Diversity Quota

September 1, 2024
Ten stories about the plights and successes of Nepalis in both Nepal and the United States. In "Leech," an unlikely bond between Ram, a member of the Madhesi minority and the son of two migrant farmers, and Juneli, a wealthy leftist activist from Kathmandu, is tested when Ram discovers a leech in his nose and can't afford to visit a doctor. In "A Short Visit," Nirmal's Nepali father's visit to his son in Denver reveals the intergenerational alcoholism that threatens to damage their family dynamic and their lives. In "Spicy Kitchen," which takes place at a failing Indian restaurant in Utah, the Nepali narrator's insecurity about his immigrant status causes competition with his Somali refugee coworker and disgruntlement with his bosses. In "The Diversity Committee," a Nepali professor at a liberal arts college in Idaho crosses a line with a white student, forcing him to reckon with his relationship to women and his position of power as a professor. These stories share many similar details--familial expectations, struggling bachelors, immigrant outposts in underpopulated western and Midwestern American states--but each character is facing a distinct and individual set of circumstances. Adiga deftly complicates the conventional politics around immigrant narratives, instead drawing out the tender, lonely, shameful, and devoted qualities of his characters; he fruitfully pays equal attention and care to the ill-at-ease immigrants in America and the isolated, stubborn, wealthy stay-at-home mother in Nepal. A thoughtful, encapsulating portrait of Nepali life.

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