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Rahul Mehta
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Quarantine: Stories Kindle Edition

by Rahul Mehta (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 out of 5 stars 39 ratings

With buoyant humor and incisive, cunning prose, Rahul Mehta sets off into uncharted literary territory. The characters in Quarantine—openly gay Indian-American men—are Westernized in some ways, with cosmopolitan views on friendship and sex, while struggling to maintain relationships with their families and cultural traditions. Grappling with the issues that concern all gay men—social acceptance, the right to pursue happiness, and the heavy toll of listening to their hearts and bodies—they confront an elder generation's attachment to old-country ways. Estranged from their cultural in-group and still set apart from larger society, the young men in these lyrical, provocative, emotionally wrenching, yet frequently funny stories find themselves quarantined.

Already a runaway success in India, Quarantine marks the debut of a unique literary talent.

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  1. Print length
    226 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    HarperCollins e-books
  4. Publication date
    June 7, 2011
  5. File size
    2.7 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“There are great realistic relationship stories [in Quarantine], of meetings, breakups, and the times in between...patrons will read it because of the promise evidenced by this young writer.”

From the Back Cover

With buoyant humor and incisive, cunning prose, Rahul Mehta sets off into uncharted literary territory. The characters in Quarantine—openly gay Indian-American men—are Westernized in some ways, with cosmopolitan views on friendship and sex, while struggling to maintain relationships with their families and cultural traditions. Grappling with the issues that concern all gay men—social acceptance, the right to pursue happiness, and the heavy toll of listening to their hearts and bodies—they confront an elder generation's attachment to old-country ways. Estranged from their cultural in-group and still set apart from larger society, the young men in these lyrical, provocative, emotionally wrenching, yet frequently funny stories find themselves quarantined.

Already a runaway success in India, Quarantine marks the debut of a unique literary talent.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004MMEIFK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books (June 7, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 7, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2.7 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 226 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0062020455
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 out of 5 stars 39 ratings

About the author

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Rahul Mehta

Rahul Mehta

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
39 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Amsalan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Stories that spoke directly to my heart
    Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    It is such a blessing to be taken on a journey full of beautifully woven stories and deeply moving characters - Rahul's effortless style of writing and turn of phrase definitely helps the stories sink in on a much deeper level.

    There is something achingly beautiful, familiar and so soulful present in all his stories, and I sincerely hope to see more writing from him in the future.

    A truly gifted storyteller - thank you again for this amazing journey through Quarantine.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • MDPrier
    4.0 out of 5 stars Metaphorical Quarantine
    Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2018
    A series of stories about Indian-American men, their lives and families, and each dealing with being gay. There were many cultural aspects about India I learned, as well as words from the language I had to look up. The stories were either intense and interesting, or predictable. They have been quarantined metaphorically from India, their families, and even lovers. I found it fascinating that even though they are American, they are still strongly connected to the country of their parents or grandparents through customs and traditions.
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  • WR
    3.0 out of 5 stars Less Than The Sum Of Its Parts
    Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2012
    If Madison Smartt Bell is telling the truth when he writes, on the cover of Quarantine, that the book is the "best first collection I have read in over twenty years," one can only conclude that Bell doesn't actually get all that much reading in, at least not of first short-story collections. What Quarantine has going for it - which, it is essential to realize, is not a literary quality at all - is a kind of demographic novelty. When's the last time you read stories by a gay author about gay Indian-American men? Never, probably (although one doesn't like to forget Vikram Seth's stellar "novel in verse," The Golden Gate, published in 1986 and also its author's first book).

    Still, there's something out-of-the-everyday in the concept, especially for the morass that gay fiction has become, and so one is beguiled enough to open the covers and dive in. And that, unfortunately, is where the magic largely begins to reveal itself as a series of not-very-clever parlor tricks. Mehta tries, without success, to duplicate David Leavitt's masterful evocations of family arrangements and derangements in Leavitt's earliest fiction; he attempts a sort of Carveresque minimalism in which, beneath the surface of a story in which nothing whatsoever actually happens, deep and meaningful currents roil; mostly, that doesn't much work, either. Mehta has also been reading his Jonathan Franzen and his Jhumpa Lahiri, the latter of whom demonstrated, in her most recent book of stories, that it is possible to be a terrific writer and an enviable craftsperson and yet fail to understand when you've drawn too many times from the same well.

