Where the Oceans Meet (Cloth)

Mandava's debut, a first novel cobbled together from connected stories, intends to represent the different elements of Indian culture. A cast of no less than 30 characters--most of whom live in southern India, though the scene shifts occasionally to New York City--experience murders, maimings, possible kidnappings, bondage, marriages (both arranged and not) as well as more mundane loves and losses. But these characters are too disconnected from each other; their stories are told in separate chapters, and the connections between the chapters are minimal. In ""The Lorry Driver"" (each chapter is titled), we are introduced to Ravi. Badly scarred in a fire that killed his mother, he becomes infatuated with a club dancer, Ana. The chapter ends with Ravi in crisis; he reappears 10 chapters later, having reinvented himself, but his presence is largely irrelevant to the story now being told. And the potentially most interesting element--that of his transformation--is never explained. Ajay and Veena are Indian-American cousins who appear in different chapters--Ajay as the fiance of a woman preparing for her arranged marriage in ""Wedding"" and, later, as a new husband in ""The Doctor""; Veena as a wife vacationing with her American husband in India in ""Amaravati Road"" and ""Paradise."" Each of them experiences the conflicts born of hyphenated identity. Unfortunately, their stories, like the whole collection, are too fragmented. Mandava raises intriguing cultural issues, but, because her chapters are linked obliquely at best, the book offers few deeper explorations or dramatizations of these issues. (Nov.)