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One Night at the Call Center: A Novel (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: systems guy, quick brown fox jumps, Military Uncle, Western Computers, Ganesh Priyanka (more...)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This bestselling Indian import feels more like a half-baked business-inspirational tract than a novel, as if a washed-up motivational speaker wrote a spec script for The Office and set it in an Indian call center. The prologue sets up the novel as a story told to the author by a fellow passenger on an overnight train to Delhi. Perennially put-upon narrator Shyam Mehra is denied a promotion and learns his ex-girlfriend and current officemate Priyanka has agreed to an arranged marriage with a man in Seattle. Another friend and colleague, Vroom, hates the job and their boss, but likes the money. Co-worker Rhadhika's marriage crumbles after she learns of her husband's affair. And Esha feels guilty about what she's done in pursuit of her dream of being a model. Meanwhile, they learn that the company they work for has decided to lay off workers and that their boss is taking credit for work they've done. And then, the hook: God calls, offering the crew a four-point plan for success. Lackluster writing and a preachy tone cripple what could have been an interesting premise. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist

Business has been lagging lately at Connections, the Delhi call center for a large U.S. computer and appliance company. Twenty-six-year-old agent Shyam, known to his American callers as "Sam," is less concerned about his career than his breakup with coworker Priyanka. (She recently consented to an arranged marriage with a wealthy Indian expat.) Sam's other twentysomething colleagues have troubles of their own: aspiring model Esha takes desperate measures to secure gigs; Radhika suffers humiliation at the hands of an unfaithful spouse; and Varun, aka Vroom, drives at dangerous speeds to cope with personal and professional distress. The bane of the staff's existence is their jargon-spewing boss, Bakshi, who blithely assumes credit for his employees' work. One particularly tense evening (which happens to be Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.), the Connections staff take a break from the office--and receive a life-altering call. Bhagat, an investment banker based in Hong Kong, renders engaging characters and a provocative premise. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books (May 1, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345498321
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345498328
  • Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #397,718 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #55 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Indian

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Chetan Bhagat
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systems guy, quick brown fox jumps
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Military Uncle, Western Computers, Ganesh Priyanka, Band Aid, Priyanka Vroom, Boston Bakshi, Shyam Priyanka, Vroom Esha, Bakshi Vroom, Pandara Road, Pizza Hut, Statue of Liberty, United States, Qualis Vroom, Eddy Teddy, Curly Wurly, Rail Museum, Esha Vroom, Main Bay
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One Night at the Call Center: A Novel
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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.5 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Just isn't very good, April 26, 2008
By Lillyanne_M (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
This novel is nothing special, has a mediocre storyline, a couple of interesting characters and was a quick, light diversion.

I have several problems with it, though. First, it's pretty juvenile. The author fulfills his personal fantasies by having the main character get revenge on his boss and get the girl in the end. Second, the dialogue is unrealistic and the phone call from God is completely out of place. It's 5 seconds of fantasy in a novel that's supposed to be a slice of reality. Third, is that this novel is unapologetically racist. The author spends quite a few lines in several places in the book declaring Americans to be fat, stupid, lazy, paranoid war-mongers. Not nice. Fourth, the book cover claims that the book is funny. Nope. Not even a little.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting insight into the tormented psyche of either Indian youth or the author - not sure which..., January 29, 2008
By Robert Anderson (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This quick, engaging story about the problems in the lives of six call center workers in India, portrays the plight of young Indians who in their desire to move up the socioeconomic ladder, ironically find themselves exploited by a distant and uncaring American corporation and restricted by outdated cultural traditions.

I enjoyed the story and the writing style, although I thought the "phone call from God" plot twist toward the end was rendered with all the subtlety of a self-help book (I'm surprised God didn't number the "valuable life lessons" for our convenience).

Forgiving that, my main gripe with this book is that neither the characters nor the author seemed to quite grasp the aforementioned "valuable life lessons".

The reason I say this is that in the story, Americans are portrayed individually (as callers into the call center) as fearful, lazy, stupid, warmongers who unfairly enjoy a better lifestyle than Indians - and collectively (in the form of corporations) as the personification of evil, unfairness and oppression. And so, the characters' economic problems are blamed on the selfish, stupid Americans who oppress them. Fair enough - every story needs a bad guy.

But yet, even after God shows up on the scene and dispenses the aforementioned "valuable life lessons" (take responsibility for your own lives, stop blaming others, stop making excuses) Americans (and the boss, as a stand-in for the Americans) are still the scapegoat, and the characters use their newfound self-confidence and perspective on life to exact REVENGE!!!

Now, to me, vindictiveness (even coupled with the loftier goal of saving the call center) seems incongruent with psychological well being and a tip-off that maybe someone doesn't fully understand those "valuable life lessons". And so I actually considered at length that perhaps the author's true intention was to convey the self-defeating nature of blaming, complaining and not taking responsibility, by showing the characters' hypocrisy - how they suffered from an inferiority complex and psychologically projected their self-loathing onto America, their perceived oppressor. (After all, the very name of the protagonist with the most wounded inner child - "Vroom" - could be a symbolic reference to his materialistic nature and the conflicted way in which he simultaneously condemns and worships western culture).

