Our Country Friends

Masha Levin-Senderovsky’s journey through Our Country Friends is one of discovery as a parent. She begins the novel feeling the weight of parenting Nat fully on her shoulders, with Senderovsky struggling to take the role as seriously. Then, once she finds support from Karen, struggles with jealousy over Nat’s affection for her. As his wife, she is the romantic interest of Senderovsky, and briefly, the Actor, who uses her not only for his own satisfaction but also to antagonize Senderovsky. Her time with the Actor, though, makes Masha feel wanted, something she finds lacking in her marriage. Masha’s inner conflict about her family dominates her thoughts and feelings throughout the novel, and she is constantly fighting herself over how to feel about Karen and Nat’s relationship: “In Masha’s mind the words ‘I’m losing her’ fought hand to hand, syllable to syllable, with ‘But she’s so happy’” (168). Masha is the mother who raises Nat, ensures that she is at the right school, with the right support through therapy, and Masha tries her best to track Nat’s development and behavior. It is a stressful job for her, and she cannot help but feel jealous once Karen arrives, builds a healthy relationship with Nat, and is then seemingly favored over Masha herself. Masha is conflicted though: Through her interactions with Karen, Nat is happy and her behavior is more consistent and socially acceptable in Masha’s professional opinion. Her time with Karen is helping her to grow, but Masha resents that that development is happening with someone else.

Throughout quarantine, Masha watches Nat and Karen’s relationship blossom while she encounters struggles with Nat and watches Senderovsky fail to be what she believes is a good father. She believes she carries the burden of comforting Nat, correcting Nat, and ensuring that her days go to plan. Her struggle with Senderovsky leads her to reconsider how to parent Nat and who should parent Nat. Masha finds that she cannot discount the positive effect Karen’s role in Nat’s life has, and after their little community returns to the city, Masha creates a new support system for Nat: “Karen and Masha would co-parent, and Senderovsky, Masha thought, would provide a background conversational presence, a handyman of words” (315). Masha recognizes the importance of Karen to Nat and decides to redefine the parental system in her daughter’s life. Karen buys the House on the Hill and Masha wants her to be a presence in Nat’s life, to help support her, while shifting some of the responsibility and expectations of fatherhood off Senderovsky. He will still be a presence and influence in Nat’s life, but Masha will no longer expect so much from him, decreasing the stress she feels about needing him as a parental partner. This new system will not only help Nat but also help Masha, who will feel more supported and confident in her daughter’s development.

Vinod Mehta, another primary character of Our Country Friends, has a romantic interest in Karen, though his love goes unrequited for much of their relationship. In their trio of childhood friends, Senderovsky and Karen are considered the successful ones, while Vinod, despite his intelligence and talent, is seen to lag behind. He becomes a sidekick to them, following in their shadows and being cared for by their generosity and commitment. This relationship influences Vinod’s perspective of himself, as a person who accepts and finds comfort in being alone and as someone who is not destined for a great accomplishment, like Karen with her app or Senderovsky with his novels. In reading Chekhov, Vinod finds himself in the pages of Chekhov:

There were no dashing personages in his works galloping toward an end point like the Actor’s renown or Karen’s algorithm, only vanishing horizons, only overgrown meadows from which one could look above and try to discern misted landscapes (120).

Vinod sees himself as one of these characters. He is not overly concerned with success or fame and instead enjoys the simple pleasures of the world around him. He understands that the pandemic is a dire time for him, as he is missing part of a lung, and is certain that he will not survive it. He believes his life is ending and that therefore it is winding down without much fanfare. He makes peace with being alone and being isolated, living his entire life loving Karen but not receiving her love in return. This, however, changes, and leads to his untimely death.

When Vinod and Karen begin to cultivate a romantic relationship, Vinod’s life changes. He not only finally has the love he always sought from Karen, but also finds his novel and realizes that Senderovsky lied to him about having it and purposefully convinced him not to publish it. His quiet life of being alone comes to an end. He becomes acquainted with this new life and is loath to give it up. He waits decades for romance with Karen and even believed it would never happen. When she therefore falls ill after interacting with the Actor, who has COVID-19, he struggles to alter his affection for her:

Vinod walked over to the couch in the living room where she had self-quarantined and draped his arms around her sleeping form. She snored mightily within his embrace, more than he remembered from their youthful sleepovers, but he found her sputtering mouth and kissed her (256).

While Karen is sick, Vinod tries repeatedly to keep up their intimacy and kiss her, all of which she refuses, worrying that she will infect him. He waits until she is asleep and embraces and kisses her, infecting himself.

When he falls ill, he experiences many intense fever dreams, each focusing on his relationships with Senderovsky and Karen. In these dreams, he questions the nature of his relationship with Senderovsky and wonders why he holds himself back to stay with Senderovsky. He stayed in the city for college to be with Senderovsky instead of going to one of the prestigious universities he was accepted into. He begins to question whether, as the sidekick, he is made a fool repeatedly by his friends. As their sidekick, Senderovsky and Karen do not listen to him, even when his dying wish is not to be sent to a hospital. He wants to die surrounded by the people he loves, not alone in a hospital, but Senderovsky and Karen ignore the paperwork he thought would guarantee that.

Karen Cho is the childhood friend of Vinod and Senderovsky and the romantic interest of Vinod. She spends much of her life aware of Vinod’s feelings for her but does not return them until they are both quarantined at the House on the Hill. During her time at the house, Karen also becomes a mother figure to Nat, connecting with her over her love for BTS and Korean culture and language. Karen begins teaching Nat Korean, and the two spend a lot of time together, which results in positive developments for Nat, albeit some jealousy from Masha. Their relationship is beneficial for both Karen and Nat, however, as it offers Karen an opportunity to heal some of the trauma from her own childhood: “As she heard these words that could jolt her and Evelyn to the quick, Karen felt them deemphasized, neutered, turned into the playthings of the second generation” (104). Karen’s own experiences with Korean are tied to her parents and her lackluster relationship with them. In this scene, Karen is teaching Nat the only phrases she knows, all of which come from memories of her mother yelling at her and her sister. These phrases have negative associations in her mind, but as she hears Nat speak them, those associations dissolve and Karen hears them for what they are, simple phrases. Her relationship with Nat is a healing one that repairs the damage done in her childhood and helps her to recover from her recent divorce by giving her a human connection she can foster and grow.

The relationship between Karen and Nat is so strong that Masha eventually decides to let Karen co-parent with her and be a permanent presence in Nat’s life. This is a significant development for Karen, especially after the death of Vinod, because Karen finally gains the family she did not have. She has the opportunity to be a better parental figure to Nat than her own parents were to her and has the close support network of Senderovsky and Masha. Throughout the early stages of the novel, Karen is overly concerned with the lonely life she sees in front of her, but through Nat, she has a different future. Karen is involved, just as Masha wants her to be: “Karen lifted the child up effortlessly, despite the city weight she had already put on. That was the idea: that she would lift Nat up” (314). Karen is going to lift Nat up, changing the cycle introduced by her own mother who would so often put her down, making comments about her body and eating habits. Karen’s transformation throughout the novel, from isolated to included, results in her helping foster Nat’s development, even at school: “Karen had hired a ‘push-in’ counselor to help her make friends, even though this was against the Kindness Academy’s policies” (315). With the help of this counselor, Nat begins making friends at school and no longer feels isolated from her class. Karen heals and reverses the negative impact her parents had on her by identifying what support she did not have as a child and ensuring that Nat receives it.

In Our Country Friends, the Actor is the primary antagonist. He is a self-absorbed celebrity who descends on the colony to help Senderovsky finish his pilot script, and at every turn, he antagonizes the people around him for his own entertainment. He believes that he is entitled to their attention and admiration and that because of the Tröö Emotions picture of him and Dee, he is entitled to her as well. His role as the antagonist is demonstrated early on with his shower encounter with Masha and his later performance at dinner:

He was wearing a shrunken tan gabardine shirt of faux-military appearance that would have looked affected on anyone but him—a statement of intent in its own right a riposte to Ed’s studied rakishness. He could wear anything, do anything, do anyone (132).

The Actor styles himself as a dictator, forming the expectation that he is in charge of this small community, willing to supplant Ed as Dee’s suitor and Senderovsky as the group’s leader. He goes on to ask invasive questions of the guests, enjoying how they squirm and moving closer to Masha under the table, reminding her of what happened earlier that day and what will happen again. He is obsessed with his audience, wanting to control them and manipulate them through his performance. He lacks a strong sense of self or a goal, frequently fighting against loneliness and the internal question of what these people around him want from him.

