Gold Diggers
A Novel
(Sprache: Englisch)
A brilliant Indian-American magical realist coming of age story and the debut of a major talent
Spanning two continents, two coasts, and four epochs, Gold Diggers expertly balances social satire and magical realism in a classic striver story that skewers...
Spanning two continents, two coasts, and four epochs, Gold Diggers expertly balances social satire and magical realism in a classic striver story that skewers...
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A brilliant Indian-American magical realist coming of age story and the debut of a major talentSpanning two continents, two coasts, and four epochs, Gold Diggers expertly balances social satire and magical realism in a classic striver story that skewers the model minority narrative, asking what a community must do to achieve the American dream. In razor sharp and deeply funny prose, Sathian perfectly captures what it is to grow up as a member of a family, of a diaspora, and of the American meritocracy. This blockbuster novel both entertains and levels a critique of what Americans of color must do to make their way.
A floundering second-generation teenager growing up in the Bush-era Atlanta suburbs, Neil Narayan is authentic, funny, and smart. He just doesn't share the same drive as everyone around him. His perfect older sister is headed to Duke. His parents' expectations for him are just as high. He tries to want this version of success, but mostly, Neil just wants his neighbor across the cul-de-sac, Anita Dayal.
But Anita has a secret: she and her mother Anjali have been brewing an ancient alchemical potion from stolen gold that harnesses the ambition of the jewelry's original owner. Anjali's own mother in Bombay didn't waste the precious potion on her daughter, favoring her sons instead. Anita, on the other hand, just needs a little boost to get into Harvard. But when Neil--who needs a whole lot more--joins in the plot, events spiral into a tragedy that rips their community apart.
Ten years later, Neil is an oft-stoned Berkeley history grad student studying the California gold rush. His high school cohort has migrated to Silicon Valley, where he reunites with Anita and resurrects their old habit of gold theft--only now, the stakes are higher. Anita's mother is in trouble, and only gold can save her. Anita and Neil must pull off one last heist.
Gold Diggers is a fine-grained, profoundly intelligent, and bitingly funny investigation in to questions
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of identity and coming of age--that tears down American shibboleths.
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Lese-Probe zu „Gold Diggers “
Chapter 1.When I was younger, I consisted of little but my parents' ambitions for who I was to become. But by the end of ninth grade, all I wanted for myself was a date to the Spring Fling dance. A hot one. The dream was granted, by chance. Finding myself unaccompanied in the final days before the event, I begged my neighbor and childhood best friend, Anita Dayal, to take pity on me. Fine; I could be her "escort," she allowed, putting the word in air quotes as we readied for that rather fateful night.
Before the dance, I was set to meet Anita and our crowd at the mall. We'd take photos outside the TCBY, all trussed up in our Macy's finery. My mother deposited me on a median in the middle of the parking lot, early, then sped off to my older sister's picture party. Prachi had been nominated for Spring Fling court and was living a more documentable high school life. Prachi, the Narayan child who managed to be attractive and intelligent and deferential to our cultural traditions to boot, was headed to Duke, we were all sure. Earlier that day, cheeks blooming with pride, my mother had fastened a favorite, slim gold chain of her own, gifted by our nani, around Prachi's neck. My sister kissed my mother's cheek like an old, elegant woman and thanked her, while I waited to be dropped into my own small life, in an ill-fitting suit.
I waited on the median, growing anxious. There was no sign of Anita. I paced and fidgeted, watching the others pin corsages and boutonnieres, and readied myself, after fifteen minutes, then twenty, to give up and trek down one of those horrible sidewalk-less stretches of great Georgia boulevard back home to Hammond Creek. I was already turning away from the fuss, attempting to loosen my father's congealed-blood-colored tie, when Anita and her mother screeched up in their little brown Toyota. I knocked my knee against the concrete dolphin-adorned fountain and shouted, "Shit!"