But ... strangely enough I was left with the bizarre impression that the author himself was blind to the disconnect between the lessons the book extolls and its underlying whinyness and racism, which raises the disturbing question of whether the attitudes in the book were meant as those of the characters or of Indian youth - or worse, whether they are in fact the attitudes of the writer himself (I hope not).

So overall, I enjoyed the book for it's portrayal of the youth culture in India, but even more for the bizarre, psychological conflicts which it represents and which I'm still puzzling over.

... and as a final note, one last thing that I found disconcerting was that the setup for the story (While travelling I met someone who told me this story and it was so compelling that I had to meet the characters and turn it into my next novel)is an obvious copy of the setup in "Life of Pi" - which I imagine the author must have read, since it was a huge bestseller having to do with India.

and finally...

DISCLAIMER: If in fact the author's intention was to point out the hypocrisy of claiming to take responsibility for one's life while simultaneously plotting revenge against one's imagined oppressors, then TOUCHE'! - because with this book, he is then not blind to his own predjudices or merely pandering to the attitudes of the disaffected Indian youth market, but rather is holding a mirror to their face and challenging them to recognize how their own attitudes and predjudices may play a part in holding them back while and letting them know that by healing their own collective psyche they will be able to rise above whatever systemic conditions conspire to oppress them.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Poolside Reading, June 21, 2007
This is a very nice first or second piece of fiction. I get a chuckle out of people throwing around the word "novel". Mr. Bhagat really stretches the sense of term "novel" by referring to this short non-fiction volume as a novel on the cover page. Novel? Perhaps in the sense that no one in my recollection has written a story centered around an Indian call center. But, a novel? Please. Doesn't novel imply a work of art or a serious attempt at art? This is not art.

Of course, if you can get by the "Americans are fat stupid idiots" pabulum sprinkled throughout the volume what you get is a very well told story about some young Indian kids striving to get ahead. The narrative and dialog, while not exactly riveting, is certainly entertaining and worth a read. I'm not expert on Indian culture, but I went to school and have worked with many Indian experts and have grown to respect the work ethic and general willingness to "get along" with people. I've always wanted to visit India and this book has done nothing to dissuade me.

I was hoping for more information or anecdotes about the inner workings of call centers. Often new "novelists" do so much homework on their subject that you actually feel like you're reading history or some other non-fiction type of work covering the subject.

Again, a nice summer read. Good job Mr. Bhagat and best of luck with future work.

And, hey, call center work sounds like a grueling, repetitive, frustrating job. So, I can forgive the anti-American stuff. If I were working a call center in Chicago (who knows) covering India I'd be cursing about customer after a while too.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible book
Other reviewers have already gotten this right. Bad writing, America-bashing, bad storylines, nonsensical ending, and moderately interesting characters. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Abhishek Awasthi

1.0 out of 5 stars Lame, juvenile, racist
Many of the characters and dialogues are unbelievable. Most of the book is so-so and ending is a wild juvenile fantasy which would appeal only to immature minds. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Shriman

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good
I am not sure why this book receieved some of the crticism it has, to me it was a work of fiction and the statements, to the extent they are racist on their face, were not... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Evan Boehler

5.0 out of 5 stars A fresh piece of work that finally makes "self help" entertaining and engaging
This a a great book all around, a total surprise and a delightful read. The negative reviews here are by those Americans whose feelings got hurt because of their negative... Read more
Published 10 months ago by B. NAIK

2.0 out of 5 stars Racist and Immature
I mentally cringed when I read this book. Honestly, I didn't expect this racist tripe from an author who's claim to fame is his having attended India's top engineering and... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Chandana Singh

2.0 out of 5 stars Starts good but then becomes boring with lame ending
This novel does give a glimpse of call center life. That is a new lifestyle in which mostly young Indian workers go to work in the night with 2 AM meetings; plush with money,... Read more
Published 15 months ago by ReadersRUs

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre piece of work
Chetan's second book..One Night At the Call Center...is a mediocre piece of work. The narrative is very similar to his first book..Five Point Something. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Annapurna Saripella

1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing
Chetan Bhagat disappointed me with this book. I had high expectations after reading his first book "Five Point Something". The writing is poor. Avoid it if you can.
Published 23 months ago by Praveen

1.0 out of 5 stars A Bridget Jones-y plot-- with racism as a bonus!
The book's fluff plot aside (the guy gets the girl!), its constant statements about Americans trip off my alarm: "Are these comments that, if stated about black people, would be... Read more
Published on September 19, 2007 by Sean Burke

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting to read for its "view from the inside"
I read this book with great curiosity because I'd heard about this novel for a long time (while it was unavailable in the USA) and I thought it would be interesting to read the... Read more
Published on May 3, 2007 by global music collector

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