The Konkans: An Immigrant Family Saga of Catholic Heritage in Colonial India and America

by Tony D'Souza

Francisco D'Sai is a firstborn son of a firstborn son—all the way back to the beginning of a long line of proud Konkans. Known as the "Jews of India," the Konkans kneeled before the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama's sword and before Saint Francis Xavier’s cross, abandoned their Hindu traditions, and became Catholics. In 1973 Francisco's Konkan father, Lawrence, and American mother, Denise, move to Chicago, where Francisco is born. His father, who does his best to assimilate into American culture, drinks a lot and speaks little. But his mother, who served in the Peace Corps in India, and his uncle Sam (aka Samuel Erasmus D'Sai) are passionate raconteurs who do their best to preserve the family's Konkan heritage. Friends, allies, and eventually lovers, Sam and Denise feed Francisco’s imagination with proud visions of India and Konkan history. Filled with romance, comedy, and masterful storytelling, The Konkans leaves us surprised by what secrets history may hold for us if only we wonder enough to look.  

Genres: Fiction, India, Historical Fiction, Novels, Indian Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2008

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would give this book 6 stars if possible. Because the characters jumped off the page to me. It is the story of Catholics from Goa, India where they are a very small minority. This is a work that has universal themes. Family stories are handed down from one generation to the next but are they true or apocryphal. What part do they play in the family identity? How do these stories impact the family's view of themselves and their place in the world and how they move through their lives because of it. Part of the work takes place in the US and part in India. Normally one thinks of India in terms of Hindus and Muslims and this presents a new viewpoint. I am going to read one of Mr. D'Sousa's other books.

[Jose Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is compelling, but I didn't care much for the style. The deliberately ungrammatical prose felt forced at times, and the first-person narrative throughout the book, by a character who would exist only half-way through the timeline, didn't make sense. The author is sympathetic to all his characters, and frames the mood with deft atmospheric strokes. A good book in the expatriate-Indian-diaspora genre.

[Darshan Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing novel that reveals the complexities of history through the prism of child's memory of the stories he has been told. Yes, that sentence is as complicated as the novel's premise. However, the novel's reading is delightful and accessible. It is also transformative. I have always longed to visit Goa given my appreciation of colonial architecture and respect for hybrid indigenous cultures that have survived such brutality. Reading this book forced me to consider the terrain upon which my travel lust has hinged - architectural appreciation - reminding me of the form and toll of colonial violence. I plan to visit Goa; I will now do so with a more sophisticated lens on its history and that of its Portuguese colonizers.

[Alex Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the family drama and social commentary in this book, though I'm not sure I liked D'Souza's choice to use Francisco, the son, as the narrator. He doesn't have an active role in the story and, while I think it's an interesting choice, it's also a puzzling one, and I often found myself wondering how Francisco knew any of the information he was giving us. Overall, though, definitely worth the read.

[Denali · Rating 1 out of 5]

I signed this out from the library b/c it was on the leisure reading shelf and i thought it was about my people. It was not especially good but not excruciatingly bad. I have a strong suspicion that this book is riding on the same fascination with Indian minorities that it tries (and fails) to thoughtfully explore.

[Ashima · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but the books has some angry rants that just didn't seem to belong and started to feel disjointed and muddled towards the end.

[Ben Raterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mix two very different cultures—India and the US—and you get a spectral mix of comedy and conundrum, history and the convolutions of family. It's a lovely mix offered up by D'Souza who knows his way through a lovely mix of mazes.

[David Miller]

Recommended by Roxanne, 3/30/24. "Banned book"

[Alora · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked a lot of it but not all of it

[Henry CG · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Konkans is about a young man named Francisco D'Sai and the D'Sai family. Francisco comes from the Konkan people of Goa India, a group of Catholic people converted by Vasco de Gama. His mother, Denise, is an American who traveled to India as a member of the Peace Corps. There she met Francisco's father, Lawrence, whose family embraced his mother. Denise's came from rough family life and welcomed being part of Lawrence's family. She fell in love with India and wanted desperately to feel like part of a culture. Lawrence initially resisted being set up with Denise because he was in love with another woman, but felt compelled to begin a relationship with Denise through pressure from his father. In Konkan culture, the first born son has a duty to take care of the family. The story is told through the point of view of a narrator, a character we do not know, in past tense.

When Denise and Lawrence move back to Chicago, they work out a plan to bring Lawrence's brothers, Sam and Lesley, to the US. They hatch a plan to sneak them in through Canada. Once there, they begin to seek the "American dream". Lawrence desperately seeks upward mobility, making sacrifices to his cultural heritage, enduring cultural and systemic racism and xenophobia, and sacrificing time with his family and his wife for professional and social advancement. He craves the finer things; nice cars, country club memberships, acceptance in mainstream, white society. Denise longs for the simpler things and the freedom and joy that she felt in India. She and Sam begin spending more and more time together and initiate an affair, which lasts for years.

