Yearning drives the characters in Sindya Bhanoo's elegant, sensitive debut collection "Seeking Fortune Elsewhere." The characters long for appreciation, absent loved ones, the customs of yesteryear, or the opportunity to exercise power. Bhanoo's stories feature several generations of characters from the Tamil community, living in the United States and Tamil Nadu, India, and traveling between.
Two of the most resonant stories in the collection, "Malliga Homes," which won the O. Henry Prize, and "No. 16 Model House Road," depict an India in which tech booms in the bustling cites of Bangalore and Chennai have skyrocketed housing prices. Developers offer elders incentives to move or allow their small homes to transform into apartment buildings in exchange for an updated flat.
In "Malliga Homes," the narrator, who moved to a well-appointed retirement community after her husband died, explains, "Like me, nearly every resident of Malliga Homes has lost sons and daughters to Foreign." As the residents dash back to their apartments to answer infrequent phone calls from their children, and have few decisions to make except for what to have for dinner, there's a sense there is little for them to do but wait to die.
In "No. 16 Model House Road," however, the protagonist seizes her one chance to exert control after the course of her entire life has been decided for her, and she relishes her small rebellion. Bhanoo focuses her keen attention on these women, who are no longer at the center of their family's lives and are often overlooked.
Gauri, the protagonist of "Buddymoon," similarly chose to use the first tiny bit of power she obtained. She immigrated to Pullman, Wash., for an arranged marriage, and one day, after she'd half raised two children, her husband suddenly announced he wanted a divorce. Rather than stay in the house as he suggested, Gauri chose to move to California, which forced her into relative poverty and estrangement from her girls.
Often, there's no triumphant choice for these women, but Bhanoo shows how the act of choosing preserves their dignity.
In two stories, characters style themselves as spiritual leaders, one more successfully than the other. A group of women in southern India who watch a former classmate overcome their mistreatment to become a famous Kollywood actress, a politician, and ultimately something of a goddess figure, collectively narrate "Amma."
"She appeals to the fisherman, the rickshaw driver, the bricklayer," they explain. Still, as the narrators reflect, "She cannot seem to keep a friend." In "His Holiness," an American teenager watches her down-at-the-heels immigrant academic father attempt to transform himself into a "Spiritual Leader and Scholar-Mystic," as described in brochures for his poorly attended seminars.
The teenage daughter perspective on the situation is perfect — if you ever thought your teenagers found you annoying, wait until you claim you're a font of divine wisdom.
These eight stories investigate the many ways that loneliness can enter a life and Bhanoo makes the reader feel every heartbreak through her skillful, measured prose.
Jenny Shank's story collection, "Mixed Company," won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and her novel, "The Ringer," won the High Plains Book Award.
Seeking Fortune Elsewhere: Stories
By: Sindya Bhanoo.
Publisher: Catapult, 240 pages, $26.
