the flavors of the Indian/American experience 'here, there and neither here nor there.' Now he has laid out a feast of fictions hot, delicate, pungent, salty and sweet by turns. In the current surge of interest in English-language Indian literature, Chandra should find new prominence and renewed praise for his vivid voice."
-Janet Burroway

"Seeking to reveal the great variety of the Indian American immigrant experience, G.S. Sharat Chandra has divided his short-story collection into three sections. The characters in the first occupy an American landscape that is at once exhilaratingly novel ('What a thrill it was to walk on American streets! Everything clean and orderly-no milk cows jangling their bells, no milkmen yelling at them'), forever alien and alternately welcoming and hostile. In Chandra's evocative second section, we are immersed in a rural India were demons need to be exorcised from new factories, young men and women are tricked by wily parents into arranged marriages, and swamis set dates for devotees to walk on water. In the final group of stories, characters are neither here nor there. Newcomers who feel compelled to return to the old country find themselves too changed to be at home anywhere. Coming back to the provincial city where he was raised, the title character in 'Bhat's Return' has little patience for acquaintances so out of touch with American culture they have never heard of David Letterman; in contrast, his American wife eagerly embraces Hindu life, eventually running away with a guru. In this story and elsewhere in Sari of the Gods, Chandra has been able to render with insight a trio of locales-India, America and a hybrid place that's mysteriously in between."
-The New York Times Book Review,
David Masello, May 3, 1998

"A first collection of the stories of an Indian-born writer who has long lived and taught in the US, and whose focus is on Indian citizens oppressed at home, adrift in America, or unable to be at home in their native land after having experienced life in the States. All the pieces are deftly written and smartly plotted; especially noteworthy are the title story, whose immigrant protagonist interprets the accidental ruining of her sari as 'the gods' displeasure at her mixed company, her expatriatism'; and 'This Time Goat; Next Time Man,' in which Pandu, an unassuming young 'train singer,' inadvertently, farcically becomes a candidate for public office. Chandra may be on his way to becoming a contemporary R.K. Narayan."
-Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 1998

"Chandra explores the immigrant experience with a poet's ruthless eye, clarity of focus, and deep humanity. The nineteen stories are written in a variety of styles expressive of their subjects. Some are deceptively simple, with an earthy humor and gently satiric charm that will doubtless earn many comparisons to the work of R.K. Narayan, while others can be compared to Latin American magic realism, or to recent experimental Western writing. Taken together, the selections explore ways in which a clash of cultures plays out in terms of individual human experience. . . . Readers who have some familiarity with Indian literature and South Indian culture will get the most out of these narratives but even those who miss many of the cultural referents should enjoy the sheer humanity, humor, tragedy, and diversity of perspectives found here. These gemlike offerings deal in a frank way with many issues of particular concern to young adults: sexuality, violence, bigotry, communication, alienation, responsibility, love, feminism, spirituality, superstition, and mental illness. Chandra conveys a sense of the infinite variety and possibility of human experience, and these unique stories should be of great interest to teens of any culture."
-School Library Journal,
November 1998

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