Aug 19, 2005 10:01 PM
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(Updated Aug 19, 2005 10:01 PM)
Introduction
Sometime in 2003 when I was about to visit US, some people asked me to read 'The Inscrutable Americans' before going there. Somehow, I missed the chance to read the book at that time, so when I got a chance to read it last week, I grabbed it and realized how much more fun my trip would have been had I gone through this book before going.
The Plot
The story is about Gopal, a chemistry grad from a small Indian town of Jajau, who is going on his first visit abroad to US for doing higher studies. Before starting for US, Gopal has done his homework by reading books of the magnitude of Collected Letters from Penthouse and movies of the magnitude of Deep Throat.
As soon as Gopal lands on Eversville, where he is going to spend the next one full year of his life, he meets Randy - a thorough-bred American!! As soon as Randy hears Gopal's views and ethics, he announces his mission for the next one year, convert Gopal into a sex-maniac!!
So as Gopal goes about exploring the American way of doing things, Randy explores ways of getting Gopal laid. The novel hilariously examines a lot of things American through the eyes of Gopal and tries to make some meaning out of it. On the other hand, it also takes a 180 degree of Indian aspects and tries to examine it through the eyes of Americans.
So did Gopal finally do it? What adventures Gopal had in America? You need to go through the novel for these details!!
The Author
The novel is written by an Indian author Anurag Mathur, who resides in New Delhi and is an avid writer of articles for news papers.
The Novel
Anurag dilly dallies with two distinct style of writing in this novel i.e. the narration style and the letter writing style. The story goes forward in a narration, but Gopal's mails to India are in the form a set of letters. The two styles of writing a very well interspersed and give the novel a good pace.
The best part of the novel is the intermingling of the Hinglish (Indian English) with American (American English) in which the subtlety of the English Grammar as only the British understand is horribly massacred. So we have Gopal shooting statements like:
I am constantly remembering Dr. Verma's advice and strictly avoiding American women and other unhealthy habits.
Most surprising thing about America is it is full of Americans
Next up, Gopal's confusion with American terms and usages is beautifully highlighted. So we have gopal looking for nuts, when somebody tells him that he is 'Totally Nuts!!' and worse still looking for donkeys when somebody says 'Watch your a-s-s.'
One passage of interesting confusion that Gopal had regarding American Football is as follows:
How typically American, he thought, to call a game Football when it had very little to do with the foot and nothing to do at all with a ball. The object in question here was more like a dinosaur's egg and its parents seemed to have emerged from their pens to fight over its possession with a truly maternal fury.
Again the parts where in Randy tries to induce Gopal into getting the job done are very well done.
The story starts at a very brisk, humourous pace, then stutters a bit and slows down as the humour becomes a bit stale and then finally the novel comes to a slow end. Anurag has done a great job in the initial half of the novel, but seems to struggle to bring the novel to an end.
The Summary
The novel is a enjoyable reading, and though tapers off towards the end, is still a good read. I would give Anurag Mathur a 4 star for this hilarious book.
PS: Taken from my review published earlier at https://epinions.com/content_186130599556
