Review 163: Members Only

Members Only by Sameer Pandya
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book steps into some issues that are going on in the country, with race relations, cancel culture, freedom of speech, and yet it doesn’t dive very deeply. The book takes, mostly, one horrible week, for the main character Raj Bhatt, Sunday through Friday, with an extra chapter for the aftermath. First problem arose due to a horrible joke at his tennis club.

This alone would be enough for a bad week, but an even bigger issue comes up where Raj teaches. The students become overly critical about his lectures that criticizes some aspects of the Christian society. Things get out of control when videos are posted online, and a student protest ensues.

Raj doesn’t do the right things, it’s a bit messy. But that is life too, when faced with incredible situations we don't always say or behave in the best way. The novel gives many details in Raj's life: phone calls by his mother, what goes on with his kids, of course there being some minor issues popping up there as well, and a skin issue on his foot. It is one of the worst weeks anyone can imagine.

We get many details of Raj’s life, mostly in the present, also some from his past. They do fill in fully about Raj, and what I mostly found was that Raj isn’t honest, with anyone. He constantly tells little lies.

Perhaps all these details is more than necessary. There’s a moment with the dean telling Raj this deep secret no one else knows at all, how did that fit into this story? Did Raj get anything out of it? Not really. So what was it put into the book? It feels like it’s a misdirection, like maybe that would allow the character to take a real good look at himself, but no, not really. Instead he stumbles into buying a gun, (not the right type for his situation) let alone that in reality he would not get the gun that same exact day, there is a waiting period.

At the end, I was left with the feeling that Raj is never fully truthful to anyone in his life, and question if he was even to himself. So while the book was decent it fell a little flat for me.

Thanks to Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

I listened to the audio book copy of the book from the library. The narration was done superbly.