The Invitation (2012) Four students, all first-generation Indian immigrants, meet at UCLA and become fast friends in The Invitation . But once dispersed by graduation, they don't reunite… Fiction W. W. Norton & Company
Book Review

The Invitation (2012)

Anne Cherian
Reviewed by | May 04, 2012
REGRETFUL REUNION Cherian exquisitely weaves jealousy and regret with varying Indian and American values
REGRETFUL REUNION Cherian exquisitely weaves jealousy and regret with varying Indian and American values
EW's GRADE
A-

Details Release Date: May 14, 2012; Writer: Anne Cherian; Genre: Fiction; Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Four students, all first-generation Indian immigrants, meet at UCLA and become fast friends in The Invitation. But once dispersed by graduation, they don't reunite for a quarter century, until the socially bumbling member of their clique — now a computer-company millionaire — invites them to celebrate his son's MIT graduation. The requisite ingredients — jealousy, regret, conflict between traditional Indian values and modern American ones — are all here, yet in Cherian's gorgeously embroidered tale, nothing turns out remotely like you'd expect. A-

Originally posted May 11, 2012 Published in issue #1206 May 11, 2012 Order article reprints