A Life of Adventure and Delight

by Akhil Sharma

Overview

“There’s a great duality to these stories: simple but complex, funny enough to laugh out loud at but emotionally devastating, foreign yet familiar. What an exciting and original writer this is, and what a knock-out collection.”—David Sedaris

Hailed as a storyteller whose fiction is “a glowing work of art” (Wall Street Journal), Akhil Sharma is possessed of a narrative voice “as hypnotic as those found in the pages of Dostoyevsky” (The Nation). In A Life of Adventure and Delight, Sharma delivers eight masterful stories that focus on Indian protagonists at home and abroad and that plunge the reader into the unpredictable workings of the human heart.

A young woman in an arranged marriage awakens one day surprised to find herself in love with her husband. A retired divorcé tries to become the perfect partner by reading women’s magazines. A man’s longstanding contempt for his cousin suddenly shifts inward when he witnesses his cousin caring for a sick woman. Tender and darkly comic, the protagonists in A Life of Adventure and Delight deceive themselves and engage in odd behaviors as they navigate how to be good, how to make meaningful relationships, and the strengths and pitfalls of self-interest. Elegantly written and emotionally immediate, the stories provide an intimate, honest assessment of human relationships between mothers and sons, sons and lovers, and husband and wives from a dazzlingly original, critically acclaimed writer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393285345
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/11/2017
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Akhil Sharma is the author of Family Life, a New York Times Best Book of the Year and the winner of the International DUBLIN Literary
Award and the Folio Prize. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Best American Short Stories, and O. Henry Award Stories. A native of Delhi, he lives in New York City and teaches English at Rutgers University–Newark.

 

Editorial Reviews

[A] slippery tone—at once amused and critical, resigned and outraged—infuses each of these eight haunting, revelatory stories. As in so much of contemporary American fiction, the attention here is on the conflicts and consolations between couples and family members in a naturalistic present day. Throughout, Sharma adheres unwaveringly to Raymond Carver's dictum of "no tricks," telling his stories with bracingly direct, unassuming language. The dialogue is equally spare but true. But where some writers choose to obfuscate or minimize their ethnic background, Sharma is boldly forthright and probing. Focusing exclusively on Indian characters, both in Delhi and in the New York metropolitan area, he brings a keen cultural awareness to each of these stories.

The New York Times Book Review - Adrian Tomine

05/15/2017
The eight stories in this collection from the author of Family Life follow modern Indians at home and abroad as they face the trials of marriage, parenthood, and assimilation. In “Cosmopolitan,” the solid first story, a husband abandoned by his wife and daughter begins a short-lived affair with his reticent neighbor. In “Surrounded by Sleep,” a young boy reevaluates his worldview after a freak accident forces his brother into a coma. A wife in an arranged marriage tries to recapture the fleeting moment she felt love for her husband in “If You Sing Like That For Me.” The title story is the collection’s most accomplished, relating the romantic highs and lows of an Indian PhD student in New York City with wry humor and psychological complexity. While there are moments of genuine insight and heartbreak, the collective effect of the stories seems subdued to a fault. Those seeking quiet moments of revelation will find them here. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"[E]ight divine stories about all-too-human relationships."

Elle

"Akhil Sharma’s deceptively simple diction has a way of cutting straight to the human bone. The stories in A Life of Adventure and Delight are revelations, every one."

Richard Russo

"If you love short story collections, this one’s for you. A Life of Adventure and Delight offers a window into the Indian experience both in America and abroad. Author Akhil Sharma’s characters aren’t perfect — they wrestle with belonging, tradition, and temptation — but they’re heartbreakingly real and relatable, even at their worst."

Hello Giggles

"Akhil Sharma keeps getting better. A Life of Adventure and Delight puts him in the rarest company: Chekhov company. Trevor company. I can’t think of many others. These stories are as clear as truth."

Darin Strauss

"Readers wade into these stories as though stepping into a calm river only to be caught by the undercurrent of the most devastating kind—the demand of everyday existence. Akhil Sharma’s words touch the deep experience that often remains wordless. He is truly the Chekhov of our time."

Yiyun Li

"[H]aunting, revelatory stories. . . . Sharma is boldly forthright and probing. Focusing exclusively on Indian characters, both in Delhi and in the New York metropolitan area, he brings a keen cultural awareness to each of these stories. . . . perceptive, humane, and pointed."