    But Mehta cannot escape three significant flaws in his writing. First, this is graduate-writing-program writing in its purest form; it probably impresses writing teachers for hitting all the points of technique they've been teaching, but it is far from profound. Mehta demonstrates little depth and even less insight, and he doesn't quite seem to know how to lend even a touch of humanity to characters who behave clumsily, bluntly, thoughtlessly, caddishly, selfishly.

    Second, notwithstanding the ways in which Mehta appears to want to locate himself "outside" the mainstream (because his characters are gay, because they are Indian-Americans), he traps them in stuffy, middle-class worlds that, except for what the characters eat and the fact that they occasionally drop Hindi phrases into their conversations, are a fairly standard literary depiction of American bourgeoisie WASPlandia. (Mehta, of course, is ethnically Indian, but was born and raised in West Virginia; if you listen to his interview on YouTube, you can only giggle at how much he sounds like every other well-educated, post-gay, American thirty-something, complete with the standard-issue linguistic tic of making every statement sound like a question.) In other words, notwithstanding the fact that reviewers of the book seem to feel compelled, to a man, to trot out the phrase "breaks new ground," it isn't clear what new ground Mehta has actually broken. (There is usually a muddled assertion or two about "identity," as if the word actually meant something.) Yes, a new demographic constituency has been depicted in fiction; if that's fiction's job, then Mehta has done it. Still, the marketing and niche-i-fication of the book strike me as a relic of the late-80/early-90s when it seemed to make sense to talk about the first black gay novel or the first novel about AIDS. There's a kind of schizophrenia, moreover, in Mehta's insistence in numerous interviews that he is writing about characters who "just happen to be gay" (where have we heard that before?) even as the book is fluffed and blurbed and reviewed as though the gayness of the characters were central to the writing.

    Finally, and most damaging to the literary project, is that fact that there is a monotony to the stories and to the characters that wears exceedingly poorly. As a result, the fact that they are gay and Indian-American truly does fade into the background. Unfortunately, what rises into view instead is the realization that they are self-absorbed, shallow, and all but insensate to their experience. The epiphanies they have (and modern short fiction lives and dies on this appalling notion of the obligatory epiphany) are banal and, almost without exception, unearned. In the least successful story, "Yours," the relentless reporting of details and of stilted conversations, all of which add up to precisely nothing, is an insurmountable irritation; and the clunky metaphor of driving (at the end of a long, adolescent tizzy spurred by jealousy, the protagonist decides his lover isn't going to leave him after all and drives off into a snowstorm, "[pressing his] foot on the accelerator"), sends a mediocre story right over the cliff.

    Mehta is going to write better books. His biggest challenge, however, is going to be finding a way out of the corner he's painted himself into with this one.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Steve M. Close
    5.0 out of 5 stars Buy it just for "Floating."
    Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    The stories are a bit repetitive, but there's some genius here. "Floating" is one of the best-written stories I've seen in awhile. The rest are OK.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Texas
    4.0 out of 5 stars One of the most enjoyable collections I've read in a while.
    Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2011
    Quarantine is Rahul Mehta's debut short story collection. Nearly all of the nine stories in it center around gay Indian-American male protagonists who are trying to navigate the murky overlap between sexuality and cultural heritage. With the exception of "Citizen," all of the stories feature second- or third-generation young men whose beliefs and lifestyles are often at odds with those of their close relatives. Mehta masterfully uses restraint, honesty, and humor throughout his stories, producing an insightful and memorable collection.

    There is much to love in this book: the writing, the sorrow, the humor, the characters, their unique observations of human nature. Personally, I loved the characters' struggles with balancing their own experiences while trying to comprehend (or at least acknowledge) other members of their family who don't approve, a fact that is often exacerbated by cultural values.

    The characters in Quarantine are all imperfect; several end up doing or saying things that will likely end up haunting them. But though some of the stories could have easily crossed the line into cheesy melodrama, Mehta reins his characters in carefully and deliberately, often ratcheting up the tension in quiet increments. This is one of the most enjoyable short story collections I've read in a while.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Consumer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Can't wait for his next book
    Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Hurry up, Rahul. These stories and the Ivan and Mischa stories are both collections by great new authors writing about gay characters. Completely engaging literature, worth a look.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • jochi Schuhberger
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very honest gay themed biography
    Reviewed in Canada on November 24, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    A very good read and it shows that homophobia exist everywhere. It would be good for the young gays to read to see how far we have come
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  • Pankaj Kumar
    4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
    Reviewed in India on April 9, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    very good
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  • David Young
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good book.
    Reviewed in Canada on April 2, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Excellent stories, real people, impressed. Hope he writes a novel.
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