Edison

by Pallavi Sharma Dixit

Overview

Winner of the Asian American Writers' Workshop Pages in Progress Prize

"A delightful and perceptive jaunt into the heart of the Indian American community of New Jersey, Edison is a charming, often hilarious novel brimming over with life, laughter, and dreams worthy of the most outrageous Bollywood movies.”
—Chitra Divakaruni, author of Independence and Mistress of Spices

"A sparkling epic worthy of Bollywood's silver screens."
—Kirkus Reviews

Edison is a Bollywood-style epic tale brimming with song and dance, action and comedy, love and pathos, and cameos by dozens of real Indian stars of yesterday and today—a hilariously entertaining masala film in the guise of literary fiction. 

Along the way, we glean bits of Bollywood history and fall in love with an improbable cast of characters that inhabits Edison’s “Little India.” Edison is a wild, romantic, laugh-out-loud love letter to the Indian American community of Edison, New Jersey, where author Pallavi Dixit grew up.

The unlikely star of Edison is Prem Kumar, the hapless youngest son of a titan of New Delhi industry. Obsessed with Hindi movies—what the world calls Bollywood—he is uninterested in joining the family business or marrying the spear-wielding heiress chosen by his father. He runs away to chase his filmmaking dreams in America, but his plans are immediately derailed. Instead, he finds himself crashing on a mattress and working at an Exxon gas station in the Indian immigrant community of Edison, New Jersey.

Although life is not going according to script, Prem finds a happy rhythm in this bewildering setting. When the beautiful and ambitious Leena Engineer bursts onto the scene, she and her grocery store–owning father upend Prem’s short-term plan to do as little as possible, launching him on an epic adventure to make something of himself. Supported by an unruly cast of roommates, aunties, murderous yet orderly mobsters, and film stars at once glamorous and ludicrous, Prem test-drives the role of hero, and along the way, he witnesses around him the transformation of an ordinary suburb into a bustling "Little India."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798890130150
Publisher:	Third State Books
Publication date:	06/04/2024
Pages:	472
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Pallavi Sharma Dixit holds a BA and an MA (history) from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has been the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and others. She was a winner of the Asian American Writers Workshop’s Pages in Progress Prize and one of three winners of the First Pages Prize in fiction for Edison, her debut novel. She has taught creative writing at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, where she lives with her husband, two children, and their dog. She grew up in Edison and frequently visits the town, where her parents still reside.

Editorial Reviews

"Reading Edison, I kept feeling amazed that a single novel could do so much. Pallavi Sharma Dixit has given us an unforgettable love story, a riotous comedy, a tender coming-of-age tale, a history of an American city, and an homage to Indian cinema, told with all the romance and drama and verve of the movies. Edison is these things and more, a debut novel that arrives fully formed and brilliant. I am simply in awe of this book.”
—Nathan Hill, New York Times bestselling author of Wellness (Oprah’s Book Club) and The Nix

“Pallavi Sharma Dixit's Edison is as musical, unexpected, and over the top as the Bollywood that binds us. Get ready to laugh, cry, and dance your way through this necessary book."
—S. Mitra Kalita, author of Suburban Sahibs

"In this effervescent debut . . . a large cast of endearing characters, including Prem’s roommates and the Bollywood performers he recruits, round out the story, which is enlivened by Dixit’s natural gift for screwball comedy. This romp is one to savor."
—Publishers Weekly

"A modern love story that will make your heart soar and a heartwarming tale that beautifully captures the transformation of an American community, Edison is a literary gem."
—Jafreen Uddin, Executive Director, Asian American Writers’ Workshop

From the Publisher

2024-03-23
A Hindi-cinema lover becomes part of an immigrant community in Edison, New Jersey.

It’s the late 1980s, and Prem Kumar is the youngest son of one of India’s wealthiest businessmen. Unlike his siblings, though, he’s completely uninterested in the family business: He’d rather hole up at home watching Hindi films, of which he has encyclopedic knowledge. With his father putting pressure on him to do more, Prem heads to America to connect with a director there in hopes of making his very own movie. For the first time in his life, Prem must get a job, following two of his housemates to work at an Exxon station. He worries that “he might be a mere sidey in the motion picture of life.” But then, like those of his cinematic heroes, his course is altered forever when he catches a glimpse of Leena Engineer in the aisles of India America Grocers and falls in love at first sight. When Leena’s father gives Prem a surprising ultimatum, Prem—with the help of his community—must draw on strengths he did not know he possessed to fulfill his true potential, even if it takes the rest of his life. Modeled explicitly after Bollywood staples—yes, there are musical numbers, one of which even takes place during a massive communal roller-skate—Dixit’s debut is partly a love letter to Hindi cinema, complete with an impressive command of its history and a flair for moments of cultural criticism. It’s also a celebration of Dixit’s own hometown of Edison, still the site of one of the largest populations of Indians outside South Asia. Although, like many Hindi films, the novel is overlong, it’s also a funny and charming testament to the ingenuity and collective spirit of Edison.

A sparkling epic worthy of Bollywood’s silver screens.

Kirkus Reviews