by Anne Cherian
Vic didn’t reach out his hand.
Priya threw the box on the ground.
It lay there, almost on the same spot where Rajesh had so recently fallen.
Vic picked it up.
Nikhil, who had followed Rajesh to the ambulance, returned.
“They’re going to do an autopsy,” Nikhil said. “I think we should go to the hospital in about half an hour, after we send everyone away.”
Vic thought of how his son had never wanted the party, had only wanted to follow his heart to a chopping board, the way he had followed his own heart to the motherboard of a computer.
“Nikhil, I am never going to give you this present,” Vic promised, his voice shaking.
Nikhil stared at his father.
“Never,” Vic repeated.
Nikhil walked up and clasped his father in a long hug. Vic had never hugged his own father. The first time he saw a lot of hugging was at Nikhil’s graduation. Nikhil had walked beside him, had introduced him to his friends and professors, but, unlike the other boys, he had never hugged him.
Vic put his arms around this body he had helped create. Uncomfortable at such closeness, he patted his son’s back. Then he felt the strength and warmth of the two long arms across his own back. He stopped the halfhearted pats and slowly tightened his grip on his son, drawing him closer. He vowed that his son would never be unhappy, that he would allow him to be a chef. Nothing mattered, so long as Nikhil lived.
FRANCES, JAY, AND the children huddled together in the hallway. The other guests were in the living room, the dining room, many peering out the windows. A few mothers were feeding their children. It was past dinnertime, and the little ones were tired and hungry. Frances could not believe there had been a dead body outside. She moved closer to Jay. Thank God he was alive, they were alive. They still had a chance. Rajesh’s wife would never be able to talk to him again.
She wanted to tell Jay all this. “I’m so—” she started, and then she remembered the pack of cigarettes she had found on the dashboard of his car. “Please stop smoking,” she implored, hoping that he would realize it was her way of keeping him alive longer.
Jonathan and Lali walked up just as Frances finished saying the word smoking. “Oh, God, Jay, don’t tell me you’re still smoking,” Lali joined in. “It’s terrible for you. You’ve got to stop.”
Jay straightened his lips.
“Is that a yes?” Lali pushed.
“Honey, I think he knows,” Jonathan said. “Let him be.”
Frances wanted to cry. They had just witnessed something awful, and instead of coming together, Jay was standing apart from her, the children between them. He wasn’t going to listen to her. He was going to do what he wanted.
“Some party, eh?” Jay said, trying to get the conversation away from the nagging duo. He could see Rich’s gray hair in the corner. The man hadn’t left. Was he waiting to talk to Frances?
“I think this party is over,” Jonathan said. “We should tell the people they ought to go home.”
“Honey, let Vic do that,” Lali said.
“He’s too busy coping with what just happened,” Jonathan said, and then raised his voice. “Listen up, everyone. Please go home. Give Vic and his family their privacy.”
Nobody moved.
“Look, look,” someone near the window said, and bodies rushed to find out what was going on outside.
“May I have your attention, please?” Jonathan tried again. “The party’s ended. You can all go home now.”
“Who is he to tell us what to do?” a man in a dark blue suit asked challengingly.
“I’m just trying to help Vic,” Jonathan said.
“We don’t have to listen to you,” the man insisted.
Lali wished she could go up to the man and hit him. This was the second time they were being mean to Jonathan. They had laughed off his initial diagnosis, but as soon as they realized he was right, they had thought nothing of taking over, as if brown hands alone could minister to brown patients. Now another brown face was refusing to listen to Jonathan’s logic.
She was just about to say something when Jay spoke. “What do you want to do? You want to eat dinner after what just happened? You want to sit and talk to Vic? What exactly do you want to do?”
“There is no need to get all angry, anyway,” the man responded.
“Jonathan here is being sensible. He thinks we should go, and let Vic and his family deal with this tragedy.”
“We are going.” Pierre’s French accent rang out. “All of us who are in his motorbiking club will leave now.”
“Thank you,” Jay said.
“What about you?” the blue-suited man goaded Jay. “You are staying?”
“Why don’t you worry about yourself, huh?” Jay suggested. “We’re Vic’s oldest friends. We know better than to bother him now.”
“Fran?” Rich approached them. “I guess we never had a chance to talk.”
“I was hoping to get to know you,” Carmen said. “Now, of course, it is . . .”
Frances didn’t respond. She hoped that both Rich and Jay would read her signal correctly.
“I know this must be hard on you,” Rich said. “Anyway, I’ll ask Vic for your phone number in a few weeks.”
“Yes, you can come to our home for dinner,” Carmen added. “I won’t have to worry about using chilies because Indians also like spicy food.”
“Frances doesn’t eat spicy food,” Lali spoke up. She could not believe this couple’s insensitivity.
“Of course, I forgot, you are Portuguese,” Carmen said. “Good-bye.”
“See ya,” Rich said, and they left.
“Looks like we’re the last ones here,” Jonathan said. “We should get going as well.” They walked past the tables, the flowers, the grass that was now flattened. The buffet tables were loaded with food. Vic, Priya, Nikhil, and Nandan were standing there, a linked group, oblivious to the departing guests.
