IF YOU SEE ME, DON'T SAY HI

If you See Me, Don't Say Hi is my pick for favorite book of 2018. While there may have been better written or well-received books this year, none resonated with me as much as this debut collection of short stories by Neel Patel. While comparisons with the Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri have no doubt been made, Patel's focus is not on the Indian diaspora. Rather, Patel gives voice and life to the offspring of that diaspora - first generation Indian-Americans like me.

In a recent interview entitled, "This Indian American Life," Patel recounted his experiences growing up as a first generation Indian-American in rural Illinois. It is the experience of an outsider - an experience with which I could easily identify from my own upbringing in rural Canada and suburban Oklahoma and Texas - that made this book so powerful for me.

Whether describing the angst of an Indian-American teen who realizes he is gay, a young, recently divorced Indian-American women whose community casts her out, or Indian-American brothers who  fall out of love, the desire for acceptance and community is a theme woven throughout the eleven stories in this collection.

My favorite of the bunch revolves around a young man named Krishna and his experiences growing up in Illinois in the penultimate story of the book. He is a character who is always on the outside looking in, which creates blind spots about navigating adolescence and adulthood. That Krishna's story comes full circle so powerfully in the book's final chapter- in the most tender and heartbreaking of ways - is a tribute to Patel's ability to capture his characters' humanity and their complexity.

Keep an eye on Neel Patel! He is a writer who is just getting started, and I hope he has many more tales to tell!