Local author Sameer Pandya, a middle-age Indian-American man, came to the United States at age 8. He he has lived in Santa Barbara for a good part of his adult life, and he teaches at UCSB. His wife, an easygoing and sharp woman, grew up here. They have two sons, and they all belong to a private tennis club.
Wait! That is also the description of the protagonist in Pandya’s latest book, “Members Only,” published July 7.
Raj Bhatt’s life may be similar to the author’s, but he has his own racial problems and devastating results. Where he lives is not mentioned in the book, though.
The story starts with Raj and his family as members of a private tennis club. He serves on its membership committee, something that made him feel the club could become more diverse. On a Sunday, when interviewing a black couple, Raj inadvertently makes a comment considered a racial slur. The group slowly turns on him, even though he himself has suffered unacceptable comments through the years. When teaching on Monday at the university, he is accused of anti-white racism by students who then object and protest Raj.
These incidents happen in one week with every day bringing on more emotional setbacks. How does he react to these racial slurs or hurtful comments, especially since he is not black or white but brown? How does he choose to apologize? Or not apologize.
Pandya and I talked about writing. His first book of short stories, “The Blind Writer: Stories and a Novella,” caught my attention in 2015. This second book, his first novel, caught me up since it is about one of today’s major topics — efforts to navigate racial discrimination, emotional stress and potential violence. We talked about how Raj was “born” in Pandya’s creative imagination.
“Raj has been in my thinking for a long time, since I’ve been interested in telling a story about an Indian-American mind,” Pandya said. “While I haven’t had a chance to tell this story, the character has been swirling around in my head, until his life found a place and conflict. Raj certainly had a broad similarity to my own experiences of arriving as a child and growing up in America. Then I had ideas of his membership going bad at a point of departure from others.”
Pandya’s story covers where and what incidents set off his character’s reactions and attempts to manage racism.
“My idea was to place Raj in those two similar liberal spaces and see ways how he could play himself out,” Pandya said. “What to say when we don’t talk about race, and what is text and subtext when racism is present? We want to see ourselves color blind, but we aren’t. Who gets to make mistakes, and who gets to apolgize for them?
“One weird thing I wanted to explore was when Raj made a mistake in the TC (tennis club) member committee meeting. He had experienced racism but was under the receiving end about who he is and what happens when a character is asked to apologize. He was shaped by Americans, but in this moment he makes a mistake. How does the committee react? People react in different ways — some supportive, some extremely angry and others in the middle.”
The structure of novels is a critical part of writing complicated and character-filled stories. How does presenting Raj and characters like his wife and sons, university colleagues and students, and members of the tennis club bring the story into insecure, controversial circumstances? Pandya chose a single week jammed with work, family and uncertainties of Raj’s social roles.
“I wanted to create a sense of breathlessness with this novel,” he said. “My idea was to make the first chapter about Sunday, the day Raj’s racial problems started. As I was drafting, I realized the story couldn’t take place in one day, and a month was too long, so I wrote out days of the week. Pieces of the story worked into each day and gave me a full week, beginning with Sunday through Friday, while the last chapter brought the week together.”
Once he structured the story, Panya then put together the emotional incidents and reactions thoughout each day, including important flashbacks.
“I wanted to have the front part create a kind of intimacy, but also wanted to put in the sense of a whole life,” Pandya said. “Flashbacks provide character-building. We often think about the idea of who we are having been shaped by our past. That past is shaping up while living with the present to rethink the past. Raj thinks about the past and his relationships in both situations, and how to make them work out. Humor for Raj is also a way of protecting himself, and a way of shielding himself.”
Writing a serious story with dark impacts, then finishing it with a good but not necessarily “happy” ending can create an outstanding book. Pandya did so.
“It was a long time coming and a difficult novel to write,” he said.
“Members Only” has wit, touching emotions and deep insight about how Raj and other characters can be shaped and affected by racism. Pandya’s story is sticking with my thinking on a hopeful, but unsettled note.
— Noozhawk columnist Susan Miles Gulbransen — a Santa Barbara native, writer and book reviewer — teaches writing at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and through the Santa Barbara City College Continuing Education Division. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.