Frances had wanted to leave from the moment they arrived. Now she was frightened to leave. She was going with Jay, but going where?
“I’m hungry,” Sam announced as soon as they stepped beyond the canopy.
“I can’t believe you can eat at such a time.” Mandy shook her head.
“I can always eat,” Sam said.
“Did the man die?” Lily asked.
Frances didn’t want to lie, but she also didn’t want to tell the truth. She looked at Jay. He had sung and laughed the whole way to the party. It was unimaginable that it had ended like this.
Before she could come up with an answer, Jonathan said, “He’s gone to the hospital.”
“But I thought you were a doctor.”
“You’re right, I am,” Jonathan said, “but I didn’t bring my bag with me.”
“You should do that next time,” Lily said.
“You’re right,” Jonathan agreed.
“Shall we go somewhere together to eat?” Frances asked, not looking at Jay.
“I can’t eat a thing,” Lali said, “but if you’re hungry, honey,” she told Jonathan, “I’ll go.”
“I’m done for the night. It’s been a long day. I’m ready for bed,” he said.
“Are you sure?” Frances asked.
“We left our house at five thirty this morning,” Lali said. That hour was an eternity away. She could not remember the woman who had dressed in the newly bought blouse. “We’re really tired.”
“Can we go to In-n-Out burger?” Sam begged.
“Yes, yes,” Lily said. “I want the animal fries.”
“Maybe we’ll see Mr. Billy-ant when we get to the car,” Frances said, and caught her breath.
“Let’s say our good-byes, then.” Jay held out his hand to Jonathan. “See you in better circumstances. Lali, you two drive safely.”
“You two drive carefully as well.” Lali hugged Frances.
“Thanks,” Frances whispered.
“Friendship means never having to say, ‘Thank you,
’ ” Lali said, repeating the Love Story phrase that Jay had readjusted and taught them all years ago.
“Thanks just the same,” Frances insisted as she drew away.
“See you up in the Bay Area?” Jonathan asked.
Frances looked at Jay. “Sounds like a good idea,” he said.
“See you there, then,” Frances said, holding out her hand toward Jay. They weren’t a demonstrative couple in public, but Lali and Jonathan were holding hands, and, after all that had happened, she needed to feel his touch.
Jay looked at the proffered palm, the long fingers that all his children had inherited.
“Dad, Dad,” Lily said excitedly, “come quick! I see a cat! Maybe it’s Mr. Billyant.”
Jay held Frances’s gaze for a moment, then turned and followed their daughter.
“Chalo, you all. Let’s go see if it indeed is Mr. Billyant, or if he is sitting on the wall, waiting for us.”
Acknowledgments
THIS NOVEL STARTED as a conversation with my agent, Bonnie Nadell, and ended when she said it was fine. I continue to marvel that she took me on. Maria Guarnaschelli, my editor, and Melanie Tortoroli, her assistant at W. W. Norton, were unfailingly supportive and responsive. I could not ask for better backing. Kathy Brandes cleaned up the manuscript and caught mistakes.
I reserve my greatest thanks for Ellie Miller, who started my weekdays with a walk, during which she offered wonderful insights into the characters I was creating. I’d also like to thank Barbara Bundy, Lisa Ritter (who sweetened her observations with delicious treats from her very own Big Sugar Bakeshop), Lisa Jonsson, and Larry Jacobson, who read early drafts, alerted me to inaccuracies, and made suggestions. Johanna Candido and Allyson J. Davis helped me while I wrestled with a crucial scene, and I made good use of the stories Barbara Chaffe and Geramin Sebastian La Brie were kind enough to share with me. My favorite cousin, Pappachayan, patiently answered questions about Cochin and Jacobite Syrian Christians; Simone Cherian set me straight about novenas; and Dr. Steven Kobrine explained the similarity between heart attacks and drinking. Josette Chicheportiche ensured that the French conversation was accurate and colloquial. Arlene Tademaru and Daphney Duke made that picture-taking morning pleasant and possible for me.
THE INVITATION
Anne Cherian
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R E A D I N G G R O U P G U I D E
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A N I N T E R V I E W W I T H A N N E C H E R I A N
The theme of status within society, and particularly within the Indian community, appears in both A Good Indian Wife and The Invitation. Why?
Status is very important in India, given that society used to be based on the caste system (Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishyas and Sudras). The India I grew up in no longer operated that way, though one’s position in society via money, family standing, etc. continued to be extremely important. That transferred to the U.S. because in my experience, whenever I meet another immigrant the first questions are always to “place” me. I think all immigrants come to the U.S. to do well, and Indians are no exception. I was interested in pursuing the notion of success in The Invitation: how it is defined when an immigrant first arrives, and how it changes, depending on circumstances.
The characters in both your novels seem to want to conceal their failures. Do you believe that hiding disappointment is more common in the Indian/Indian immigrant community?
