Deepak’s experiences are moving and ring true, echoing and enriching truths that have been explored in the body of South Asian immigrant writing. Acharya’s prose tends toward the blunt and declaratory, fitting the drudge work that Deepak, who lacks legal work documents, must take on to achieve his dreams. Deepak’s over-qualified, and often jolted by what he encounters in America, from his friend Ganesh’s refusal of his embrace (“Only gays do so”) to realizations about his own ingrained attitudes: “He claimed he did not believe in the caste system, but every time, when he reached the Dumpster, he felt humiliated.”
This narrative of soul-crushing work and cultural alienation in the interest of ambition is frank, revealing, and insightful. Occasional moments of connection lift the spirits of Deepak and readers alike, though key relationships—like that between Deepak and Melissa, who exchange poetry—are not explored in depth. Melissa’s issues with Deepak come up during the denouement but would have added welcome drama if dramatized earlier. That feeling of being cut off from others is powerful, but the novel comes to fullest life in moments of interaction.
Takeaway: An insightful novel about a Nepali immigrant's isolating experience in the U.S.
Great for fans of: Rajika Bhandari’s America Calling, Anurag Mathur’s The Inscrutable Americans.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: A
The story centers on a Nepali migrant character Deepak, who flies to America, living his old and poor parents back in Nepal. A lecturer of English at home and a man of high repute, his craze for an American degree whirls him hard, until he ends up flying. He has other dreams: “…of building his own home in America, a sprawling house like the ones he had seen in films, and owning a brand new Mercedes.” Dreams multiply. He also wants to “…marry Melissa, and start living in the US.” Readers to not approve of these groundless dreams for Deepak who still drags an ambition to take care for his ailing and old parents back home. Yet these high dreams serve as a tragic flaw for Deepak, and he qualifies to the rank of an average emigrant in America, following lucrative but fatal dreams.
"The well-crafted story is a rich tapestry of realism, honesty and imagination, and the fresh and genuine subject matter keeps the reader's attention throughout. The original and often thought provoking novel moves along with a certain propulsion and authenticity that intrigue the reader, and the reading of your material flows along well. The dialogue is also well done and realistic throughout."
The challenge seems even more insurmountable when he settles into his new residence and job, where situations occur that test his resilience and will. In the midst of his agony, he finds one thing that could possibly make the experience ultimately worthwhile. Will she leave or betray him like everyone else has?
In rhythmic, colorful prose, "Running from the Dreamland" explores the daily life of ambitious newcomers to America along with the nostalgia of their past, which opens up a largely unseen world to the Western reader. This is a fictional tale that includes themes to which most anyone can relate. Allwrite Publication
American dream lingered, in spite of innumerable punctures from within. Withstanding blows right from the days of hard realists like Arthur Miller, through a band of Jazz and Blues artists in the middle, way down to the days of naturalist fiction writers like John Steinbeck, American lingered. This is because the world elsewhere could not develop itself as the best location for dreamers, so obviously, America continued to be the promised land. The EDV culture, and magnetic student-attraction strategies from all over the world continued to make America a Venus flytrap, and the same is true to our own days. The Venus flytrap continues to suck life-sap from emigrants, and to throws the chaff of their beings back to their abandoned homelands ultimately.
These feelings rose in my mind, as I flipped through the pages of Running from Dreamland, a deeply engaging fiction by young Nepali novelist Tulasi Acharya. Almost in every page of the novel, I could figure novelist Acharya himself, though I constantly reminded my critical self that I should not, at any rate, be a victim of fallacies, whatsoever. But then, the moment novelist Acharya appears as an aspirant academic flying all the way to the US from home and molding an identity there, there is every possibility that the fault-line between his novel's fictional reality, and the author's own lived reality, get blurred. When a work of fiction permeates through reality and evokes virtual belief, the work attains extraordinary success. I rate Running from Dreamland as a work of such success, at least for its storyline.
Reviewed by Mahesh Paudyal
"Deepak's experiences are moving and ring true, echoing and enriching truths that have been explored in the body of South Asian immigrant writing. Acharya's prose tends toward the blunt and declaratory, fitting the drudge work that Deepak, who lacks legal work documents, must take on to achieve his dreams." Publishers Weekly
