A Burning - Megha Majumdar

Fiction

Verdict: Read it!

I'm sure its a coincidence, but 2 Majumdar authors in a row. The tone of this novel was worlds apart from the previous one I discussed. We start with a girl who has seen a horrific hate crime while happening to be in the vicinity. She criticises the police in a fit of adolescent rage. She is publicly blamed for being a spy, put in jail, and finally executed.

While you never find out if the main character was actually involved in terrorist activities, she is portrayed as young, innocent, and genuinely in the wrong place at the wrong time. The story line bounces around between her own experiences, the public perception, the perception of a teacher she once had, a transgender person whom the main character was teaching, and the media. In small and large ways, every one of these populations has betrayed her and contributed to her death in the end, though she was innocent. 

The public simply needed a scapegoat, her old teacher was after political power and the politicians requried her to be that scapegoat, the transgender person tried but valued her own life and career in the end, and the media used her and twisted her words for their own gain. It's a heavy read because you know she's innocent, yet somehow you know she will pay the price anyway in the end. It's a pretty heavy damnation of the mob mentality and personal gain mentality that can arrise in a overpopulated, competetive society. You learn that the main character was poor and oppressed growing up, has a father who can't work due to no fault of his own, and are left with the distinct impression that due to her poverty and previous opression, her fate is inevitable. God save me from the dark clouds hanging above Indian authors' heads! But after living here for so long....It's not impossible for chains of events to happen like this. 

There aren't many positive books with transgender folks, and I felt like the author tried to portray that character in a positive light, though they end up being a human and making a selfish choice. That person's ability to help was also probably impaired because of her identity as well. Difficult read but worth it.

~Becky~