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serendipitysbooks's review
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Members Only was a really enjoyable read that has a lot of pertinent points to make about the racial and cultural divisions that beset the US and other parts of the world today.
Raj and his wife Eva are members of the same private tennis club her family belonged to when she was a child. He is pretty much the only person of colour there and regularly suffers a range of racist micro aggressions. When the time comes to interview potential new members he lets slip a horrible racist slur. The story then follows him for a week when he not only has to deal with the fallout from the incident at the tennis club but is also accused of anti-Christian/anti-West bias by some university students in his class. That story goes viral and he is on the receiving end of a lot of right wing and white pride vitriol.
Many of the university sections had me chuckling out loud; they rang very true based on what I’ve seen and heard - and not necessarily in a good way! I appreciated the nuance of a character like Raj, someone who has experienced racism but is also guilty of it himself. It was telling how so many of the white tennis club members were quick to condemn Raj’s racism and cut him off but were oblivious to their own. The dangers of the internet in regards to nuanced and civil communication were clearly evident. Even face to face there was a rush to condemn and to judge, towards polarisation, rather than a desire to engage, educate, learn and find common ground. Raj himself was a complex character, often guilty of behaviour that was unwise at best. His procrastination with regards to the apology he knew was warranted for his racial slur was perplexing and irritating. But I also thought having a morally complicated protagonist added to the strength of the book. It would be both simplistic and unbelievable to have a character with flaws and foibles.
Final verdict - witty, provocative, nuanced and very readable.
Raj and his wife Eva are members of the same private tennis club her family belonged to when she was a child. He is pretty much the only person of colour there and regularly suffers a range of racist micro aggressions. When the time comes to interview potential new members he lets slip a horrible racist slur. The story then follows him for a week when he not only has to deal with the fallout from the incident at the tennis club but is also accused of anti-Christian/anti-West bias by some university students in his class. That story goes viral and he is on the receiving end of a lot of right wing and white pride vitriol.
Many of the university sections had me chuckling out loud; they rang very true based on what I’ve seen and heard - and not necessarily in a good way! I appreciated the nuance of a character like Raj, someone who has experienced racism but is also guilty of it himself. It was telling how so many of the white tennis club members were quick to condemn Raj’s racism and cut him off but were oblivious to their own. The dangers of the internet in regards to nuanced and civil communication were clearly evident. Even face to face there was a rush to condemn and to judge, towards polarisation, rather than a desire to engage, educate, learn and find common ground. Raj himself was a complex character, often guilty of behaviour that was unwise at best. His procrastination with regards to the apology he knew was warranted for his racial slur was perplexing and irritating. But I also thought having a morally complicated protagonist added to the strength of the book. It would be both simplistic and unbelievable to have a character with flaws and foibles.
Final verdict - witty, provocative, nuanced and very readable.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism
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