A wall of mostly Indian and Asian
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parents regarded me with a collective glare. Yes, I consisted largely of my parents' ambitions, but some part of me was also made of the ogling, boggling eyeballs of the rest of our community.
And another part-a significant part-was Anita, who was now stepping out of the double-parked car, smiling blithely. Anita had bright eyes: muddy brown, lively, roving, liable to flick over you quickly, as though there was something else more interesting or urgent in your vicinity. It made you want to stand squarely in her line of vision to ask for her full attention; when you got it, it felt like the warming of the late-morning summer sun.
"Neil, I told her we were late, but stubborn girl wouldn't listen!" Anita's mother, Anjali Auntie, said. She was dressed like she planned to attend the dance herself, in a bright green sheath framing her breasts, a dress that reminded me she was unlike other mothers.
"I got invited to Melanie's picture party first," Anita said. "I IM'd you!"
A betrayal: cherry-cheeked and universally admired Melanie Cho had laughed off my invitation to the dance weeks before, leaving me itchy with self-loathing. Anita's grin-the grin of the newly anointed popular-matched the crystal studding along her bright blue bodice.
Anjali Auntie positioned us shoulder-to-shoulder. Anita linked her arm through mine so the insides of our elbows kissed. This was how we'd been posed in Diwali photos as kids, when our families got together and Prachi dressed Anita up as Sita and assembled a paper crown for me, her spouse, Lord Rama. The posture suddenly seemed foreign.
There was no time to be angry. I smiled. In the photos, I am washed out. She, in electric blue and crystal, beams, her eyes settled somewhere just above the camera lens.
The dance: People were learning to inch closer to each other, and some girls didn't mind the short guys' heads bobbing below theirs, and some guys didn't mind the girls with braces. The teachers on chapero
And another part-a significant part-was Anita, who was now stepping out of the double-parked car, smiling blithely. Anita had bright eyes: muddy brown, lively, roving, liable to flick over you quickly, as though there was something else more interesting or urgent in your vicinity. It made you want to stand squarely in her line of vision to ask for her full attention; when you got it, it felt like the warming of the late-morning summer sun.
"Neil, I told her we were late, but stubborn girl wouldn't listen!" Anita's mother, Anjali Auntie, said. She was dressed like she planned to attend the dance herself, in a bright green sheath framing her breasts, a dress that reminded me she was unlike other mothers.
"I got invited to Melanie's picture party first," Anita said. "I IM'd you!"
A betrayal: cherry-cheeked and universally admired Melanie Cho had laughed off my invitation to the dance weeks before, leaving me itchy with self-loathing. Anita's grin-the grin of the newly anointed popular-matched the crystal studding along her bright blue bodice.
Anjali Auntie positioned us shoulder-to-shoulder. Anita linked her arm through mine so the insides of our elbows kissed. This was how we'd been posed in Diwali photos as kids, when our families got together and Prachi dressed Anita up as Sita and assembled a paper crown for me, her spouse, Lord Rama. The posture suddenly seemed foreign.
There was no time to be angry. I smiled. In the photos, I am washed out. She, in electric blue and crystal, beams, her eyes settled somewhere just above the camera lens.
