An enjoyably fluffy LGBT-themed novel set in the Indian-diaspora community in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. Harit is a socially-awkward middle-aged bachelor shop assistant, living in what seems to be an atmosphere of mutual misunderstanding with his elderly mother after the Barbie-related death of his sister; Ranjana is an unfulfilled empty-nest mother-and-housewife whose son has gone off to be a high achiever at Princeton. Both of them clearly need to break out of their current lives in one direction or another. And Satyal, of course, ensures that they get the chance to do so.

There’s a lot of nice observation of the social structure of immigrant communities, with some delightfully cringe-making Indian parties, and Satyal also has a lot of fun at the expense of the Creative Writing industry, with a splendidly comic grand finale at a writers’ conference where the keynote speaker is a bigshot writer of novels about Indians in America (she’s recently moved to Lisbon and is about to publish her first book in Portuguese: Satyal can’t possibly be making fun of any real celebrity here, can he…?).

I was a little bit disappointed to find that there was nothing specific about the Cleveland setting: it’s all very generic suburbia, apart from the names of a real university and a few fictional shops and bars. Even when a character lands at Hopkins, he doesn’t feel compelled to notice its quaint period charm. The book is presumably set in Cleveland merely because Satyal grew up at the other end of Ohio and doesn’t want to embarrass his own family and friends.

In the end it’s a rather conventional American novel (Satyal is a publisher in his day-job), where the characters achieve fulfilment largely through becoming more integrated into America and (eventually) going to bed with the correct person, but there are quite a few enjoyably bizarre touches along the way. ( )

This book is easily my second favorite read of the year so far after Girl, Woman, Other. It’s funny, touching, warm-hearted, and surprisingly deep. It’s also ferociously well-written. (One chapter made me close the book, say WOW, & sit for a while with the words. ) I can’t believe I’ve never heard of Satyal before–I’ll be reading as much of his other work as I can get my hands on. ⠀
( )

This is an ordinary book about ordinary people, some of whom are Indian immigrants to the midwestern United States. There is some insightful commentary (mainly about being an Indian immigrant to the midwestern US), but otherwise the story is inconsequential and the characters are forgettable. Not recommended.

Towards the end of the book, one of the characters, an aspiring writer, contrasts herself against a famous novelist (a thinly veiled Jhumpa Lahiri) and self reflects: "But she was not exceptional, so her characters would never have exceptional lives." That sentence accurately describes this book. ( )

At first, I picked this up because the blurb made me laugh.

"For some, America is a bewildering and alienating place where coworkers cannot pronounce your name but will eagerly repeat Sanskrit phrases from their yoga classes."

And at first, I didn't like Harit. I wasn't sure what type of book this was going to be. Was it literary fiction? Was it a summer romp? All of the above?

But I kept reading and I'm so glad I did.

I feel like Satyal really comes alive when he writes characters interacting together. He so skilfully weaves dialogue and ideas about our expectations -- he writes a character's thoughts beautifully.

I loved Ranjana. I loved her for her spirit, for her tiny little triumphs, for her insecurities and flaws. This book started carefully and just kept building and building and I kept reading and reading. It's so, so readable.

The author manages to acknowledge so many parts of our lives that are so fraught -- grief, immigration, an unhappy marriage, a damaged ego, and he does so with such care. Each conversation felt like it had real stakes, that each character was going to take something away from. Every word felt worth it and that feels like such an accomplishment.

Moreover, Satyal incorporates LGBTIQA themes and issues so delicately and so lovingly and I adore him all the more for it. This is why I read fiction, so I get to experience characters that are this authentic.

Here is Satyal who acknowledges Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which a section of law which calls "for a maximum punishment of life imprisonment for all carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal (primarily interpreted to be homosexuality, especially sodomy, including between consenting adults)," which, by the way, was introduced by the British Empire. No such code had existed prohibiting anything before then.

Here is Satyal who creates joyful, queer characters, who adds a little more depth to a character with each chapter until I loved them all. I don't normally use the word "heart-wrenching" in a review, but it feels like it really fits here.

Each chapter is generally features one of three characters, but not always, and the wonderful part about it is, it never feels forced or a trope or a mechanism to move the story, it just is. Satyal has something that feels so natural about his craft and I can't imagine the thousands of hours he must've put in to make this book as seamless as it feels.

This book is about coming into yourself and becoming who you really are and how you feel most comfortable and the uphill battle that comes along with it. It's about fitting in, standing out and everything in between. I loved it so much.

