2024 the best possible experience review
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(as of Nov 17, 2024 15:41:14 UTC - Details)
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR • An emotionally rich collection of short stories, painting a fascinating portrait of contemporary India and its diaspora and a yearning rendering of the people and places we call home, from a major new literary talent.
“A full-hearted, brilliant debut of necessary beauty.” —Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars and New York Times bestseller Friday Black
"Injam's stories made me want to cast all else aside and return home.” —Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning
Vivid, vibrant, and unwaveringly affecting, The Best Possible Experience brings us intimate, impeccably realized accounts of individuals living in one of the most populous countries in the world and in its American diaspora—all haunted, in every sense of the word, by a loss of home.
Classically elegant in prose and consistently modern in outlook, Nishanth Injam’s stories question what it means to have a home and to return home, and show, above all, that home is not a place so much as it is people who are ready to accept you as you are. We see a young man trapped on a bus on the way to visit his parents as his fellow passengers vanish into the restroom. A family, newly in America, determined to host a perfect luncheon for their son’s white classmate—with no idea what to serve him. A woman who returns to a small village in India every summer to visit the grandfather who raised her, a man who lives with the ghosts of his son and his wife. And a man preparing for his green card interview with the American woman he has paid to marry him.
A sui generis talent, Injam first started writing after coming to the United States from India in his twenties. The Best Possible Experience, his profoundly personal debut collection, delivers a universal inquiry into the idea of belonging and preserves in writing the home he left behind, before it was lost
Publisher : Pantheon (July 11, 2023)
Language : English
Hardcover : 224 pages
ISBN-10 : 0593317696
ISBN-13 : 978-0593317693
Item Weight : 13 ounces
Dimensions : 5.95 x 0.82 x 8.52 inches
Reviewer: MelF
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Brilliant Writer
Review: Nishanth is an amazing, perceptive and beautiful writer with an ability to understand peopleâs emotional landscape and the stories in this collection are rich, complex, and a wonderful read
Reviewer: Laura S. Minor
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A very moving set of stories
Review: I truly enjoyed this book. Each story I introduces us to a unique person of Indian heritage - in India, the US and Goa. They are in different ages, stages and economic circumstances but each story addresses the main theme of home. What and where is it? Can you make a place home where you arenât respected? Is it still home when you visit after not having been there for a while? Is it the people or the place or who you are that makes it home.I recommend this book. The stories will stay with you.
Reviewer: Judy H.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Gut wrenching but worth it stories
Review: Nishanth is a skilled writer with a lot to say. His mind comes into focus during the small moments of human existence where the vulnerability can be captured only by his talent. These stories will melt your heart and show a life we cannot describe in daily words.
Reviewer: Bryan Santos
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent book
Review: Stunning collection!
Reviewer: Tarheelreader
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A skilled and talented author to watch
Review: Iâm grateful The Best Possible Experience was placed on my radar. There are eleven stories; some set in different regions of India and some in the United States. Each of the stories is centered on belonging and finding home, especially when the home is lost.I found each story in The Best Possible Experience packed with emotion, especially sadness and longing, and the writing sparkles with sensitivity and insight. Overall, Nishanth Injam is a skilled and talented author I hope to read again and again.I received a gifted copy.
Reviewer: Gardener Eileen
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Stories from the heart
Review: Loved this book because it made me think about the âothernessâ of the immigrant experience. Throughout, there is a wistfulness for home, for belonging somewhere. Some of it made me laughâthe surprise at toilet paper vs a bidet and the question of cleanliness. (And we Americans think we are so advanced.)Beautifully written book that I highly recommend.
Reviewer: Mohit G
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An author to watch
Review: An eclectic debut collection of short stories. An author to watch in future.Some stories deal with the immigrant experience. One deals with paranormal. All elegantly told. A quick read overall. Loved the prose that is approachable without going over the top (something you normally see with authors of this genre)