The dance: People were learning to inch closer to each other, and some girls didn't mind the short guys' heads bobbing below theirs, and some guys didn't mind the girls with braces. The teachers on chapero
... weniger
Autoren-Porträt von Sanjena Sathian
A Paul and Daisy Soros fellow, Sanjena Sathian is a 2019 graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has worked as a reporter in Mumbai and San Francisco, with nonfiction bylines for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Food & Wine, The Washington Post, Vox, TIME, and more. Her award-winning short fiction has been published in The Atlantic, Conjunctions, Boulevard, Joyland, Salt Hill, and The Master's Review.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Sanjena Sathian
- 1900, 352 Seiten, Masse: 15,2 x 22,8 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Penguin Random House
- ISBN-10: 0593298675
- ISBN-13: 9780593298671
- Erscheinungsdatum: 25.03.2021
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Sathian s satire is pitch perfect . . . savagely funny. The comedic grotesque register gives way, at times, to an authentic and heartrending melancholia . . . [M]agnificent canny and moving and just plain fun . . . Sathian s movement toward fantasy in the story s second half is a wise, satisfying turn. Her prose lifts off: there s a delight she takes in writing humorously about magic that shows off the scope of her immense talent . . . [a] firm critique of secondhand striving and cutthroat ambition. Anita Felicelli, The Los Angeles Review of BooksThis novel deftly weaves together magic and history to produce a compelling coming-of-age story. The New Yorker
Gold Diggers is a delightful concoction of the best of South Asia s literary offerings, reminiscent of Hanif Kureishi s irreverent humour in The Buddha of Suburbia and, more recently, the magic realism of Mohsin Hamid s Exit West and Salman Rushdie s work. . . . Sathian brings a golden touch to the 21st-century Indian American novel stretching it through a reimagining of history and mythology, yet holding it close to her chest. Sana Goyal, The Guardian
Sanjena Sathian s Gold Diggers is a work of 24-karat genius . . . remarkable . . . Sathian s effervescent social satire breaks the bonds of ordinary reality and rises to another level . . . Like Aimee Bender, Karen Russell and Colson Whitehead, she s working in a liminal realm where the laws of science aren t suspended so much as stretched . . . dazzling . . . Looking up from the pages of this sparkling debut, I experienced something like the thrill the luckiest 49ers must have felt: Gold! Gold! Gold! Ron Charles, The Washington Post
[A]chingly real reminders of what it was like to be an adolescent in post-9/11 America, feeling the weight of your parents dreams on your shoulders . . . The tension Sathian builds is one of teenage
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insecurity swelling into adulthood, until disillusion overthrows the tyranny of American perfectionism . . . exquisite prose humming with contagious anxiety. Lauren Christensen, The New York Times Book Review
This terrific debut novel uses heists and alchemy to deconstruct immigrant ambition, striving, and sin . . . The project of Gold Diggers is to deconstruct that dream [of America]. But what makes the novel so compelling is the playfulness with which Sathian deconstructs it. You feel for the characters and the ways they have been warped by their pursuit of greatness and the ways they are haunted by their sins but also, there are heists and alchemy. It s a blast. Constance Grady, Vox
Full of voice . . . rollicking, at times painful, and ultimately intensely satisfying . . . One of the wonderful things about Sathian's writing is how imperfect she allows Neil to be: he can be shallow, vain, awkward, and selfish. Yet it's so easy to root for him, because he's just so terribly alive, his adult narration inhabiting his teenage self honestly, without sugarcoating. Ilana Masad, NPR
Sanjena is way too young to have published such an amazing novel about a group of South Asian teenagers and the quest for their identity in the U.S., yet she pulls it off effortlessly, complete with references to TCBY and other 1990s favorites. Zibby Owens, Good Morning America
Highly anticipated . . . Funny and exciting, it s an entertaining new twist on the immigrant experience. Lesley Kennedy, CNN
Crackles with sarcasm and wit . . . a dazzling tale. Local readers will delight in Sathian s artful depiction of metro Atlanta circa 2006, as well as her take on the struggles of being a member of a minority community during the post-9/11 Bush era. Anjali Enjeti, Atlanta Journal Constitution
Read Gold Diggers, a fantastical and darkly funny commentary on the American Dream. Book Riot
A dazzling and delightful work of fiction by an exciting new literary talent . . . Sathian has produced a beguiling elixir with Gold Diggers, skillfully stirring myth into a playful yet powerful modern-day examination of the American dream and the second-generation citizens who pursue it. A fabulist amalgam of The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye, it s an engrossing cautionary tale as well as a shrewd appraisal of what we consider success and the moral sacrifices we make to achieve it. Imaginative and intoxicating, Gold Diggers richly rewards its readers. Stephanie Harrison, BookPage
