Someone is spreading rumours about Ameera Gilbert—rumours that might cost her not only a promotion that had previously seemed assured, but possibly her job. Could it be a disgruntled visitor to Atlantis, the all-inclusive resort community in Huatulco, Mexico, where Ameera works? Or possibly a jealous and competitive colleague—but if so, which one?
The anonymous gossip consists of allegations about Ameera’s sex life, and she’s not sure who is spreading them. But someone from her past would like to help—if only he can get her to listen. In the process of solving the riddle, Ameera is forced to confront broader questions about who she is and where she comes from. In her triumphant third novel, Farzana Doctor succeeds not merely at constructing a rollicking whodunit, but at once a complex meditation upon the limits of conventional sexual definitions and the meanings of home and identity.
Hailing from the working-class town of Hamilton, Ontario, Ameera excels at her sales job but still struggles to find her footing at the luxury resort, with the complex melange of privilege and prejudice she experiences there. As a biracial woman, she is often assumed to be a local by blithe, inattentive tourists—despite the fact that, as a Canadian import, she is paid far more than her colleagues who are actually from the vicinity.
Ameera misses her single mom, and has many questions about the father she has never met. Meanwhile, she finds comfort and pleasure in the arms of visitors to Atlantis—generally two or more of them at a time, as she discovers her interest in the “swinger” and polyamorous communities. Even though Ameera is careful to be discreet and professional, someone must have noticed, and that is where her troubles begin.
Doctor takes a direct approach to exploring touchy sexual issues in All Inclusive. On the first page, we learn that Nancy, a colleague and acquaintance of Ameera, has lost her job after allegations that she was intimate with a resort visitor—one who was just a teen. But rumour has it that he lied about his age—and neither Ameera nor any of her colleagues have actually heard Nancy’s side of the story. A few more pages into All Inclusive, we learn some details about Ameera’s particular brand of sexual adventurousness.
I crossed my arms over my chest and squeezed my soft biceps, remembering how flabby I was in contrast to the bodybuilders’ hard bodies. The previous night, when I’d straddled Marina, pinning her down to the bed, I’d felt foolish, like I couldn’t convincingly carry off the move. But she’d played along, moaning and groaning while she pretended to struggle beneath my grip. I’d pushed my tongue into her mouth and my breasts against her flat chest. Meanwhile, Mike watched from the sofa, naked, except for a ridiculous lime-green sombrero upon his head.
Ameera expresses herself erotically with male and female tourists in fleeting encounters—usually on the last night before one week’s passel leaves and the next one’s arrives. Her intimate moments are a complex interplay between reality and fantasy, integrating sexual expression into her quotidian life with couples and groups who are in the midst of escaping from theirs.
The author’s explorations of her characters’ ethics—sexual and otherwise—are nuanced and eschew easy answers. In a parallel storyline, we learn about Azeez, the Indian PhD student who helped conceive Ameera with her mother Nora, before disappearing the next day. Azeez and Nora were both caught up in youthful passion—she asked him to pull out before orgasm, and he just didn’t do it. Whether or not this could have prevented the pregnancy, it was a clear violation of consent—yet Azeez is presented as flawed, but far from a monster.
The story may occasionally rely on uncanny coincidences—as Ameera’s urges to know more about her father and her South Asian heritage deepen, one of her sexual partners just happens to be a genealogy researcher, for instance. But Doctor’s vivid, sensual descriptions convincingly draw the reader in with humanizing detail: “My left eyebrow ached. Just the left one. I pinched it, the pain pooling red under my lids… I sniffed yesterday’s skirt and decided I could wear it another day.” And the novel’s structure—short, alternating chapters from the viewpoints of Ameera and her father, as each in their own way searches for the other—propels the story toward a satisfying climax. Through Doctor’s successful development of her diverse range of characters in a well-drawn and complicated milieu, All Inclusive is exactly that.
