Review: In search of an identity
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 24, 2012
Sonnell is a young man who is of Indian and Iranian heritage living in England.  He aspires to be a writer, but can't get past the first sentence of his short story, and that took him weeks to develop.  More than his story, he can't come up with his own identity, and at one point in this very well-written novella by A.S. Anand, Sonnell says that he isn't Indian, he isn't British and he isn't Iranian, so he doesn't fit in anywhere.  This is a problem that many people in today's world have, moving around in a global society and settling in places from which they are not.  A person in the news recently said that Mexican-Americans have the problem of being too Mexican to be American and too American to be Mexican.  This is a very sad and tragic diasporic outcome that takes hold in many lives in the world today.Sonnell takes two of his friends with him from London to Mumbai and to Goa.  Sonnell drinks his way through most of his partying, at home and away, but keeps his writing aspirations well at bay by putting things off until another day that never seems to come.  His two friends, however, are encouraging and stick by him in all his youthful foolishness that he gets himself into.  Sonnell is a very likeable character and rides along on the tide of this novella to find who he is and what he needs to do.This is not a novella full of exciting passages and an intricate plot.  It flows along as Sonnell flows through his young life with the reader by his side.  Since it is semi-autobiographical, the reader knows that the author is aware first-hand about some of these experiences that Sonnell goes through.  This is a leisurely read.  The ending left me with a feeling of being cut off from what eventually happens to Sonnell, and that was the only thing about "Camel on an Ashtray" that I didn't like.I recommend this as a very good novella that provides the reader with a good taste of literary writing from this author.