Dazzling . . . the sharp characterizations bring humor and contemplation in equal measure, touching on the pressures Neil and Anita face to produce a legacy that honors their parents sacrifices. Sathian s bildungsroman isn t one to miss. Publishers Weekly
"Out of [a] nugget of magical realism, Sathian spins pure magic . . . Filled with pathos, humor, slices of American history, and an adrenaline-pumping heist, Sathian's spectacular debut also highlights the steep costs of the all-American dream . . . Pure gold . . . YAs will find much to embrace in Neeraj s dynamite and touching quest to find himself." Booklist (starred review)
A refreshing tweak of the assimilation novel . . . Sathian artfully and convincingly conjures [this] world . . . Sathian has a knack for page-turner prose, but the story has plenty of heft. A winningly revamped King Midas tale. Kirkus
In a perfect alchemical blend of familiar and un-, Gold Diggers takes a wincingly hilarious coming-of-age story, laces it with magical realism and a trace of satire, and creates a world that's both achingly familiar and marvelously inventive. Written with such assurance it's hard to believe it's Sanjena Sathian's debut, this is a dizzyingly original, fiercely funny, deeply wise novel about the seductive powers and dangers of borrowed ambition. Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere
Gold Diggers is so many things truly funny, insightful, smart, and filled with wonderful characters. I loved reading this novel, and loved watching Neil Narayan grow up and grapple with the America his immigrant parents believed in. Neil's journey to figuring out what he believes, which includes a multi-layered exploration into the properties of gold, and his strange and wonderful friendship with his next door neighbor, Anita, make this story unmissable. Ann Napolitano, bestselling author of Dear Edward
Is the American dream about hard work and sacrifice or is it about the lure of the Gold Rush, of quick riches there for the taking? Greed, regret and love are all at work here in Sathian s completely original, utterly absorbing, complex and confident debut novel. A bravura performance from an exciting new voice. Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club
What a dynamic and exciting debut! Sathian builds such an inviting world of layers and times, all knit together by voice, vibrant imagery and palpable groundedness. A total delight. Aimee Bender, author of The Butterfly Lampshade
Sanjena Sathian's Gold Diggers is a sparkling treasure, hilarious and full of insight. Rajesh Parameswaran, author of I Am an Executioner
I m not sure if I should praise Sanjena Sathian for spinning such a lively and nervy narrative or thank her for her generosity as field guide, bringing me deep into Indian-American family life and the underbelly of Silicon Valley optimization culture. A tenderly imaginative tale of ambition and the burden of tradition, Gold Diggers is the American novel we need right now. Bracingly original, riveting to the last drop. Lauren Mechling, author of How Could She
Sanjena Sathian's Gold Diggers made me feel utterly inadequate as a writer. Her writing is engaging and the lush world she creates within the novel was a great joy to explore. We'll be hearing from her for years to come. Sopan Deb, author of Missed Translations
From Bombay to the Bay Area, Sanjena Sathian s expansive debut novel upends our ideas of what it takes to make it in America. Smart, funny, and completely engrossing, Gold Diggers is everything a novel should be. Andrew Ridker, author of The Altruists
Searching, intelligent, with a premise as flawless as the gold at its center, Gold Diggers follows a generation whose ambitions are shaping the America we live in today. As imaginative as it is idea-driven, as compassionate as it is angry, part heist novel, part coming of age story, part ghost story, romance, and tragedy, it renders all its opposites in a fast-paced, perfectly crafted crucible of a plot. This is a perfect first novel: brilliant, funny, and secretly, privately, quietly romantic. A Great American Novel for the 21st century. Amy Parker, author of Beasts and Children and winner of the Calvino Prize
Vivid, delightful, and wonderfully weird, Gold Diggers glitters with a unique and stirring brilliance. Sanjena Sathian is an incredibly exciting new writer! Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will and National Book Award Finalist
Gold Diggers is a knock-out a hilarious send-up of the immigrant pressure to succeed and the challenges of growing up with a hyphenated identity in the American South. It s also a devastating meditation on history, love, grief, wealth, and familial bonds. Whether you want to laugh or cry, meet ghosts, plan a heist, or live forever, you can find what you re looking for in these sparkling pages. Maria Kuznetsova, author of Oksana, Behave!