This was such an unexpected and beautiful surprise.

SATYAL. What are you doing to me.

If you need me, I'll be cradling this book against my chest and whispering into it because I love it.

4.5 stars ( )

This unique novel kept me reading until 3 AM. The primary characters are Indian immigrants Ranjana, a discontented empty-nester mom, and Harit, a shy and unhappy man who cannot recover from a terrible family tragedy for which he feels responsible (the real culprit is a shocker). They are both stuck at the bottom of a well of despair when they meet and, with the help of several amusing friends, climb out to find both tremendous and moderate success. Ranjana's son Prashant's romantic efforts as a Princeton freshman are entertaining but not really relevant to the real action, but Harit's co-worker Teddy gets his back story told and he's a force, as is Ranjana's ridiculous co-worker Cheryl, who gets the best lines. Harit's story unwinds slowly and painfully, but that's what kept me up reading way too late. This unusual and winning story brings us vivid slices of immigrant life from flyover country.

Quotes: "The unit was one floor underground and dispensed roaches like a pinball machine."

"Cheryl shouted over the robotic GPS voice as if it were a football game."

"You could pull a foreign language over yourself like a cloak and retreat into a private world."

"As usual, she couldn't tell if Cheryl's happiness was authentic or the by-product of overwhelming mental dimness."

"Her gut-punch conclusion was that she might never be good enough to give her characters the writing they deserved." ( )

I am almost immediately attracted to books about the Indian American immigrant experience. I can't explain it; I just accept it. So when I first heard about Rakesh Satyal's novel No One Can Pronounce My Name, I knew I wanted to read it. And it very much is a novel about the Indian American immigrant experience but somehow it just didn't capture me; I set it down twice and only finished it on the third try with a concerted effort despite the fact that it should have been perfect for me.

Ranjana has spent years being the wife and mother she was expected to be but now that her only child, Prakash, is off to college, her life is sort of drifting. Her marriage has become background noise and she thinks her husband might be having an affair. To fill her free time she starts writing paranormal romances, attending a writer's group (even if she doesn't feel brave enough to participate to start with) and takes a job as a receptionist in a doctor's office. She is a reserved woman whose loneliness and need for direction is palpable. Harit is a middle aged man who works in a department store and lives with his mother. After work, he dresses up in his late sister's saris, pretending to be her for his nearly blind mother's benefit. She hasn't accepted his sister's death and he thinks to ease her by his deception. Like Ranjana, he too is crushingly lonely. It will take meeting each other and the outside influence of their respective co-workers for Ranjana and Harit to blossom into the people they want to be.

Satyal is a strong writer but the narrative here is slow and meandering. More and more secondary characters come into the story drawing it out even further. This highlights both Ranjana and Harit's distance from their community, both just hovering on the edges of the Indian American community in Cleveland, not fully integrated or accepted, but it also gives the story a lack of focus. This is very much a character study centered around issues of identity and belonging, friendship and the desire to be loved for who one is. There are some funny moments and some poignant moments as well but over all the story went off track a little too often, sprawling out in side plots that did nothing to drive the central story forward and the ending was an unrealistically happy and facile ending for the tone up to that point. The pacing was uneven as well, with the first half somberly dragging out as it established Ranjana and Harit's (and to a lesser extent Ranjana's son Prashant's) characters and the second half turning into a more comedic road trip kind of tale. The two halves were definitely an odd juxtaposition. Not a bad book, but not one that called to be picked back up once it was set down either. ( )

This is a novel about Indian immigrants in Cleveland Ohio, including empty-nester Ranjana who copes with her lackluster arranged marriage by writing vampire romance novels; the repressed and lonely Harit, who responds to the death of his beloved sister by pretending to be her for his withdrawn and unresponsive mother; and (to a lesser extent) Ranjana's son Prashant, away at college and nursing a huge crush on a fellow student.

