The Chambers of Perfumes

In this account of a young Indian man's split sense of self, the story's protagonist recognizes the source of his deep internal conflict - his dual loyalties to the Indian and American cultures. Keeping his dying father company in the chamber of perfumes, Tan reflects upon the many divides - between Hinduism and Christianity, atheism and faith, traditional family mores and sexual liberty, and a society enveloped by castes and sympathies for the extreme left - that separate his two personal universes.