Gold Diggers is an auspicious auriferous? debut. Part coming-of-age story about the immigrant experience, part Gogolian heist comedy about soul-sapping gold, it s also a timely satire of greed, status anxiety, Ivy striving, and the long nightmare of the American dream. The novel is particularly brilliant and funny on the different forms that ambition takes, and the different ways it can deform you. It s an enviably smart and ambitious critique of envy, smarts, and ambition, which inspires some of the same jealousy it diagnoses. Like Sathian s characters, you almost want to drink whatever jewelry she was wearing while writing it. Bennett Sims, author of White Dialogues
This terrific debut novel uses heists and alchemy to deconstruct immigrant ambition, striving, and sin . . . The project of Gold Diggers is to deconstruct that dream [of America]. But what makes the novel so compelling is the playfulness with which Sathian deconstructs it. You feel for the characters and the ways they have been warped by their pursuit of greatness and the ways they are haunted by their sins but also, there are heists and alchemy. It s a blast. Constance Grady, Vox
Full of voice . . . rollicking, at times painful, and ultimately intensely satisfying . . . One of the wonderful things about Sathian's writing is how imperfect she allows Neil to be: he can be shallow, vain, awkward, and selfish. Yet it's so easy to root for him, because he's just so terribly alive, his adult narration inhabiting his teenage self honestly, without sugarcoating. Ilana Masad, NPR
Sanjena is way too young to have published such an amazing novel about a group of South Asian teenagers and the quest for their identity in the U.S., yet she pulls it off effortlessly, complete with references to TCBY and other 1990s favorites. Zibby Owens, Good Morning America
Highly anticipated . . . Funny and exciting, it s an entertaining new twist on the immigrant experience. Lesley Kennedy, CNN
Crackles with sarcasm and wit . . . a dazzling tale. Local readers will delight in Sathian s artful depiction of metro Atlanta circa 2006, as well as her take on the struggles of being a member of a minority community during the post-9/11 Bush era. Anjali Enjeti, Atlanta Journal Constitution
Read Gold Diggers, a fantastical and darkly funny commentary on the American Dream. Book Riot
A dazzling and delightful work of fiction by an exciting new literary talent . . . Sathian has produced a beguiling elixir with Gold Diggers, skillfully stirring myth into a playful yet powerful modern-day examination of the American dream and the second-generation citizens who pursue it. A fabulist amalgam of The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye, it s an engrossing cautionary tale as well as a shrewd appraisal of what we consider success and the moral sacrifices we make to achieve it. Imaginative and intoxicating, Gold Diggers richly rewards its readers. Stephanie Harrison, BookPage
Dazzling . . . the sharp characterizations bring humor and contemplation in equal measure, touching on the pressures Neil and Anita face to produce a legacy that honors their parents sacrifices. Sathian s bildungsroman isn t one to miss. Publishers Weekly
"Out of [a] nugget of magical realism, Sathian spins pure magic . . . Filled with pathos, humor, slices of American history, and an adrenaline-pumping heist, Sathian's spectacular debut also highlights the steep costs of the all-American dream . . . Pure gold . . . YAs will find much to embrace in Neeraj s dynamite and touching quest to find himself." Booklist (starred review)
A refreshing tweak of the assimilation novel . . . Sathian artfully and convincingly conjures [this] world . . . Sathian has a knack for page-turner prose, but the story has plenty of heft. A winningly revamped King Midas tale. Kirkus
In a perfect alchemical blend of familiar and un-, Gold Diggers takes a wincingly hilarious coming-of-age story, laces it with magical realism and a trace of satire, and creates a world that's both achingly familiar and marvelously inventive. Written with such assurance it's hard to believe it's Sanjena Sathian's debut, this is a dizzyingly original, fiercely funny, deeply wise novel about the seductive powers and dangers of borrowed ambition. Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere
