The New York Times Book Review - Adrian Tomine
[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.
From the Publisher
"[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
"Sharma's sentences are simple, but what they add up to is so curious and complex."— David Sedaris Parade
"[E]ight divine stories about all-too-human relationships."— Elle
"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
"Those seeking quiet moments of revelation will
find them here."— Publishers Weekly
"These stories have a psychological acuity that redeems their dark worldview."— Kirkus
"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, National Book Award–winning author of Fortune Smiles
"One reads Akhil Sharma’s stories as one might watch waves approach the shore on which one stands, understanding that something unseen and powerful is driving them. The waves and the stories are beautiful, deceptively simple, and potentially dangerous."— Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer
"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, author of Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life
"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, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls and Everybody’s Fool
"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, author of Half a Life and More Than It Hurts You
Kirkus Reviews
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.