New York Times Book Review

"The stories in Akhil Sharma’s A Life of Adventure and Delight sweep across the page like monsoons—filled with energy, chaos, surprise, and rapture, they ravish and transform the very nature of reading."

Adam Johnson

"Sharma's sentences are simple, but what they add up to is so curious and complex."

Parade - David Sedaris

04/15/2017
This short story collection by the author of Family Life, an International Dublin Literary Award winner, depicts Indians at home and abroad. A number of the pieces involve lonely Indian men in the United States negotiating relationships with women. In "Cosmopolitan" and "The Well," the women are white, while in "A Life of Adventure and Delight," the protagonist is at a loss when it comes to dating an Indian woman he meets at New York University. The men consider dating as a staged activity that precedes an arranged marriage and struggle to adapt to U.S. norms. Arranged marriages are the topic in "If You Sing Like That for Me," told from a wife's perspective, and "A Heart Is a Heavy Thing," centered on the groom's family. Things don't go well in "You Are Happy?" when an arranged marriage sends a young family to America and the unhappy wife tries to drink herself to death. The overarching theme of this collection is family; regardless of their status, neither the men nor the women exist independently of extended family members. Conflicts are recognizable across cultural boundaries, but they are steeped in Indian culture and relationships. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in diverse fiction and short stories. [See Prepub Alert, 1/23/17.]—Pamela Mann, St. Mary's Coll. Lib., MD

Library Journal

2017-03-07
Neither adventure nor delight await the characters of this ironically titled collection.The first line of the title story sets the scene: "The side door of the police van slid open, rattling, and he was shoved inside." Gautama has been arrested for hiring a prostitute; "like many foreign students in America who are living away from home for the first time," he quickly gravitated to the illicit joys offered on the internet. After his brush with the law, he begins dating another Indian grad student. When his parents reject his choice, he ends up back on Craigslist. "Adventure and delight"? Hmmmm. An apter phrase might be "bad luck and isolation," and that is the real throughline in this collection of stories. In "Cosmopolitan," an Indian man who has been abandoned by his wife and daughter begins an affair with his neighbor Mrs. Shaw after she stops by to borrow a lawn mower. Despite his assiduous study of women's magazines, Mrs. Shaw remains a mystery. He also attempts to win some friends in the Indian expat community by memorizing a book called 1,001 Polish Jokes and changing the Poles to Sikhs. It doesn't work. The narrator of "If You Sing Like That for Me" experiences love in her arranged marriage only once, for just a few hours. (Once you've met her husband, you'll sympathize.) "You Are Happy?" is the story of a boy who is miserable—his mother is an alcoholic who is eventually sent to India to be murdered by her own family. In "A Heart Is Such a Heavy Thing," the protagonist's 12-year-old brother threatens to hang himself on the day of the nuptials. "If you want to stop the wedding, remember to kill yourself before, not after, we are married," advises the groom-to-be. A short story which seems to have been the origin of Sharma's breakout novel (Family Life, 2014)—same names, same swimming accident, same brain-dead brother—is included as well. Filled with a strong sense of the odds against any kind of happiness, these stories have a psychological acuity that redeems their dark worldview.

Kirkus Reviews

"If you love short story collections, this one’s for you.… Author Akhil Sharma’s characters aren’t perfect—they wrestle with belonging, tradition, and temptation—but they’re heartbreakingly real and relatable, even at their worst."

HelloGiggles

"A melancholy and at turns tender exploration of the human psyche at its most vulnerable."

Angel City Review

"[Sharma’s] stories are beautiful, deceptively simple, and potentially dangerous."

Viet Thanh Nguyen

"What an exciting and original writer this is, and what a knock-out collection."

David Sedaris

This collection of short stories featuring Indian protagonists is complemented by the well-considered narrative performances of Deepti Gupta and Neil Shah. Featuring a wide array of characters and a general focus on family and romantic relationships, or the search for them, the stories are enlivened by the narrators' subtle performances of the distinctive characters. Gupta and Shah employ Indian accents when delivering the protagonists' dialogue, an element that helps to culturally situate the stories. As a result of Gupta and Shah’s deft portrayals, the emotions of the characters shine through. Both narrators speak clearly and at a comfortable pace, allowing the listener to focus on Sharma's contemplative and vivid writing. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2017 - AudioFile