Gold Diggers
Precious Ambition
As a staunch supporter of books reflecting the diversity of South Asian voices and experiences (which as you will find, when you pick up the book, sounds a lot like a line from one of the Miss Teen India pageant hopefuls) I love that Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian is a story grounded in real life struggles bolstered by ancient magic and spirituality, history, and a nerve-jangling heist. I wouldn’t say that sums up the entirety of the South Asian diaspora experience, but it’s definitely part of it. (If you’re wondering where the heist factors in, from an early age we have to become experts at sneaking shorts and tank tops out of the house and watching movies that were strictly forbidden.) The book puts the question of what it means to be Indian and American in the hands of a community of first generation kids.
Neil Narayan, the son of a data analyst and a pharmacist is under immense pressure to live up to the ambitions of his immigrant parents. It’s the same story for all of his Indian peers in their insular Indian community in the predominantly white suburb of Hammond Creek, Georgia. But Neil would rather focus on gaining the attention of his lifelong crush, Harvard-bound Anita Dayal. One day Neil discovers Anita and her mother Anjali’s secret to success. They are brewing an alchemical potion, an ancient concoction made of stolen gold. The gold, imbibed with the ambition of the owner then transfers its strengths to the drinker. Of course Neil begs to be included in their plans and for the first time in his life is rising to the top of the ranks, even garnering praise from his parents. But there are consequences to stealing the ambitions of others. Neil is convinced that he is nothing without the drink they refer to as “lemonade” and his desperation leads to a tragedy that rips through their community. Years later, having migrated to the west coast, Neil is as he puts it “piddling around as a student of history,” and numbing his trauma with drugs and alcohol. Unexpectedly, Anita reaches out to him again. Anjali is in trouble and the only thing that can save her is gold. But in order to get it, they need to pull off the ultimate gold heist at one of the penultimate Indian events.
As the story’s narrator, I enjoyed Neil’s dry humour and at times cynical way of thinking (both definitions). Flawed and soft-spined though he can be, his supposed mediocrity appealed to me. I connected to that middle-of-the-roadness in high school, where his only ability to stand out in a positive way was by virtue of not being completely last in the ranks. Neil isn’t a talentless blob however. In high school he discovers his deep love of history and storytelling, but instead of rising in the ranks of academia, Neil has sidelined his dissertation to obsessively pursue an obscure figure named Isaac Snider whom he believes may have been an Indian immigrant that came to California during the gold rush.
Neil’s own struggles to find his place in the world are reflected in this fixation on Snider, who may have remade himself into someone he felt that history would consider worthy. Perhaps one of the earliest answers to the question Neil has also wrestled with: what it means to be both Indian and American? When it comes to rewriting history, Anjali was also a great character. As the only daughter of three children, she was not given the same study opportunities as her brothers, her life being defined from birth by an inevitable future as a wife and mother. But Anjali weaves a fate by using the only tools she was given, the alchemical knowledge that had previously been used to advance the men in their family.
Identity struggles aren’t confined to one culture so you don’t need to be wrestling with it in the Indian context to enjoy Gold Diggers. Magic and history are woven so effortlessly into the narrative and being lost in the pages of Neil and Anita’s attempted heist was nail-biting and claustrophobic – in a good way. This book is an inspired take on destroying the myth of the model minority and what it means to wrestle with doing the “right” things only to find yourself and still finding yourself flailing at a loose end. Everyone here is trying to find their place in the world. If you’ve ever wondered what ambition tastes like, you consider yourself a history/historical fiction nerd, or you just want to get flashbacks to high school, then this book is definitely for you.