SHORT FICTION
Alien skies
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`These are stories about American women who ... have the privileged option of leaving home and trying on other countries for size in an attempt to find themselves.'
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NELL FREUDENBERGER'S world, stretching from Mumbai to Bangkok, is primarily populated by expatriate American women, who are at once consumed by the foreign environment they have chosen to live in but curiously unable to come to grips with it completely. These are not Lonely-Planet-driven explorers of the exotic, seekers of spirituality and quick-fix mysticism. They are women living and working far from their suburban American homes, making the mistakes that Americans often make, while attempting to live in an alien culture.
In her debut collection of stories, Lucky Girls, American author Nell Freudenberger writes about women engaging with the contemporary face of South Asia. There are none of the usual Westerner's impressions of India and definitely no romanticised ascetics and bent-old beggars that all visiting foreigners seem determined to chronicle.
Her characters live in a world of social clubs and "good, government areas" that the middle class Indians they meet speak of approvingly, and have Harvard-educated private tutors to coach them for the SAT exam. These are the kinds of people who have bacon-and-eggs breakfasts in five-star hotels and then go out to work with "AIDS babies." But that does not mean their children are not afraid of the very Indian bogeyman — the shady figure that is supposed to shove the naughty into his oversize knapsack — and that the women do not understand the undercurrents in Indian households. Over the course of three trips, Nell has spent a total of six months in India, which probably lends an aura of reality to the three stories set here.
In "Lucky Girls," the first of the five stories, a 25-year-old American, who has an affair with a married Indian man, feels tied to India after his death, though she can't decide whether it's his memory holding her back or the country itself. Nell's leading ladies live, work and have relationships in the modern Asia, exploring the various aspects of such engagements and trying hard to understand their adopted countries. They test the limits to which such engagements can be taken and realise the limitations and cultural aspects of being in another world. These are stories about American women, who are not sure of where they are going and what exactly they are doing, but have the privileged option of leaving home and trying on other countries for size in an attempt to find themselves.
"The Orphan" introduces the all-American middle-class family, holidaying in Bangkok, where their 21-year-old daughter, Mandy works with children with AIDS. The parents are trying to break the news of their divorce to their children, while trying to come to terms with her decision to live in Thailand with a man who has abused her. Also unsettling, but obviously to a far lesser degree, is the fact that the college-going son is part of a Cool Rich Kids club that donates money to radical causes parents would never contribute to. Though she's adopted Thailand, Mandy is not entirely at ease in her new and obviously not-natural home. It's as if she is living a fantastic dream, doing all the politically correct things — giving up her comfortable life at home, complete with Yale education to work with the less-privileged and fitting into Thailand so well that she can shrug off her mother's doubts and fears about Thailand and the boyfriend with a dismissive "it's a cultural thing", but at some level she's doing these things because she thinks they're right, not because she really wants to. Nell's characters are in a particular place at a particular time, but not always there entirely.
The five stories, which are a little too long to actually be called short stories, are beautifully crafted though the fifth, "Letter from the Last Bastion" does seem to run on interminably, despite Nell's elegant turn of phrase and simple language. There are moments of absolute brilliance, though, in the story, which is in the form of a letter from a young girl, describing her pen-friend-like relationship with a famous novelist.
There is a simplicity to her writing that seems to mask the real stories. You could choose to miss the subtle points she makes, and just enjoy the language — or you could marvel at both. In fact, it's almost easy to not read beyond her almost lyrical prose that makes the most mundane of everyday routines fascinating. Her style has a soothing nothingness to it that makes you keep reading.
Lucky Girls, Nell Freudenberger, Picador India, Rs. 225.
SHALINI UMACHANDRAN
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