Members Only

by Sameer Pandya

Overview

First the white members of Raj Bhatt’s posh tennis club call him racist. Then his life falls apart. Along the way, he wonders: where does he, a brown man, belong in America? This award-winning novel “offers deep insight into the ways the characters are shaped by racism” (Publishers Weekly).

An NPR Best Book · A Millions Most Anticipated Title of 2020 · A Rumpus Best Book for Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month

Raj is often unsure of where he belongs. Having moved to America from Bombay as a child, he knew few Indian kids. Now middle-aged, he lives mostly happily in California, with a job at a university. Still, his white wife seems to fit in better than he does at times, especially at their tennis club, a place he’s cautiously come to love. But it’s there that, in one week, his life unravels. It begins at a meeting for potential new members: Raj thrills to find an African American couple on the list; he dreams of a more diverse club. But in an effort to connect, he makes a racist joke. The committee turns on him, no matter the years of prejudice he’s put up with. And worse still, he soon finds his job is in jeopardy after a group of students report him as a reverse racist, thanks to his alleged “anti-Western bias.” Heartfelt, humorous, and hard-hitting, Members Only explores what membership and belonging mean, as Raj navigates the complicated space between black and white America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780358379928
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/07/2020
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	824,017
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

SAMEER PANDYA is the author of the story collection The Blind Writer, which was longlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award. He is also the recipient of the PEN/Civitella Fellowship. His fiction, commentary, and cultural criticism has appeared in a range of publications, including the Atlantic, Salon, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and Narrative Magazine. He teaches creative writing and South Asian and Asian American literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Members Only is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

If Things Fall Apart hadn't already been taken, it would be an apt title for Pandya's novel, which is as witty as it is woeful.

The New York Times Book Review - Elisabeth Egan

02/10/2020

In Pandya’s tense, sly debut novel (after the collection The Blind Writer) a college lecturer faces accusations of racism and anti-American bias in a California suburb over the course of a fateful week. Having immigrated to the U.S. from India as a child, Raj Bhatt has settled into a quiet life with his wife and children; they have a house in a comfortable neighborhood, their children attend a great school, and they belong to a tennis club. Still, Raj continues to feel like an outsider. Things come to a head when Raj tries to connect with a prospective African-American couple at the club. Unfortunately, an effort to put the man at ease about his purported need to work on his tennis game (“Nigga, please,” Raj says) has the opposite effect, and it earns him accusations of racism by the club’s white members. The next day, he faces another group outraged by his words, this time from right-wing students who organize a protest against him over objections to his credible lectures on the history of American slavery. After a recorded confrontation with them goes viral, Raj begins to reckon with the disharmony in his new life. The taut, heartrending narrative offers deep insight into the ways the characters are shaped by racism. Pandya’s sympathetic portrait of Raj’s quest for acceptance will resonate with readers. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Finalist for the California Book Award * An NPR Best Book of 2020 * A Millions Most Anticipated Title of 2020 * A Rumpus Best Book for Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month —

 “If 'Things Fall Apart' hadn’t already been taken, it would be an apt title for Pandya’s novel, which is as witty as it is woeful.”  — Elisabeth Egan, New York Times Book Review

"In Sameer Pandya’s heart-pounding novel, every word Raj Bhatt says, every action he takes, is consequential...This is a nail-biting read because Raj’s fate—a comfortable life unraveled by misinterpretations and words taken out of context—is all too familiar in today’s world."  — NPR.org

"I binged-read Members Only and it did not disappoint. ... Smart, funny, topical, and it does tennis right."   — Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated's Beyond the Baseline

“A grand slam. … Pandya’s writing here is smooth, clear, funny, and often subtly beautiful. Members Only is the thoughtful page-turner we need right now.”  — Booklist (starred review)

 “An intense, funny, and absolutely necessary novel about our current times. Accomplished storyteller Pandya has given all of us teachers a compulsive read for the days, the weeks, when we feel unmoored and even a slightly bit crazy.”  — Weike Wang, author of Chemistry and Joan is Okay

“Is extremely enjoyable anxiety a thing? Because that’s how I felt as I sped through Professor Raj Bhatt’s very bad week. A vital, tightly-written dive into our current swirl of confusion over privilege and power.”  — Jade Chang, author of The Wangs vs. The World

"Members Only perfectly portrays how our careless words and casual comments have unintended ripple effects that couldn't possibly be predicted. This is a riveting story of misunderstanding and misrepresentation."  — Laurie Gelman, author of Class Mom and You've Been Volunteered 

“In Pandya’s tense, sly debut novel (after the collection The Blind Writer) a college lecturer faces accusations of racism and anti-American bias in a California suburb over the course of a fateful week. The taut, heartrending narrative offers deep insight into the ways the characters are shaped by racism. Pandya’s sympathetic portrait of Raj’s quest for acceptance will resonate with readers.” — Publishers Weekly

"As provocative as it is comedic. ... Facing social, professional, personal implosion—all in one week—might seem impossibly overdramatic, but Members Only proves remarkably convincing. ... That said, don't expect all doom-and-gloom here: without ever eliding the gravity of serious social issues like racism, privilege and power, Pandya deftly manages to create a tragicomedy of errors driven by surprising wit, irreverent humor and razor-sharp insight." — Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

"In Sameer Pandya’s heart-pounding novel, every word Raj Bhatt says, every action he takes, is consequential...This is a nail-biting read because Raj’s fate—a comfortable life unraveled by misinterpretations and words taken out of context—is all too familiar in today’s world." 

