Publication Date: September 17, 2024
Americanized millennial Arjun Chatterjee is a food-truck chef working in a parking lot outside the nation’s capital. He dreams up multiethnic recipes and pursues a young woman toiling in a Kafkaesque office nearby. Building a clientele, he faces life with a sly optimism.
One day he idly asks the sky: “Why am I here?”
‘Deep Fried‘ is a tragicomic love story wrapped in creative freedom. Its chefs, musicians, and entrepreneurs face a world of oversized dreams and shaky prospects.
They try, fail, and fail better. Will it be enough?
Deep Fried is a debut novel by Mark Doyon. Set in Washington, DC, most of the story takes place in an empty lot outside a courthouse where food trucks have set up.
Arjun Chatterjee is an Americanized Indian with a privileged background and a food truck operator. He always has a very positive outlook on life, always looks at the bright side, and tries his best to make everyone’s day better.
There were a lot of characters, many of whom are involved with the food trucks. There are also wannabe musicians trying to climb out of their current circumstances and a Vietnam vet who has a hot dog cart, but Melinda, the queen of the food trucks, would prefer he go elsewhere. Multiple stories are woven throughout, and even though they seem separate, there were definite connections between the plots and the many characters, especially since so many of them were trying for a better life. A Lincoln penny and a pigeon were also given human characteristics and told part of the story from their viewpoint.
There’s a little bit of romance throughout, but not all of it was wholesome. Arjun and Candy connect since she’s always choosing to eat the egg rolls he prepares and sells. Candy becomes Arjun’s love interest, but others were not so desirable vying for her attention. Although she seems to prefer a life with Arjun, will it materialize?
The story spans from mid-2014 to mid-2018, with the last chapter being an epilogue. Each chapter has a title that relates to the story in that corresponding chapter. There are quite a few unexpected twists and turns to the story, with a good pace. And in the end, Arjun and Candy seem to make it, but the story ends abruptly. We have no idea about the others, and I wish we were given a few details about how the secondary characters made out with their lives. There also seemed to be a few loose ends.
Deep Fried is a story set in the capital with people who have not been dealt the best hand in life trying to make a go of it. Different facets of human behavior are on display as they try to make their dreams come true.
Mark Doyon received a B.A. in English from the College of William & Mary and a master’s in arts management from the Shenandoah Conservatory. He wrote the short-story collection ‘Bonneville Stories’ and edited the literary magazine Friction. His work has been featured in PopMatters, The Washington Post, The Daily Vault, Hybrid, Skope, The Absinthe Literary Review, 3AM Magazine, Hypebot, and Riffraf. ‘Deep Fried‘ is his first novel.
