Meera Syal’s 1996 debut novel, Anita and Me, is the coming-of-age story of nine-year-old Meena Kumar, a drama-seeking, pop-song-singing, slime-trail-extolling, British-Indian school girl.
In part inspired by Meera Syal’s upbringing in the West Midlands, Anita and Me is set in 1960s Tollington, a fictional mining village near Wolverhampton, and explores the era’s rising racial friction through the eyes of an unpredictable child, daughter of two New Delhi emigres. Narrated by an older Meena, the novel recounts Meena’s childhood friendship with Anita Rutter, an older girl admired by Meena for her rebellious, risqué, and free-spirited personality. But as Anita buddies up to Sam Lowbridge, leader of a teenage biker gang, and perpetrator of xenophobic violence, Meena must confront the contradictions of her relationship to Anita and to her larger community.
Thematically focused on ambiguities, on walking the fine line—between bully and victim, lying and story-telling, love and pity—Anita and Me blends comedy and tragedy to create a compelling portrait of a young girl’s struggle to find self-acceptance as she navigates the balance between her British and Indian cultures.
Since its release, Anita and Me has received critical acclaim, with The Washington Post favorably comparing Meera Syal's writing to Mark Twain's, calling protagonist Meena a "female Huck Finn." Kirkus Reviews wrote of the novel, "Far from just another coming-of-age saga, Syal's impressive debut offers a charming yet troubling evocation of recent times."
Published in 1996, Anita and Me was shortlisted for The Guardian Fiction Prize of the same year, and won Meera Syal a Betty Trask Award. The novel is included on the set text list for Britain’s GCSE English Literature exam, and was adapted into a film of the same name in 2002.
