Anurag Mathur

Gopal, an Indian student in the Midwest to study chemistry for a year, gets both immersed in and immune to American culture. The entertaining novel, set in the 1980s, finds Gopal enjoying snow, haggling at the mall, and being so curious as to why his first American friend announces, "I'm Randy" (Gopal has been schooled in English via Penthouse Letters). Never condescending to either culture, Gopal's letters to his younger brother at home reveal how much he has absorbed and how much of his show more family and culture are ingrained. This is a wonderful tale, full of warmth, humor, and sexual misadventures. show less

Mathur has written another book after this, but nothing has matched the success of this first book.

‘The Inscrutable Americans’ starts off with a super hilarious letter written by the protagonist to his older brother, about life in America. This mini book that’s just over 250 pages is a non stop ride in hilarity.

Our hero Gopal hails from the small town of Jajau in India and the story starts with him arriving in the US for his further studies. Everything is a culture shock for him show more starting with his American friend, Randy who meets him at the airport. This is quite shocking for Gopal who fails to understand how his parents could name him that!

Gopal’s misadventures continue as he experiences the modern US life with its supermarkets, freeways and the conveniences of the city. He haggles for things at the supermarket, where even the exasperated owner gives in and gives him the goods at reduced prices. As Gopal knows (from his shopping experiences in India) that unless you have done some bargaining, it’s not shopping :-)

Gopal also has a tendency to do a lot of day-dreaming especially the dreams related to his imaginary girlfriend and the subsequent heartbreak he suffers. While Gopal struggles to make sense of it all, his friend Randy is onto a different mission altogether and that ’s making Gopal go the distance.What happens with Gopal’s straightfaced atttitude and Randy’s brashness is one hilarious read.

The best part is that this is one of the few books in which every incident by the protagonist is spoken in typical Indian style, if you know what I mean.There is a virtual translation of the sentences we speak in Hindi to English that makes you laugh as you read along. I have to present some excerpts from the book to make you realize what you have been missing, if you hav’nt read this book as yet.

In one of Gopal’s letters to his brother he says:
• How much I am missing one and all I simply cannot say. My head is eating circles with all new things. Two weeks are already proceeding and I am not even knowing. Also no one is bothering who you are and you are also not to bother. You are not believing, but I am calling respected Professors by first name. One is saying to me, ’’My name is Sam, not Sir Sam. The British are not knighting me yet.’’ Good joke I think. Brother, are you imagining if I am going to Great Principal of Jajua College and calling him by first name? I think he is dying of heart attack.

• At Customs, brother, I am getting big shock. One fat man is grunting at me and looking cleverly from small eyes. ’’First visit?’’ he is asking, ’’Yes,’’ I am agreeing ’’Move on,’’ he is saying making chalk marks on bags. As I am picking up bags he is looking directly at me and saying ’’Watch your ass.’’ Now, brother, this is wonderful. How he is knowing we are purchasing donkey? I think they are knowing everything about everybody who is coming to America.

’’The Inscrutable Americans’’ means the American people who cannot be understood easily. The title makes a lot of sense vis-à-vis Gopal, for whom the Americans continued to be inscrutable even as he returns to India, a much wiser person. At just 100 bucks this is the cheapest way to a three hour laughathon. Enjoy! show less

It's a charming, amusing, easy read about a high-caste Indian who spends the senior year of his undergrad at a small university in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, in the 90s, you can imagine the amount of whiteness and racism in a small town. This is the story of Gopal's culture shock.

What's not to like? A funny take on an Indian boy's first experience of America. Of course, this was just the prototype of all the novels that were to follow, and all the ABCD movies that were to be made. This was the original and the funniest, most honest response of an Indian to America.