Review: Tell Me How To Be by Neel Patel

Tell Me How To Be, Indian-American author Neel Patel’s debut novel is narrated through the dual perspective of an immigrant mother Renu, who has recently lost her husband, and her younger son Akash, who is considering coming out to his family as gay. In an interview about his earlier collection of short stories, If You See Me Don’t Say Hi, Patel had mentioned that he wanted to steer clear of the “incomplete portrait” of the Asian immigrant perpetuated through stereotypes. Patel upturns and complicates this by presenting complex histories of migration particularly through Renu, whose parents “had left India in the 40s to do what was expected of them: follow the British”. Author Neel Patel Patel’s characterisation of Akash, which hits a more authentic note, is similarly laden with nuances that bring out his emotional landscape marked both by the trauma of growing up “different” within an Asian family as well as navigating racial stereotyping when in the company of his boyfriend Jacob’s white gay friends.