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mckenzie_reads's review against another edition
5.0
MEMBERS ONLY follows Raj Bhatt, an Indian man living in the United States with his wife and family. While interviewing new couples for the tennis club they’re a part of, Raj makes a racist joke in an attempt to connect. Later in the later week, some of Raj’s college students accuse him of reverse racism.
Sameer Pandaya has done a wonderful job exploring the everyday racism that exists in our lives. I found Raj to be a very likable main character, and that made it even more painful as I watched his story unfold.
It was so frustrating to see (mainly white) people constantly discriminate against Raj, while also wildly condemning him for his small errors. I have thought a lot about this novel since putting it down, and I highly recommend it. MEMBERS ONLY does an expert job at examining this complicated topic. I think it will be especially enlightening to white readers like myself, as it made it so painfully obvious how each small act microaggression combined creates a much larger problem. I highly encourage you to read this novel! (4.5 stars rounded up)
Sameer Pandaya has done a wonderful job exploring the everyday racism that exists in our lives. I found Raj to be a very likable main character, and that made it even more painful as I watched his story unfold.
It was so frustrating to see (mainly white) people constantly discriminate against Raj, while also wildly condemning him for his small errors. I have thought a lot about this novel since putting it down, and I highly recommend it. MEMBERS ONLY does an expert job at examining this complicated topic. I think it will be especially enlightening to white readers like myself, as it made it so painfully obvious how each small act microaggression combined creates a much larger problem. I highly encourage you to read this novel! (4.5 stars rounded up)
antonio_suave's review against another edition
medium-paced
4.25
I believe Pandya successfully achieved what he had set out to accomplish in this novel. This novel explores the black/white race relationship and how brown bodies fit into that topic. Some of the days (since it takes place over 1 week) felt like they were meandering at times, but everything belonged. I thought I didn’t like how the final chapter summed up the theme of the entire novel, but it alludes to how the main character conducts his anthropology lectures…it is just a lot that can be further analyzed. Pandya is an author to keep a look out for future reads.
nebula402's review
3.0
This book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for a review, but all thoughts are my own.
This was just OK for me and I had a hard time figuring out why. It was well written with complex characters and difficult topics, all of which I really enjoy. I did enjoy the book, but I wasn't blown away. The author tried to tackle too many large subjects at once, so they all fell flat.
The story starts with Raj's dumb, offensive joke igniting a smoldering fire of systemic racism. That part was very interesting and I wanted to see how Raj's interpersonal relationships changed. It also would have been really interesting to see how it affected his wife and children.
But partway through the book the focus shifts to Raj's teaching and a group of right-wing students trying to get him fired. That could have been an interesting area to explore: the growing conservative movement and far-right loud-mouth agitators.
If the author had picked either the tennis club or the college protests as the main focus of the book, I would have liked it more. But having both large topics meant that they weren't covered as well or as thoroughly as they deserved.
This was just OK for me and I had a hard time figuring out why. It was well written with complex characters and difficult topics, all of which I really enjoy. I did enjoy the book, but I wasn't blown away. The author tried to tackle too many large subjects at once, so they all fell flat.
The story starts with Raj's dumb, offensive joke igniting a smoldering fire of systemic racism. That part was very interesting and I wanted to see how Raj's interpersonal relationships changed. It also would have been really interesting to see how it affected his wife and children.
But partway through the book the focus shifts to Raj's teaching and a group of right-wing students trying to get him fired. That could have been an interesting area to explore: the growing conservative movement and far-right loud-mouth agitators.
If the author had picked either the tennis club or the college protests as the main focus of the book, I would have liked it more. But having both large topics meant that they weren't covered as well or as thoroughly as they deserved.
lawyergobblesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Took me two tries to get into this, but I ended up liking the narrator a lot.
kelli7990's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
Here’s what this book is about:”First the white members of Raj Bhatt's posh tennis club call him racist. Then his life falls apart. Along the way, he wonders: Where does he, a brown man, belong in America?”
I won a physical ARC of this book from Bookish First. I like that this book gave me a lot to think about and it sounded interesting. I also felt bad for Raj. I also like how this book ended. The only thing I didn’t like about this book was that it was slow paced. I had a hard time getting through this book because the chapters were so long. I thought this story was good but it’s not a book that I would read again.
I won a physical ARC of this book from Bookish First. I like that this book gave me a lot to think about and it sounded interesting. I also felt bad for Raj. I also like how this book ended. The only thing I didn’t like about this book was that it was slow paced. I had a hard time getting through this book because the chapters were so long. I thought this story was good but it’s not a book that I would read again.
sometimes_iread's review against another edition
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The circumstances surrounding my reading of Members Only by Sameer Pandya probably played a huge role in how I read it (baby was sick and had to be admitted). Thus, what stood out the most to me was the tension that was artfully built throughout the book. It started out small enough, with Raj’s rather inappropriate gaffe, and grew and grew as life threw curveball after curveball at him. As the tension mounted, I kept wondering, what next? How is this mess ever going to be resolved? And it is telling that I refer to all the different problems in Raj’s life as one big mess because that’s exactly how it felt like thanks to the building tension, which really is how people experience their lives anyway. Stress in one area of life almost always spills over into the other aspects because we are a coherent whole and life can’t be compartmentalised that ruthlessly.
When the climax finally came and all that tension was released, I felt an immense sense of relief. Yes, things can get better. However, after sitting on the book for a while (and having my child discharged), I started to wonder if the ending was too simplistic. Could a social media cancellation that was spilling over into real life really be resolved that easily? Could a career in jeopardy be given a second chance just like that? I just wish that more meat was given to the ending to flesh things out a little more.
That aside, I really appreciated the theme of belonging that ran throughout the book. What does it mean to belong and who gets to dictate the rules regarding belonging? Does a club membership automatically mean that I belong in the club or are there more specific hoops to jump through? Add race and immigration into the bag and things get a lot more difficult to navigate. As humans, the need to belong is a particularly strong one and Pandya writes a compelling argument for belonging in the space that one carves out for oneself, and not what society dictates for one. Now if only it were that easy to follow through.
Diversity meter:
Indian American
Immigration
skyward's review
3.0
had a hard time deciding what to rate this book, and ultimately decided on a 3/5. it's been almost a week since ive finished this book so i basically forgot all my thoughts, BUT i did love the discussion of the experiences of south asians in america, specifically upper middle class. i related hard to MC as an indian at times about wanting to fit in, and trying to find your place between two different cultures.
with this in mind, i feel as though the mistake the MC made was something i couldn't wrap my head around, and i feel like the author shouldve gone with something else. it feels completely unrealistic for the MC, based on his age & background, to be capable of that, and i'm not sure if the author has the right to decide whether the character it was directed towards would accept his apology? also, a lot of other events in the novel just seeemed so unrealistic ()
with this in mind, i feel as though the mistake the MC made was something i couldn't wrap my head around, and i feel like the author shouldve gone with something else. it feels completely unrealistic for the MC, based on his age & background, to be capable of that, and i'm not sure if the author has the right to decide whether the character it was directed towards would accept his apology? also, a lot of other events in the novel just seeemed so unrealistic (
Spoiler
for example, how did all of this happen within a week? and the student mob was ridiculously unrealistic & outdated as wellreneereads's review against another edition
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
zoe_schlosser's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
rdhk's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This book is so meandering and kind of pointless that I was surprised to discover it's not a memoir. Its central theme is racism against Indian Americans in the US, which it explores well, but the author's narrative style didn't fully engage me. The plot was also sort of half-baked and muddled.