Eventually, they cease their affair, and have a falling out. Sam meets an African American woman that he falls in love with, but is not accepted by his family. He breaks up with her and is set up with an arranged marriage back in India. When they return to the US, Sam becomes more erratic, angry, resentful and hostile to his new wife and his family around him.

By the end, everyone in the story is embittered and angry about the trajectory of their lives. Denise wishes that she had met Sam and they had stayed in India. Lawrence wishes for acceptance that can't be possible. Despite having all of the trappings and conveniences of a comfortable life, happiness does not exist for the D'Sai's.

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I picked this book up at Crown Books, in Horton Plaza. I was at jury duty downtown and while on a break, I found this used book store. I had heard of Tony D'Souza and (according to records) had read Whiteman while in France, though I do not remember it. I picked up the book and read it furiously, finishing it a few short weeks later close to Thanksgiving break.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book opens so strong. The story of the narrator, Francisco's, uncles, recently arrived from India trying to buy a live pig for the Feast of St Francis in 1970s Chicago made me laugh out loud. The writing is good, engrossing and with scenes and details vividly depicted. I enjoyed the first part of the book, where Francisco tells the story of how his Indian father and American mother ended up raising him in the Chicago suburbs. His parents' strained relationship and his mother's long running affair with his uncle make for good dramatic tension, as do the realities and discrepancies between the various adult character's ideas of India and America.

Francisco also describes his father's identity as a Konkan, a Catholic Indian, converted by the Portuguese colonizers in the 16th century or so. D'Souza does give the date, but the story of family's mythology carried over from India was where my eyes started to glaze over a bit. Yes, the nature of mythologies is that they change depending on who's recounting them, and D'Souza does a good job of showing that (sharing the same story as told by his uncle, and as told by the history books), but that repetition just didn't grab my attention. Sadly, despite the many very good pieces, the book ultimately doesn't really go anywhere. It reads more like a discrete set of family stories and even as I rushed to get to the end, when I did, I had to ask, is that it? It's too bad because the individual parts really are very well written.

[Sue Pelman]

Raally enjoyed. Francisco D’Sai is a firstborn son of a firstborn son—all the way back to the beginning of a long line of proud Konkans. Known as the ÒJews of India,Ó the Konkans kneeled before the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s sword and before Saint Francis Xavier’s cross, abandoned their Hindu traditions, and became Catholics. In 1973 Francisco’s Konkan father, Lawrence, and American mother, Denise, move to Chicago, where Francisco is born. His father, who does his best to assimilate into American culture, drinks a lot and speaks little. But his mother, who served in the Peace Corps in India, and his uncle Sam (aka Samuel Erasmus D’Sai) are passionate raconteurs who do their best to preserve the family’s Konkan heritage. Friends, allies, and eventually lovers, Sam and Denise feed Francisco’s imagination with proud visions of India and Konkan history. Filled with romance, comedy, and masterful storytelling, The Konkans leaves us surprised by what secrets history may hold for us if only we wonder enough to look.

[Garryvivianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, a memoir of a young boy telling the story of his father, born in India & his mother an American who met her husband while in the peace corp. The father & his family knew if he married her, she would go back to the states eventually & he would have a "much better life", as is the case with many foreigners. However, she fell in love with India and wanted to stay there. Well, they DO come to the states & the father indeed does succeed & wants so badly to BE an American. He strives in everything he does. Meanwhile his wife "sponsers" his 3 brothers to come to the states, which embarrasses her husband, as he wants NOTHING of India to follow him to states. There were some very funny exploits by the brothers, which mortified their older brother! At times, very humorous & at times very sad, this was a great read. I wished there had been pictures included of this family tho.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book. The characters make a few choices based on their understanding of life and spend the rest of the book just trying to survive the ways their lives turn out. Story is told by the son of two of the main characters with a tone of acceptance, love, and calm, which adds to a feeling of an unreal sort of complacency in the way that the characters deal. I feel nothing negative for any of the characters but feel that if any of their lives were mine I would not be so calm or simple. Contains an interesting passage that doesn't match the rest of the book so much- the uncle as he is remembering how he got to be where he is in fragmented memories...reads exactly the way my mind works when I can't sleep. This book was the easiest to imagine that I have ever read...reads like a movie plays.

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wonder why so many descendants of Indians (from India, not American Indians) write so well about families that come from India to London or the US & how they struggle to balance the need to maintain some of their values & traditions with the need to adapt to their new home. A subtheme in most of these is that there are no generic "Indians": there are Bengalis, Kashmiris, Konkans (in this case), or whatever, not to mention the class & gender differences. I might have rated this one higher if I hadn't read so many better books on this theme--and if this actually had a story, rather than a bunch of apparently random incidents involving a set of unlikable characters.

