BAD AMERICANS

Desai’s novel explores varied perspectives on life during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is the summer of 2020. Twelve Americans arrive at a mansion in the Hamptons. Everyone has been in lockdown for months due to Covid-19, but now they are free to interact with others. The plan is for “two weeks of eating, activities, and dating in a secure environment,” though the main draw will be storytelling. The guests come from different political, economic, and racial backgrounds, and each is to tell a story to the others about the impact of Covid-19. The group has been assembled by a wealthy man named Olive Mixer. (While the scenario may seem like the premise of a reality TV show, Mixer insists that the goings-on are not being recorded.) In this first installment of a series, six of the participants have their turns to say their pieces. These range from a nurse named Andrea who talks about “how ordinary people who work essential jobs stood up to this horrendous virus” to a part-time handyman named Ricard who doesn’t quite trust Freemasons. In between the stories there is socializing, games, and even a shark attack (not to mention large and varied meals). Food is mentioned quite a lot throughout the book—one character tells of a dinner in Montana that included “trout, pinto bean, and ham soup with fry bread, chillicothe, sirloin mutton” as well as “a dessert called kuchen, a cross between cake and pie filled with, in this case, flathead cherries.” Details like these culinary lists do not exactly leap from the page; what proves to be more impactful are the reflections of the guests, which do indeed run a gamut. Ricard, for instance, offends just about everyone present with his story, causing most to sit in “silent disdain” as they listen to him speak. The fictional characters’ sentiments are carefully crafted, offering an intriguing range of realistic reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic.

An illuminating, if sometimes wordy, exploration of recent history and the people who lived through it.