Gold Diggers is so many things truly funny, insightful, smart, and filled with wonderful characters. I loved reading this novel, and loved watching Neil Narayan grow up and grapple with the America his immigrant parents believed in. Neil's journey to figuring out what he believes, which includes a multi-layered exploration into the properties of gold, and his strange and wonderful friendship with his next door neighbor, Anita, make this story unmissable. Ann Napolitano, bestselling author of Dear Edward
Is the American dream about hard work and sacrifice or is it about the lure of the Gold Rush, of quick riches there for the taking? Greed, regret and love are all at work here in Sathian s completely original, utterly absorbing, complex and confident debut novel. A bravura performance from an exciting new voice. Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club
What a dynamic and exciting debut! Sathian builds such an inviting world of layers and times, all knit together by voice, vibrant imagery and palpable groundedness. A total delight. Aimee Bender, author of The Butterfly Lampshade
Sanjena Sathian's Gold Diggers is a sparkling treasure, hilarious and full of insight. Rajesh Parameswaran, author of I Am an Executioner
I m not sure if I should praise Sanjena Sathian for spinning such a lively and nervy narrative or thank her for her generosity as field guide, bringing me deep into Indian-American family life and the underbelly of Silicon Valley optimization culture. A tenderly imaginative tale of ambition and the burden of tradition, Gold Diggers is the American novel we need right now. Bracingly original, riveting to the last drop. Lauren Mechling, author of How Could She
Sanjena Sathian's Gold Diggers made me feel utterly inadequate as a writer. Her writing is engaging and the lush world she creates within the novel was a great joy to explore. We'll be hearing from her for years to come. Sopan Deb, author of Missed Translations
From Bombay to the Bay Area, Sanjena Sathian s expansive debut novel upends our ideas of what it takes to make it in America. Smart, funny, and completely engrossing, Gold Diggers is everything a novel should be. Andrew Ridker, author of The Altruists
Searching, intelligent, with a premise as flawless as the gold at its center, Gold Diggers follows a generation whose ambitions are shaping the America we live in today. As imaginative as it is idea-driven, as compassionate as it is angry, part heist novel, part coming of age story, part ghost story, romance, and tragedy, it renders all its opposites in a fast-paced, perfectly crafted crucible of a plot. This is a perfect first novel: brilliant, funny, and secretly, privately, quietly romantic. A Great American Novel for the 21st century. Amy Parker, author of Beasts and Children and winner of the Calvino Prize
Vivid, delightful, and wonderfully weird, Gold Diggers glitters with a unique and stirring brilliance. Sanjena Sathian is an incredibly exciting new writer! Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will and National Book Award Finalist
Gold Diggers is a knock-out a hilarious send-up of the immigrant pressure to succeed and the challenges of growing up with a hyphenated identity in the American South. It s also a devastating meditation on history, love, grief, wealth, and familial bonds. Whether you want to laugh or cry, meet ghosts, plan a heist, or live forever, you can find what you re looking for in these sparkling pages. Maria Kuznetsova, author of Oksana, Behave!
Gold Diggers is an auspicious auriferous? debut. Part coming-of-age story about the immigrant experience, part Gogolian heist comedy about soul-sapping gold, it s also a timely satire of greed, status anxiety, Ivy striving, and the long nightmare of the American dream. The novel is particularly brilliant and funny on the different forms that ambition takes, and the different ways it can deform you. It s an enviably smart and ambitious critique of envy, smarts, and ambition, which inspires some of the same jealousy it diagnoses. Like Sathian s characters, you almost want to drink whatever jewelry she was wearing while writing it. Bennett Sims, author of White Dialogues
... weniger
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