Customer Reviews

The Inscrutable Americans

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This is so funny! Admittedly he does get a bit worn towards the end, but that's ok. It's about the life and times of a small-town Indian spending a year in the United States. Story aside, this book deserves to be read for its sublime murder of the English language.

I read this book almost 10 years back and I still remember it as one of truly hilarious books I've ever read. Certain parts of it make me laugh even now.I was surprised to see so many 'negative reviews' on this otherwise 'light and irreverent' book. This is not a treatise on the sociology studies....this is a 'plain and simple funny book'. Dont spoil it by debating its authenticity and intellectualising its relevance...just read it and have 'a laugh of a life time' !

I bought this book after reading so many good reviews by the other readers. I was rather disappointed! This book perpetuates the myth about immigrant Indians running after white women (if there is a theme of this book, this is it). Some episodes are funny (washing clothes in bath tub, bargaining at the store etc) but the rest felt too tedious to read after a while. I tried to think if my assessment may have been biased because I personally attended top ten institutions and found only top notch Indian students whose primary (and only!) focus was good quality research followed by an excellent career. Portrayal of caucasian women is also very biased. Anyway, this is my opinion. Read the book and judge it for yourself.

Anurag Mathur weaves with great sensitivity and panache a tale of a small-town boy who goes straight to the Big Apple. This book is hilarious at times, without any malice, touching at times, and always thoroughly enjoyable. The characters are wonderfully alive and immeditaly strike a chord with readers. Let your hair down when you read this book, allow yourself to laugh, and you will love it. I did!

Mathur has done a very good job with his book. he introduces us to an Indian from a small town who is suddenly thrown in the midst of the western culture.now more Indians are here in the USA than they were at the time Mathur wrote his book. His book is all about the identity crisis on esuffers from when one is moved from his familiar surroundings and introduced to a culture so very alien from hi sown. Mathur's book is worth reading

This is easily one of the funniest books I've read by an Indian writer. Its best to stay away from Anurag Mathur's "Are all women leg spinners" though. The humor is fresh and contagious, beginning with the introductory letter Gopal writes to his parents. Laughs guaranteed! Best not to be taken seriously to show life in the US.

There aren't many books on the Indian experience in the United States. Just having the patience, insight, and (dare I say)courage to write this book should be applauded. Some of the reviews on Amazon have been written by Indians born in the U.S. who no doubt had a rollicking laugh at the expense of their parents and relatives, as well as a reaffirmation of the 'uncoolness' of 'native' Indians. It's extremely easy to parody our third world mentality, miser mentality, and sexual deprivation, and Mathur (of course) does all that. Where I think he fails is in providing no genuine insight into the culture clash in the U.S. Any one who disagrees with me, answer this question: How different is this book than the "How to tell if you're Indian" emails floating in cyberspace? Basically it's an eleven dollar expansion of the same theme - and not too well written at that.

This book was hilarious. The story of a small town young man who comes to America. The ideas are typical of middle class males in India. Sad to say but white women are viewed as easy and if you are Indian and are seen with a white man, well you are just a whore. I am Indian married to an Italian and every time I go to India, no matter to which city, I hear lewd remarks about myself. But reality aside, this book made me laugh so hard and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would also recommend Funny in Farsi, another hilarious book.

The early letters of the hero, a small-town Indian at an American University, are gems of hilarity. But humor dies soon in the book's pages, and the rest is a mundane, reasonable, serious, down-to-earth, firework-free (you get the picture) report on the life of a not-very-outgoing foreign grad student.

I read this book almost 15 years ago and still remember it as one of the most hilarious books that I've ever read. Just recalling certain passages make me laugh even now. I was surprised to see so many 'negative reviews' on this otherwise 'light and irreverent' book. This is not a treatise on the sociology......this is a plain and simple `funny book' which surreptiously borders on reality. Dont spoil it by debating its authenticity and intellectualising its relevance.....just read it and have 'a laugh of a life time' !