The Rug Merchant
Meg Mullins, . . Viking, $23.95 (258pp) ISBN 978-0-670-03481-9
New York City teems with quiet desperation in this lucidly written but languid debut novel. The titular carpet salesman, Ushman Khan, has left his mother and his wife, Farak, in Iran in order to make a new start in America. Told from Khan's perspective, the narrative traces his subtle acculturation into Western life while he sets up shop and develops loyal customers like the wealthy socialite Mrs. Roberts. He plans for his wife to join him, but learns that she has divorced him for a Turkish salesman. Crushed, Ushman buys plane tickets to Paris he will never use and finds temporary, self-loathing comfort in a prostitute. Only when he meets Stella, a Barnard freshman, does he begin to see a way out of his isolation. Like him, Stella is an outsider struggling with loss and looking for connection, but Ushman must first resolve his conflicted feelings about women and sex and American culture. Originally developed as a short story that appeared in
Reviewed on: 01/09/2006
Genre: Fiction
Compact Disc - 978-0-14-305847-2
Downloadable Audio - 978-1-101-19427-0
Open Ebook - 272 pages - 978-1-4295-4057-5
Paperback - 274 pages - 978-0-14-311209-9
Peanut Press/Palm Reader - 272 pages - 978-1-4295-4058-2