I’m a Fan

DEBUT A woman of color in London is searching for herself while aspiring to be someone she knows she is not. She wants the advantages of white privilege. She wants generational wealth. She wants to topple men from their position of power over women. Yet she rails at the “oppression Olympics” and obsequiously trails after a white man. She has a toxic affair with the man she wants to be with. He is a successful, white, married man with a stable of lovers vying for his attention. He will not commit to her, but whenever he calls, she shows up. She follows one of the man’s lovers, a woman she’s obsessed with, on social media. The other woman is white and ultra-cool, seemingly taking advantage of colonialism and generational wealth to espouse liberalism. The protagonist can’t free herself from the man she wants to be with, nor does she want to. Patel creates a powerful narrative of obsession, told in short bites, and confronts numerous conflicts that women face in the search for self.