[Keri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The "Critic's Choice- People" says about this author's 1st book (Whiteman), is that he has "an understanding of what it's like to fall in love with people who will never be like you, with a place that will never be home, and with a troubled continent that - despite your best intentions - you can do nothing to save. The same can be said for The Konkans. Though the author travels the world (refleccted in his writings), he also will be taking the time to teach creative writing this fall at the local community college (where I work).

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel doesn't have much of a traditional narrative arc, but more of an emotional arc instead. However, not a word of it felt dull or unimportant; it has the feel of a slice-of-life short story, but longer.

Occasionally I was distracted by wondering how the narrator came to know so much about events in his mother's and father's life, events that took place when the narrator was either very young or not yet born, but then I realized what an important element that was, as the novel is very much about family and the stories they share.

Overall quite enjoyable.

[Ilyhana Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good read. I loved the story about Les and Sam buying the pig…hilarious.
The story ventures into places quite unfamiliar to me so I learned quite a lot about an aspect of Indian culture and about India itself.
Nostalgia and repugnance both feature strongly in this tale. And a certain acceptance of life as it is.
The story has an interesting structure, plays ring-a-rosie returning to a particular narrative time and time again from different perspectives and finally telling what could be viewed as the true story. It is well written…deserves three and a half stars.

[Loreldonaghey Donaghey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how this guy captures the Peace Corps experience that transcends the decade or country of service. This one, for me, caught the struggle to keep something of your Peace Corps experience when your life takes a different direction on the surface than you thought. But, it still enriches your life - just in ways you maybe didn't anticipate. Ok, that's goofy, but I really liked this one, too. (Read Whiteman awhile back).

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable book about who are born as and who you want to be, and whether you can ever truly be a different person that who you were born to be. Did that make any sense? The narrator's father's greatest wish is to be a white, successful businessman. As an Indian immigrant, that is obviously impossible. The book focuses on his family, and the effect that his impossible quest has on them and their sense of heritage in America.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I began this book and then put it aside for several months before finishing it, I did find it enjoyable. The stories intertwine and have some chronology, but it is almost as though each chapter can be read as a separate story. The stories are about India, America, love, loveless marriages, prejudice, and more. It was a fascinating look at India and America through the eyes of natives and immigrants.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging, both funny and sad, intercultural tale. Told in the first person by the American-born son of a mixed marriage between an American woman and a man from the small, proud community of Konkans, a historically Roman Catholic group in the middle of India, the story follows the history of his parents' relationship and the arrival and assimilation (or not) of his Konkan uncles in America.

I really liked this book and found myself quite drawn into the various relationships.

[Neil · Rating 1 out of 5]

It should make any Mangalorean Catholic sad to read this "tale" of sadness and adultery. I can appreciate the author's understanding of how hard it was for Konkans in the West. But villifying the Portuguese (when the author clearly does not actually understand the history of the Konkans) makes me ashamed to imagine that other Mangaloreans may think this way. Poorly done, stick to your day job rather than "representing" Konkans!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was waiting for my copy of The Yiddish Policemens Union to come in for me on hold and without a novel to read when I went to a reading by the author. The section he read sold me so much I bought a copy and had him sign it much to his surprise. I love me some American immigrant multi-generational novels and this was solid. It felt a little directionless at times, but I still enjoyed the ride.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a much more mature novel for D'Souza, who's debut novel Whiteman was filled with rash sexual conquests. Here he is in tune with his lead character's sadness and difficulties. He conveys the displacement of these immigrated Indians well, unfolding each chapter like a short story. I'm excited to follow his future work.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some parts of this book are so well written, in a way that almost hurts to read them. I love the tone and voice. It's beautiful. I didn't give it 5 stars because the story lacks some organization which may bother some [many?:] readers- or it may be more accurate to say that it is told in a very non-linear fashion. I highly recommend this book!

[Meenakshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. I liked how the author painted some unique characters and experiences related to the immigration experience and how it effects both Indians and Americans-- and defines their perception of India.

[Amberae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty personal considering I had D'souza as a creative writing teacher, although I am quite found of his style, especially since his infant self is only slightly mentioned and never really part of the real story.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book to read about a woman who goes to India with the Peace Corps and comes back with a husband. If you are familiar with the sights and sounds of India, I'm sure it would be that much more captivating.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title called out to me from off a Borders bookshelf and its the closest representation of Goan TCKs (although set in Mangalore and Chicago) that I've found so far! It made me laugh out loud cos I recognised the characters!