I’ve met people from various parts of the world who hide their failures. However, given that the population of India is large and the pie of achievement is small, there is a greater drive (and difficulty) to succeed and, when that does not happen, to conceal failure. When Indians immigrate, the automatic assumption is that they are living fabulous lives, which is why Frances and Jay want to project an ideal family. But there are other less obvious permutations to dissembling. Lali does not want to tell her friends that her son is taking a year off from Harvard because she knows they will assume she is lying, that he has, in fact, been expelled. Frances has grown up watching her mother try to figure out the hidden failure in other people’s stories in order to feel better about herself. I am not, however, making the claim that all Indians are like that. That would be as absurd as saying that all Indians are good at math.
The Invitation deals with numerous relationships, both romantic and friendly. Do you have a rough idea of how each personality or relationship is going to unfold, or do these characters build off one another as you write?
I always know the arc of a story before I begin writing it. I had done an outline for The Invitation, so I knew that Vikram and Priya would have an arranged marriage and be fine, and that Lali would marry a Jewish man and they would find their way back to each other. Jay and Frances give my readers the same ambiguity they encountered with Leila and Neel in A Good Indian Wife. Some readers think Leila and Neel live happily ever after, while others believe they are headed for a divorce. I love giving my readers a chance to make the novel their own.
The individual characters and personalities do get filled out as I write. Jay was always going to be a man with many abilities who never took any seriously. But somehow he also became a joker who enjoys changing adages. I had wanted Priya to be a strong Indian woman. But as I kept writing, she grew increasingly adept at figuring out the American way of doing things. Since that didn’t take away from her inner Indian identity, I kept it.
Your mother is Jewish, and one of the characters in the novel is exploring Judaism. Were you exposed to Jewish traditions as a child and, if so, did these experiences influence your writing?
People are often surprised that my mother is Jewish. I was always aware that I am Jewish, though we could not attend synagogue because there wasn’t one in our town. I read books on Judaism, we had Jewish friends, and when I came to Berkeley to study, I connected with my relatives. I remember going to the synagogue with them, and people assuming I was from Israel. Even before I started writing The Invitation, I knew that Lali’s husband would be Jewish, which meant that I would not need to do research, because I am very familiar with the culture. My father was a Jacobite Syrian Christian, and whenever we visited Kerala, we always attended church where we prayed and poured oil. In the novel, Lali talks about that branch of Christianity, and like her, I, too, was given a crooked cross by my father. Lali and Jonathan are the reverse of my parents, and represent my heritage.
D I S C U S S I O N Q U E S T I O N S
1. When Vic, Lali, Frances, and Jay meet each other at UCLA, they are among a handful of Indian graduate students there. At first, it is their backgrounds that bind them together. Does that change as they get to know one another better? How are your own relationships affected by having a shared background?
2. Is it possible for the characters of The Invitation to free themselves from the expectations and pressures of the culture they left behind? Do you think they should?
3. Which invitation in the story do you think the book’s title refers to?
4. Lali, Frances, and Jay all entertain doubts about their decisions over the decades that have brought them to the present. Only Vic seems untroubled by his choices. Why does he see his life differently?
5. Frances and Jay believed that their future would outshine their friends’ prospects in America. Do you think this estimation was based on Indian or American values, or both?
6. Vic (whose name means “strength”) and Jay (“victory”) have very different approaches to the ideas of Indian manhood and fatherhood. Who is more successful in remaining true to his principles and his family?
7. What does success mean for the main characters? Are any of their definitions workable? What does success mean to you?
8. Do you think Priya is a “traditional” wife? Does she surprise you as you learn more about her?
9. Mandy and Nikhil are both first-generation Americans. What is similar about them and what is different?
10. Lali and Frances both must confront their pasts in The Invitation. How do their responses to Aaka
sh and Ricardo differ?
11. The Gang of Four thought of America as a land of promise and hope. Now, as parents, the dream of sending a child to MIT or Harvard carries a similar allure. How do Aaron and Nikhil’s college experiences compare with their parents’ arrivals in America?
12. Having married an American, Lali could be considered the most assimilated of her friends. Do you think this characterization is apt? How do you feel about assimilation in light of the characters’ lives?
13. What do you think will be the future of Frances and Jay’s relationship?
14. The Invitation explores how the four friends relate as individuals to their families and communities. How did The Invitation make you view the community in which you were raised?
S E L E C T E D N O R T O N B O O K S W I T H
R E A D I N G G R O U P G U I D E S A V A I L A B L E
For a complete list of Norton’s works with reading group guides, please go to www.wwnorton.com/books/reading-guides.
Diana Abu-Jaber
Birds of Paradise
Diane Ackerman
One Hundred Names for Love
Alice Albinia
Leela’s Book
Andrea Barrett
Ship Fever
Bonnie Jo Campbell
One Upon a River
Lan Samantha Chang
Inheritance
Anne Cherian
A Good Indian Wife
Amanda Coe
What They Do in the Dark
Michael Cox
The Meaning of Night
Suzanne Desrochers
Bride of New France*
Jared Diamond
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Andre Dubus III
Townie
John Dufresne