The writing is good, and the characters are vivid and compelling in their struggles to find their own identities: cultural, sexual, and personal. It's not perfect, admittedly. It gets a little slower, I think, once Ranjana and Harit actually meet, and arguably there are moments where the characters feel just a little too much like mouthpieces for the author's own thoughts about subjects like writing or self-actualization. You could also argue that the ending, although warm and pleasant, is a little too pat. But overall, I really enjoyed it. Some days, what I want out of a book is the opportunity to go and live someone else's life for a while, perhaps a life very different from mine, and this one fit that mood very well. I'm also quite impressed by Satyal's handling of some of the secondary characters, as he takes people who might seem to be shallow and off-putting from the outside, or even to be dull non-entities, and offers us little glimpses into their interiors that show us that they're three-dimensional, complicated, sympathetic human beings after all. ( )

this novel is lovely. maureen corrigan, reviewing for NPR, put it very well:

"No One Can Pronounce My Name explores the politics of sexual identity, as well as the immigrant and first-generation American experience, but, unfashionable as it may sound, the novel's greater achievement lies in the compassionate, comic way it explores the universal human experience of loneliness."

my one 'yeah, but...' with this novel is that i felt prashant's arc was not as strong as ranjana's, and harit's. satyal does a wonderful job conveying the confusion, sadness, and loneliness being experienced by the characters, but his sensitivity keeps the story from feeling oppressive and without hope. this quiet, beautifully written novel has a lot of heart. ( )

Our community reads book. Enjoyed my book club discussion on the book. Thought the character development was well done. ( )

Tender, interweaving stories of two Indian immigrants in Cleveland area and the people in their lives. Satyal really has a knack of making you care about his characters. Sweet, sad, and funny all at the same time...really loved it. ( )

No One Can Pronounce My Name is the story of Indian immigrants Ranjana and Harit. Ranjana’s only son is starting college and she and her husband are trying to adjust to life as empty-nesters. Harit works in a department store and lives with his mother. His sister lived with them until she passed away recently.

Ranjana and Harit both have secrets. Ranjana writes paranormal romance at night after work. Harit dresses up as his dead sister at night because he thinks it’s helping his poor-sighted mother who hasn’t accepted that her daughter has died. It’s hard to imagine how their lives could possibly intersect, but they do. Even though their lives are vastly different, they start a friendship because they both feel like outsiders in the Indian community.

I loved all of the characters in this book. Yes, they all had flaws but Satyal gives them so much depth that I felt empathy for each one of them.

An excerpt of the paranormal romance Ranjana is writing is included as part of the story. It was so good – I wish it was a real book! Maybe Satyal could actually write Ranjana’s book as a companion to No One Can Pronounce My Name like Rainbow Rowell wrote Carry On after everyone loved the excerpts in Fan Girl.

No One Can Pronounce My Name is a great addition to my ever expanding library of books about India and/or Indians. From the other reviews I’ve read, it seems that the author’s portrayal of the Indian immigrant experience is spot-on. Now I’d like to read Rakesh Satyal’s other books. I definitely recommend this one. ( )

The CD version of this book, read by Amor Shah, just got better and better with each disk---perfectly delightful cast of characters, each with their own voice done beautifully by Shah. The story had a little of everything and I found it especially rewarding to be reading about Indian immigrants at the same time I was reading Behold The Dreamers about African immigrants---two very special stories. ( )

The writing is beautiful and eloquent, but I found the book (or what I read) incredibly sad. I'm at a point in my life when I don't need sad, even if I understand the sentiment of the title.

This was a book written so beautifully, so lyrically that it was as if the words had been painted on canvas instead of merely typed onto paper.

Why only two stars then? And why did I not finish this book even though I had read 75% of it?

Because even with all of its beauty the story was slow, the commentary about Americans was horrid, the character's thought they were above it all and I wasn't interested in the sex lives of these people.

In fact I never once felt connected enough with any of these characters/caricature's.

I could say much about what this story was *supposed* to be all about (friendship, relationships, questioning ones sexuality), but quite frankly I was only able to decipher the surface story and that was enough for me.

Perhaps If I were a better educated person I could have gotten more out of this book. ( )

I decided I wanted to read No One Can Pronounce My Name largely due to the recommendation of author Maria Semple. Since I like her books so much, I valued her opinion. I’m delighted to report that I also loved this book. Although I’ve read many other books about Indian immigrants to the US, I liked that this book showed a different perspective. It was a nice change to have an older Indian character who wants to break out of the insular Indian community. In other books, it seems like only the younger generation wants to integrate.

I found the book very thought-provoking about various subjects such as marriage, empty nests, insular communities and friendship. I think it would be an excellent choice for book discussion groups, and I highly recommend it. ( )

This novel shifts perspective between two immigrant families, and further between the first and second generation in each of these families. The writing is wry and strong throughout, but the thread is sometimes hard to follow and disjointed. The overall plot is something of a comedy of errors and once the book gets off the ground, is fun to follow.

I received an arc of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!.