--Book Review--
An American Brat
by Bapsi Sidhwa
(Minnesota: Milkweed 1995)
317 pages $12.95
Reviewed by Manorama Mathai
[Editor's note: Manorama Mathai is
the author of Mulligatawny Soup and
An Unsuitable Woman and many
short stories.]
An American Brat by Bapsy Sidhwa is a very readable novel. The heroine
Feroza is a charming and believable character, as are most of the Pakistanis
and some of the Americans who people the book.
I enjoyed An American Brat , but unfortunately, as Mrs Malaprop observed,
"comparisons are odorous" and comparison is inevitable. Sidhwa's earlier
novel Ice Candy Man aka Cracking India was an almost perfect piece of
work, combining charm, pathos and humour so skilfully while using a
child's eye view of adult and terrible happenings.
I found myself a little disappointed by An American Brat . Sidhwa has a
good ear and she mimics perfectly the Parsees of Pakistan, as also the
American personae; but there is something pedestrian about her prose in
this novel which leaves one feeling a little flat. Perhaps this is because
the story is what engrosses her, as also showing us the impact of America
on "desis." In doing the latter, she is entirely honest which might not
amuse touchy sub-continentals and might bemuse American readers.
Although I questioned the probability of conservative Indian\Pak parents
sending a teenage daughter to the States to stay with an uncle some three
years older and not known for his maturity, it must be said that the author
handles the uncle-niece relationship very well indeed, making Manek's
quirky behaviour plausible and Feroza's response appealing.
Sidhwa has a keen eye and uses it well in Lahore, New York, Boston,
and Twin Falls. However, in the second half of the book one has a sense
of the narrator taking charge of the action, one can see the strings being
pulled, and the ending is somehow predictable. Nevertheless, this is a
very enjoyable read and I look forward to Ms Sidhwa's next.