No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal

Harit, in particular, desperately holds on to the divide between his Indian culture and the society in which he now lives. Much of the conflict within the book comes from the various characters’ attempts to either assimilate with or shut out entirely American culture as immigrants or first-generation citizens.

He’s quietly struggling with changing his major from chemistry to literature, trying to get girls to notice him, and constantly being embarrassed by his parents. The parts of the story that take place outside of Ohio follow Prashant, Ranjana’s son, who’s in his first year at Princeton University. That begins to change when he meets Ranjana, an empty-nester who works at a proctologist’s office by day and writes Indian paranormal romance stories in secret at night, all while convinced her husband is having an affair. The closest thing he has to a friend is Teddy, his fabulous-in-his-own-mind coworker at a local department store.

The bulk of the story takes place in and around Cleveland, where Harit, an isolated middle-aged man mourns the death of his sister Swati and cares for his mother, who’s gone nearly catatonic in her grief. But what shouldn’t be lost amidst all the now-more-than-evers is the timelessness of this well-crafted and heartwarming story chock full of characters you can’t help but root for. Lambda Literary Award-winner Rakesh Satyal’s second novel, No One Can Pronounce My Name, will probably create a buzz in the national conversation due to the timeliness of a multi-generational tale of Indian immigrants navigating the complexity of family and culture in America.

‘No One Can Pronounce My Name’ by Rakesh Satyal

No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal