Great Novelist? Yes. Great American Novelist? I think most people have something more in mind with this phrase than the citizenship of the author.

Perhaps you explain how you made the leap between this:

Her books are more relevant to the American experience than Franzen's

and this:

Two brothers grow up together in Calcutta

@1 - I think that if you had read the entire thing, you'd have discovered:

..Subhash, ever the dutiful one, marries Gauri, brings her to the United States, and becomes father to Bela, her daughter with Udayan.

What is more American than the story of America through the eyes of immigrants? (I haven't read the book, so perhaps I am defending Paul Constant without actual merit!

seandr, you aren't really as dense as your comment makes you sound are you?

Enough with comparing people to Chekov.

What is more American than the story of America through the eyes of immigrants?

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Catcher in the Rye. Beloved. The Great Gatsby. The Grapes of Wrath. The Jungle. Little House on the Prairie. To Kill a Mockingbird. Just about anything by Raymond Chandler. Catch 22. Harold and Kumar. To name a few.

Given that America is so young and so heavily influenced by other cultures through immigration, these books are American insofar as they suggest an American "whole" that is more than just the sum of the various foreign ingredients that have taken the plunge into the melting pot.

Of course, one could question whether such an American whole really exists, or should exist, but in that case, we should do away with the myth of The Great American Novelist, and just go with Great Novelist Who Happens to be an American Citizen.

@3: I'm not seeing any signs of intelligence or insight in your comment. Do you have anything interesting to say?

It certainly built an image of the area in Calcutta and told an interesting story. The characters aren't that deep, and the narrator transitions are so-so. Freedom used the same framework a couple years earlier, and Franzen did it better. Only the geography and history are more interesting in the Lowland. Nevertheless, shortlist for the Man Booker says this work has merit and is worth the read (although Harvest is also on there, and ugh).