Video: Stories

Although 9 of the 10 stories in this debut collection are set in the author's native India, it is Meera Nair's great achievement that all the characters in Video are as recognizable as next-door neighbors. From the hilariously impatient villagers in Bangladesh waiting for a visit from Bill Clinton in "A Warm Welcome to the President, Insh'Allah!" to the nasally gifted computer programmer who hails from Mangalore in "The Curry Leaf Tree," we feel we know these people. Even the ambiguous ménage at a colonial resort in "A Certain Sense of Place" and the obnoxious yet bewildered husband from "Vishnukumar's Valentine's Day" are so finely drawn that we understand them. Family life with this extended cast of characters from Video is lovingly and humorously depicted, from the children's squabbles (one brother "hoarded complaints like sweets") to the family's favorite TV programs (the kids like Baywatch; the aged grandmother watches Understanding the Koran). The title story, in which a married man asks his wife to duplicate a sexual act he glimpsed in a pornographic video (and thus sets off a domestic uproar), is the collection's real standout. With this debut collection of short stories, a wonderful new writer is born. --Susan Biskeborn