Deepak Unnikrishnan

Deepak Unnikrishnan's book is a collection of short stories set in United Arab Emirates, primarily among the guest workers who make up a majority of the population of the UAE, and have made their lives there, but who know they someday must leave. The stories are surreal and discombobulating and clever; I appreciated them more than I enjoyed them. Unnikrishnan is a talented writer, but often in these stories, the cleverness overrides the emotional depth.

In the opening story, workers fall show more from the skyscrapers they are building, landing injured in construction sites all over Abu Dhabi. A woman rides out every night on her bicycle and reassembles the workers, reattaching limbs and patching holes so that they can return to work in the morning. In Mushtibushi, children in a large apartment building believe that the elevator is a monster who needs appeasement, to explain a series of molestations. And in a few stories, the roaches take center stage, whether in a boy's desperate attempts to keep them at bay, or in the story of a roach outcast and how he becomes the leader of the roaches.

None of the stories are comfortable or fun, but despite the surrealism, they do paint a vivid picture of what life is like for guest workers and their families in the UAE. show less

This is a very uneven set of short stories. Some I’d give five stars, some zero. The problem with magical realism is either it really really works or it really really doesn’t. I loved when Unnikrishnan used magical metaphors to convey the difficulty of being an immigrant worker in the UAE but felt that sometimes the metaphors got away from him.

And then there’s the weird sexual aspects. It seems like Unnikrishnan needs to shoehorn sex into almost every narrative. Maybe someone told him show more sex makes stories more interesting? While I agree sex is interesting, it often felt forced and unnecessary. Even when sex was an interesting part of the story he ended up taking it to a weird conclusion, like the clown story.

Maybe three of the stories I thought were amazing. Like truly wow. But the rest were kinda meh with some boo thrown in, all interspersed by some truly pretentious poetry.

Ultimately, as a pravasi (technically) I found some things that really resonated with me (“And by the time you’ve done the math in your head, everything you’ve missed, what’s been gained, you’ll come to realize what the word pravasi really means: absence. That’s what it means, absence.”) And I also learned a lot about the specific pains faced by pravasis in the UAE. It's a perspective I haven't seen a lot of so I appreciated getting to know their world a little better. show less

I was exited to read this because it's about South Asian immigrant workers in the UAE. But I found it extremely uneven. Sometimes the surrealism/magical realism worked, sometimes it fell really flat. Sometimes the characters were interesting and enlightening even when they were repellent, sometimes they were completely unsuccessful in communicating (to me at least) what the author intended. The taxi driver story worked for me even though I found it extremely difficult to read. But others show more just didn't. Ambitious, clearly, but the author didn't always feel in full control of the work. show less

An odd book, I don't really know what to think. I found the first half to be a struggle, but the second went quickly--maybe due to the 6-day backpacking trip I took in the middle of reading this? I am a mood reader.

This novel has no story line. Rather, it is a bunch of short stories/snippets revolving around the guest worker/immigrant communities of UAE. Their alienation within the country, their missing of home are common themes. But there are also bits of magical realism-like writing here show more too. Cockroaches who walk and talk and dress themselves. Workers who are grown in the desert, with a lifespan of 8 years.

Hard to categorize, definitely original. This seems like a Booker longlist book to me. show less