Lunatic in my Head - Anjum Hassan

 Fiction

Verdict: Read it if you want to put the effort

If you have read my blog, you know that when I buy books, I rarely look at the back for a description. I pick up books more on what's on the cover. Accordingly, I had no idea what this one was about. It's like the book lottery, maybe you'll end up reading something you are familiar with, maybe not.

In this case, it was something unfamiliar. I've been planning to visit the north east for a very long time now. Unfortunately life, and then COVID have gotten in the way so far. Urg blurg. Anyhow, I'll get there eventually. What I was wandering around to is that the Northeast of India isn't something I'm overly familiar with.

Hassan's story follows 3 characters. Their lives are loosely connected, though they can't see it themselves, and eventually intertwine. All of the characters give the reader the feeling that they are waiting for change to come along - a very common theme in many small town books. One is a middle aged teacher unsure of a non-traditional relationship, another a small child who wishes to escape her nontraditional but mundane family, the last a restless young man trying to escape small towns and small minds. After much timepass wandering  around, they slowly do. 

Hassan perfectly captures the longing to break out of the average, tedious, small town routine. She also does a masterful job of  capturing the class, tribe, and caste undercurrents that drive a society that hosts the junction of different cultures. Her focus on Khasis was especially interesting for me. I never would have thought that there was an anti-immigrant feel to a town like Shillong, one that stretches generations and covers anyone non Khasi. 

To be quite frank, it's not the fastest moving, nor most action packed book. But what you can get from this novel if you're patient is worth the pace. I found interesting as well (and this continues to astound me across many experiences) is that small towns remain the same. Had the cultural markers been English, this could have been the town I grew up in. I constantly enjoy weighing people being different due to culture, yet always being the same because they're people and most of the human experience is the same. 

Read It.

~Becky~