His greatest act as the antagonist is his flight from the colony after Dee is ‘canceled’ on social media, only to return later to win her back. When he arrives, he brings COVID-19 into the group’s bubble and it eventually infects and kills Vinod. When he returns, Karen tries to deprogram him of his Tröö Emotions love for Dee, which imbalances him and causes him to flee the group, finding shelter in the nearby abandoned camp. While there, he undergoes a transformation, revisiting different points in his career and performing on the stage to no one but a distant pickup truck. Through these performances, he comes to a revelation:

He wanted to be supple. To move through this world like a nobody, like a woman in regional sales gliding through airport lounges in the previrus era, always moving, always herself. That’s what acting was. You did not need to capture an audience, you needed to capture yourself (282).

The Actor realizes that he needs to rediscover himself and stop living his life based on the expectations of others. He focuses too much on his audience and how to captivate and control them, when in reality, he should be doing that to himself. Over the years, only ever looking outward, he loses who he is. This revelation breaks the spell Dee and Tröö Emotions have on him and allows the Actor to begin the process of healing and rediscovering himself. While he does not accomplish this within the novel, the revelation is groundbreaking for him and he leaves the House on the Hill a different person, with a new outlook for his future.

Dee Cameron occupies a unique role in Our Country Friends, being the only character, apart from the Actor, who is not a lifelong friend of Senderovsky. She is a former student of his, as well as the only character in the group to grow up poor and white. This becomes a major aspect of her character as she faces scrutiny for her essays and her associations with the police. Dee feels out of place and frequently lost at the House on the Hill, not knowing what to do or who she is. Others in the group, such as Vinod, who speak with her and read her work, see this conflict and confusion in her as well: “I think it’s about this country’s negotiation with white supremacy. You’re trying to understand many contradictions, contradictions that came with your birthright” (210). Vinod identifies Dee’s confusion and guilt through her writing. As the only white member of the group, she is out of place and she struggles to contend with the advantages white supremacy gives her throughout her life. She casts herself as growing up poor and facing struggles. And yet, she cannot swallow that being white in the US comes with inherent benefits. Her confusion on the subject translates into her own life, in which she struggles to find identity between her rural beginnings and current city life as well as in her relationships with Ed and the Actor.

Dee is the romantic interest of both the Actor and Ed. The relationships are both passionate, but the most meaningful one to Dee is the relationship with Ed. Dee connects with Ed on a deeper level and recognizes some of her own inner turmoil within him. While the Actor was a famous figure, with an agenda and goals, Ed is the opposite, wanting to experience life and be with her. On their first real date, Dee sees this: “Ed’s crooning was less intense, less self-conscious, the warble of an observer, not a participant. Again, she found it matched her own new outlook, a traveler just passing through a series of delightful hellscapes on the way to oblivion” (228-29). Dee is drawn to Ed for many reasons, but perhaps the most important is his identity as an observer. The Actor participates, his opinions and actions the essence of his public perception and his career. He leaves her because of the negative influence her words and opinions may have on his career, but Ed keeps his beliefs to himself and is not bothered by what Dee writes. She is attracted to his view of life as well. He travels the world, jumping from one adventure or hobby to the next, wanting to experience life and live without the constraints of a career that places one in the public spotlight. She loves his confident pursuit of her and his commitment to her and feels as though with him, she can explore herself without the criticism and pressures of a partner like the Actor.

Ed Kim is the romantic interest of Dee and is described as a constantly traveling dandy with no permanent home. Ed is uneasy staying at the House on the Hill, unused to staying in one place for too long, and struggles to see the commitment he might owe to his friends. Even at his first arrival, Ed struggles with staying: “Be strong for his friends? Velocity was his friend. Disappearing landscapes were his friends” (17). The pandemic forces him to be someone he is not. He must relinquish his life as a traveler and settle down, with people he identifies as friends but because of his lifestyle does not often spend time with. This changes, however, as he grows closer to the people at the House on the Hill. The romance with Dee draws him closer and makes him consider settling down. At the conclusion of Our Country Friends, Ed even applies for US citizenship. The greatest change, however, comes with Vinod’s sickness. Ed nearly leaves the little community at least once during Dee and the Actor’s relationship but stays, and then when he and Dee are together and she wants to leave, he insists that they stay. He feels a commitment to his friends, and especially Vinod: “I feel like we owe them something. Maybe not ‘we.’ I owe Vinod” (278). His time with his friends, living with them and getting to know them better, instills in him a sense of familial duty he did not have before. In this time of crisis, his instinct is to stay with the people that need support, rather than leave like he may have wanted before. Like many of the characters in Our Country Friends, Ed finds a family at the House on the Hill.