Dundurn Press | 296 pages | $22.99 | paper | ISBN # 978-1459731813
‘All Inclusive’ by Farzana Doctor
Book Reviews
Someone is spreading rumours about Ameera Gilbert—rumours that might cost her not only a promotion that had previously seemed assured, but possibly her job. Could it be a disgruntled visitor to Atlantis, the all-inclusive resort community in Huatulco, Mexico, where Ameera works? Or possibly a jealous and competitive colleague—but if so, which one?
The anonymous gossip consists of allegations about Ameera’s sex life, and she’s not sure who is spreading them. But someone from her past would like to help—if only he can get her to listen. In the process of solving the riddle, Ameera is forced to confront broader questions about who she is and where she comes from. In her triumphant third novel, Farzana Doctor succeeds not merely at constructing a rollicking whodunit, but at once a complex meditation upon the limits of conventional sexual definitions and the meanings of home and identity.
Hailing from the working-class town of Hamilton, Ontario, Ameera excels at her sales job but still struggles to find her footing at the luxury resort, with the complex melange of privilege and prejudice she experiences there. As a biracial woman, she is often assumed to be a local by blithe, inattentive tourists—despite the fact that, as a Canadian import, she is paid far more than her colleagues who are actually from the vicinity.
Ameera misses her single mom, and has many questions about the father she has never met. Meanwhile, she finds comfort and pleasure in the arms of visitors to Atlantis—generally two or more of them at a time, as she discovers her interest in the “swinger” and polyamorous communities. Even though Ameera is careful to be discreet and professional, someone must have noticed, and that is where her troubles begin.
Doctor takes a direct approach to exploring touchy sexual issues in All Inclusive. On the first page, we learn that Nancy, a colleague and acquaintance of Ameera, has lost her job after allegations that she was intimate with a resort visitor—one who was just a teen. But rumour has it that he lied about his age—and neither Ameera nor any of her colleagues have actually heard Nancy’s side of the story. A few more pages into All Inclusive, we learn some details about Ameera’s particular brand of sexual adventurousness.
I crossed my arms over my chest and squeezed my soft biceps, remembering how flabby I was in contrast to the bodybuilders’ hard bodies. The previous night, when I’d straddled Marina, pinning her down to the bed, I’d felt foolish, like I couldn’t convincingly carry off the move. But she’d played along, moaning and groaning while she pretended to struggle beneath my grip. I’d pushed my tongue into her mouth and my breasts against her flat chest. Meanwhile, Mike watched from the sofa, naked, except for a ridiculous lime-green sombrero upon his head.
Ameera expresses herself erotically with male and female tourists in fleeting encounters—usually on the last night before one week’s passel leaves and the next one’s arrives. Her intimate moments are a complex interplay between reality and fantasy, integrating sexual expression into her quotidian life with couples and groups who are in the midst of escaping from theirs.
The author’s explorations of her characters’ ethics—sexual and otherwise—are nuanced and eschew easy answers. In a parallel storyline, we learn about Azeez, the Indian PhD student who helped conceive Ameera with her mother Nora, before disappearing the next day. Azeez and Nora were both caught up in youthful passion—she asked him to pull out before orgasm, and he just didn’t do it. Whether or not this could have prevented the pregnancy, it was a clear violation of consent—yet Azeez is presented as flawed, but far from a monster.
The story may occasionally rely on uncanny coincidences—as Ameera’s urges to know more about her father and her South Asian heritage deepen, one of her sexual partners just happens to be a genealogy researcher, for instance. But Doctor’s vivid, sensual descriptions convincingly draw the reader in with humanizing detail: “My left eyebrow ached. Just the left one. I pinched it, the pain pooling red under my lids… I sniffed yesterday’s skirt and decided I could wear it another day.” And the novel’s structure—short, alternating chapters from the viewpoints of Ameera and her father, as each in their own way searches for the other—propels the story toward a satisfying climax. Through Doctor’s successful development of her diverse range of characters in a well-drawn and complicated milieu, All Inclusive is exactly that.
Dundurn Press | 296 pages | $22.99 | paper | ISBN # 978-1459731813