Americanized millennial Arjun Chatterjee is a food-truck chef working in a parking lot outside the nation’s capital. He dreams up multiethnic recipes and pursues a young woman toiling in a Kafkaesque office nearby. Building a clientele, he faces life with a sly optimism.
One day he idly asks the sky: “Why am I here?”
Deep Fried is a tragicomic love story wrapped in creative freedom. Its chefs, musicians, and entrepreneurs face a world of oversized dreams and shaky prospects.
They try, fail, and fail better. Will it be enough?
Doyon’s witty and poignant debut novel explores the American dream through the lens of a millennial food-truck chef. Set against the backdrop of Washington D.C.'s bustling food scene, the novel follows Arjun Chatterjee, an Americanized Indian immigrant, as he navigates love, ambition, and identity in a world of oversized dreams and precarious realities. With only a trickle of regular customers, Arjun agrees to team up with a diverse group of neighboring food trucks to throw a block party—Gourmet Battle of the Vans—that will get the word out about all the food trucks in the lot. With prose as flavorful as Arjun’s fusion cuisine, Doyon skillfully uses the food truck microcosm to comment on cultural identity, entrepreneurship, and the search for meaning in modern America. Populated with a diverse cast of chefs, musicians, office workers, and even a rescued pigeon, the vividly drawn characters each add their own unique spice to the community. With their range of backgrounds and perspectives, conflicts do arise within the “food truck family,” but readers will love watching relationships evolve, as when former lawyer-turned-food truck chef Melinda overcomes her ire at itinerant coder Jared for stealing her Wi-Fi and feeds him one of her Burger Bombs because he looks hungry.
While the book's episodic structure occasionally feels disjointed, it ultimately reinforces the unpredictable nature of Arjun’s chosen path and struggling artist’s lifestyle, and his quest for culinary and romantic success is a compelling throughline that will keep readers invested in his journey. The characters’ philosophical musings at times edge toward the heavy-handed, but Doyon blends humor with moments of profound introspection (Arjun enlists the pigeon he rescued in his quest for existential answers). This savory slice of contemporary American life will edify readers who have ever dared to follow their dreams or wondered, "Why am I here?"
Takeaway: Quirky, thoughtful meditation on creativity, purpose and the American dream.
Comparable Titles: Michelle Jauner’s Crying in H Mart, J. Ryan Stradal’s Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A