NPR.org

An intense, funny, and absolutely necessary novel about our current times. Accomplished storyteller Pandya has given all of us teachers a compulsive read for the days, the weeks, when we feel unmoored and even a slightly bit crazy.” 

Weike Wang

2020-02-10
Over the course of a week, an Indian American professor’s life spirals out of control.

University lecturer Raj Bhatt loves the exclusive Tennis Club, TC for short, to which he and his family belong even though he has always felt uncomfortable as one of its few nonwhite members. When, in an effort to connect with a black couple who want to join the club, he lets slip a slur in front of the membership committee, the other members of the TC are horrified. Raj feels awful, but he can't help wondering why the racial slights he’s faced during his time there haven’t received the same attention. Meanwhile, after students in his anthropology class send video of him supposedly criticizing Christianity and the West to a right-wing website, he finds himself in the middle of an internet firestorm that threatens his job. Suddenly, he's being labeled a racist and a reverse-racist simultaneously. This first novel from Pandya (The Blind Writer, 2015) aims to skewer both the upper-crust milieu of exclusive country clubs and conservative campus culture, and it partially succeeds. Pandya is sharply critical of right-wing “news” sites and conservative students who argue against any critique of the West, but his depiction of these phenomena is not totally believable. Pandya focuses on website comments, not social media or Reddit (the hubs of online hate today), and Raj’s outraged students feel more like convenient obstacles than real people. Also, while he captures the details of the country-club setting, he doesn't examine the politics of those characters as closely. The novel’s satirical edge might have been more effective if Raj were either more sympathetic or more odious. The novel ultimately sides with him, but he causes many of his problems himself and is irritating enough that it's hard to feel too sorry for him.

A readable but frustrating critique of contemporary politics that lacks bite.

Kirkus Reviews

"As provocative as it is comedic. ... Facing social, professional, personal implosion—all in one week—might seem impossibly overdramatic, but Members Only proves remarkably convincing. ... That said, don't expect all doom-and-gloom here: without ever eliding the gravity of serious social issues like racism, privilege and power, Pandya deftly manages to create a tragicomedy of errors driven by surprising wit, irreverent humor and razor-sharp insight."

Shelf Awareness

If 'Things Fall Apart' hadn’t already been taken, it would be an apt title for Pandya’s novel, which is as witty as it is woeful.” 

Elisabeth Egan

"I binged-read Members Only and it did not disappoint. ... Smart, funny, topical, and it does tennis right."  

Jon Wertheim

Is extremely enjoyable anxiety a thing? Because that’s how I felt as I sped through Professor Raj Bhatt’s very bad week. A vital, tightly-written dive into our current swirl of confusion over privilege and power.” 

Jade Chang

A grand slam. … Pandya’s writing here is smooth, clear, funny, and often subtly beautiful. Members Only is the thoughtful page-turner we need right now.” 

Booklist (starred review)

Narrator Sunil Malhotra evokes the pathos of a novel that explores “reverse racism,” cyber violence, and cancel culture. Indian-American Raj Bhatt’s life is turned upside down when he blurts out the N-word in front of a Black man at his tennis club. To make matters even worse, at the university where he teaches, a group of conservative students accuses him of hating Christians. With his powerful and adaptable voice, Malhotra masterfully portrays a variety of characters, particularly Raj and the colleagues who help him clear up the misunderstandings. Malhotra’s use of Indian and Filipino accents adds authenticity, and his pacing is appropriate. Listeners will be enlightened by this audiobook’s timely themes. A.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

Narrator Sunil Malhotra evokes the pathos of a novel that explores “reverse racism,” cyber violence, and cancel culture. Indian-American Raj Bhatt’s life is turned upside down when he blurts out the N-word in front of a Black man at his tennis club. To make matters even worse, at the university where he teaches, a group of conservative students accuses him of hating Christians. With his powerful and adaptable voice, Malhotra masterfully portrays a variety of characters, particularly Raj and the colleagues who help him clear up the misunderstandings. Malhotra’s use of Indian and Filipino accents adds authenticity, and his pacing is appropriate. Listeners will be enlightened by this audiobook’s timely themes. A.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile