Review #185: Don't Let Him Know by Sandip Roy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Sometimes, the biggest secrets you can only tell a stranger.” 

----Michelle Hodkin American author/theater-actress

Sandip Roy is Senior Editor at the popular news portal and an Indian author, pens a gripping debut called, Don't Let Him Know which the author have cleverly portrayed a collection of short stories as a novel by interweaving each of his stories. This book revolves around a family where each of them has their own secret to uphold and lies to rule their life. Weaved between two generations, this book is like a collection of sea-shells- diverse, unique and has their own center of secret space.




Synopsis:

In a boxy apartment building in an Illinois university town, Romola Mitra, a newly arrived young bride, anxiously awaits her first letter from home in India. When she accidentally opens the wrong letter, it changes her life. Decades later, her son Amit finds that letter and thinks he has discovered his mother's secret. But secrets have their own secrets sometimes.

Amit does not know that Avinash, his dependable and devoted father, has been timidly visiting gay chat rooms, driven by the lifelong desires he never allowed himself to indulge. Avinash, for his part, doesn't understand what his dutiful wife gave up in marrying him -- the memories of romance she keeps tucked away.

Growing up in Calcutta, in a house bustling with feisty grandmothers, Amit has been shielded from his parents' secrets. Now he's a successful computer engineer, settled in San Fransisco yet torn between his new life and his duties to the one he left behind.

Moving from adolescent rooftop games to adult encounters in gay bars, from hair salons in Calcutta to McDonald's drive-thrus in California, Don't Let Him Know is an unforgettable story about family and the sacrifices we make for those we love. Tender, funny, and beautifully told, it marks the arrival of a resonant new voice.


The story begins with a woman named Romola Mitra visiting his son, Amit and his family in San Fransisco, after her husband's death. It is when Amit tells her mother that he has found an old, torn letter of his mother's lover. On this revelation, Romola becomes angry on that fact that she had cleaned off her past just like cleaning off the kitchen counter. Why is she guarding her secret even after her husband's death? Will she talk about it to her son, Amit?

All these questions are answered in the following chapters when one-by-one, the author delves deeper into the roots and personalities of the three central characters of the book-Romola, the wife, Avinash, the husband and Amit, the son.

From Romola's childhood stories to her marriage to facing her husband's secret side to feeling completely lost in the streets of America, that's how we got to know about Romola's demeanor, past, beliefs, secret crush, etc and the stories are more like an etching memory in the character's lives- distinct and sharp, but with no supporting story to look beyond that memory.

For Amit his life revolves around his house in Kolkata to his university days in San Fransisco. Amit is a very interesting character and sounds like the author have crafted him from his personal experiences. Amit's characterization strikes a cord with realism and truth and he is an epitome of how the lives of Indian immigrant students turn out to be in US/UK. From a dreadful phone call in the middle of the night from your loved ones to feeling attracted to the someone other than with Asian/Indian roots, to drinking bottled water when visiting hometown, to adapting the American lifestyle. And from his mother Romola, we are able to see the culture clash in Amit's demeanor, of how he became more American with his life.

The most important characters of this book is Avinash who is portrayed from an age when he comes to term with his new sexuality, attraction towards men, having affairs to the age when he gets married to Romola and how he shuts himself into his own cocoon of peace and content to the age when he visits gay chat rooms to feel his desires. What Avinash never heard from Romola's silence was her desire to be loved, which remained a faint dream forever in Romola's mind.

Secrets play a crucial role in the book as the characters are dependent upon their own secrets and web of lies, then carrying them like a baggage through generations. The writing is lyrical and eloquent with intricacy and each story have been crafted with compassion and deep emotions. This kaleidoscopic representation of the stories tell us a lot about so many aspects of life of a Bengali.

Verdict: This book is surely going to enthrall you with it's deep secrets and relationships beyond boundaries.

Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers from Bloomsbury for providing me with a copy of Sandip Roy's book, in return for an honest review. 
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Author Info:

Sandip Roy is Senior Editor at the popular news portal Firstpost.com and blogs for the Huffington Post. He has been a longtime commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, the most listened-to radio programme in the US, and has a weekly radio postcard for public radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also an editor with New America Media. Sandip has won several awards for journalism and contributed to various anthologies including Storywallah!, Contours of the Heart, Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India, Out! Stories from the New Queer India, New California Writing 2011 and The Phobic and the Erotic: The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India. Sandip lives in Kolkata. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/author/sandip-roy/#sthash.IiG1ZMWg.dpuf

Sandip Roy is Senior Editor at the popular news portal Firstpost.com and blogs for the Huffington Post. He has been a longtime commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, the most listened-to radio programme in the US, and has a weekly radio postcard for public radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also an editor with New America Media. Sandip has won several awards for journalism and contributed to various anthologies including Storywallah!, Contours of the Heart, Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India, Out! Stories from the New Queer India, New California Writing 2011 and The Phobic and the Erotic: The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India. Sandip lives in Kolkata. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/author/sandip-roy/#sthash.IiG1ZMWg.dpuf

Sandip Roy is Senior Editor at the popular news portal Firstpost.com and blogs for the Huffington Post. He has been a longtime commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, the most listened-to radio programme in the US, and has a weekly radio postcard for public radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also an editor with New America Media. Sandip has won several awards for journalism and contributed to various anthologies including Storywallah!, Contours of the Heart, Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India, Out! Stories from the New Queer India, New California Writing 2011 and The Phobic and the Erotic: The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India. Sandip lives in Kolkata. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/author/sandip-roy/#sthash.IiG1ZMWg.dpuf

Sandip Roy is Senior Editor at the popular news portal Firstpost.com and blogs for the Huffington Post. He has been a longtime commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, the most listened-to radio programme in the US, and has a weekly radio postcard for public radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also an editor with New America Media. Sandip has won several awards for journalism and contributed to various anthologies including Storywallah!, Contours of the Heart, Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India, Out! Stories from the New Queer India, New California Writing 2011 and The Phobic and the Erotic: The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India. Sandip lives in Kolkata.


Book Purchase Links:

• Amazon US
• Amazon India