Members Only, Sameer Pandya
Members Only, Sameer Pandya
1 Rating(s)
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

Members Only

Author: Sameer Pandya

Narrator: Sunil Malhotra

Unabridged: 10 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 07/07/2020


Synopsis

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?

Raj Bhatt 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.

Narrated by Sunil Malhotra. AudioFile Earphones Award Winner.

About Sameer Pandya

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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Chelsey (a_novel_idea11) on July 07, 2020

Raj, an Indian man born in Bombay and living in the United States since he was 8, is an Anthropology professor at a local college in California. His wife Eva, a white woman born and raised on the West Coast, grew up going to a Tennis Club (TC) and when she and Raj move back to California, they decid......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on July 16, 2020

I thoroughly enjoyed Member’s Only by Sameer Pandya. Brown, black and white America converge in this thought provoking novel told by a Bombay native who made his life and career on the west coast. The book covers a one week time span in the life of Raj Bhatt, an Indian-American man, married to a whi......more

Goodreads review by Rincey on August 28, 2020

This book is the leading 2020 contender for book I have read and loved that no one else will probably ever read 😅 Watch my full review here: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Cori on March 02, 2020

When this book arrived in my basket with an invitation to take a look, I first glanced at the cover and noticed the tennis ball. Interesting. I play tennis. I quickly scan the back and see the main character works at a university. Interesting. Weird. So, do I. I tend to enjoy a book set on a univers......more

Goodreads review by Fanna on October 16, 2020

October 11, 2020: Members Only is an adult contemporary that spans over a week of tension and horror that starts by Raj, an Indian-American, saying something racist during an interview being conducted by a Black family and meant to include him in a Tennis Club that's too white. There's a satirical u......more