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Amit does not know that Avinash, his devoted father, lurked on gay chat rooms at times, unable to set aside his lifelong attraction to men. Avinash, for his part, had no idea about the memories of a starry romance his dutiful wife kept tucked away among her silk saris. As Amit settles down as a computer engineer in San Francisco, he too is torn between his new life here and his duties toward the one he has left behind in India.
Don't Let Him Know sweeps up multiple generations of a family, moving from an illicit encounter in a Calcutta park to an unlikely friendship forged at a Carbondale gay bar, from midnight snacks of a great-grandmother's mango chutney to wayward temptations at a McDonald's drive-thru. Tender, funny, and beautifully told, it is an unforgettable story about the sacrifices we make for those we love.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 20, 2015 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781620408995
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781620408995
- File size: 584 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from November 15, 2014
Roy's mesmerizing debut explores the inner lives of a family of Indian immigrants who can never reveal their secrets.Romola Mitra doesn't tell her new husband, Avinash, what she found in a letter addressed to him. It's too late for that-she's already left Calcutta for the small Illinois town where Avinash is finishing his Ph.D. Romola now bottles a painful secret that seems destined to explode. Instead, it fizzles. Flashbacks to Romola's hopeful youth in India contrast with quiet scenes of domesticity with Avinash and their son, Amit, all three forming a close-knit family without knowing each other at all. Avinash, whose first crush was on his male barber, has resorted to meeting men in anonymous chat rooms and gay clubs, while his wife daydreams about the film star she might have married had her parents approved. Amit grows up and moves to San Francisco without ever knowing the sacrifices his parents made. In refusing to buck the system, they challenge the very notion of freedom. In Calcutta, the Mitra family had servants; in the middle of America, Romola is confined to her box of an apartment with no car and not quite enough English to fully express herself. She and her extended family find freedom in transcendent moments. Forbidden to eat sweets, Amit's great-grandmother hides jars of mango chutney under her mattress to have when she's bedridden. Her recipe-and the tastes and smells it produces-follows Amit all the way to San Francisco years after she dies. Romola's adventures are the most surreal, including a harrowing encounter with a McDonald's cashier, a tussle with a bodyguard at a funeral and a singalong with a drag queen named Bang la Dish. For Avinash, what doesn't happen is almost as important as what does: At times, his indiscretion leads him to heartache or danger, but it doesn't ruin his life. Instead, the truth becomes a canvas for a beautiful still-life portrait-and a masterpiece at that.COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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April 1, 2015
This debut novel follows a closeted husband and father, an unfulfilled mother, and a son who doesn't know his parents as they journey back and forth between India and the United States.
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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