Our Best Intentions - Vibhuti Jain

Fiction

Verdict: Meh

It kills me to admit this, but I am finding a difference with Amerian born Indian authors and those born in India. Try not to die from surprise, but I find it hard to accept. I have indeed been missing Indian literature. 

Vibhuti Jain walks us through the life of a fragmented Indian family and the fallout from an interaction that goes wrong between teenagers that results in their lives getting turned upside down. 

I found the writing tedious and slow quite often, but if one looks, there are a few curious themes that stick out to me. Ones that suggest perhaps Vibhuti was not born in the US after all but migrated here. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, just surprising considering how...well....American the writing is. I'm guessing the protagonist in the novel has a similar situation to Vibhuti. And judging from how deeply personal the family disfunction is written, I'd guess she's been through that or something similar. Anyhow, not important.

The protagonist - Anjali, or Angela if you buy the name change line - happense upon her crush after he has been stabbed next to the highschool. There's a not well fleshed out subplot on the girl accused of doing this, but it takes no time in the story line. There's a big go round about who's actually to be blamed and who people would like to blame (Author nailed small town USA!) and many puzzling interactions with police, politicians, and the community that pass far more pages than needed. I understand you have themes....but there's a better way to get that across. I won't reveal the end as then you'd have no reason to read it. 

In general, I advocate for reading things that help you understand others....I don't feel this suits that purpose at all. However, if you're interested, dive in.

~Becky~

The Violence in our Bones - Neera Chandhoke

Non-Fiction

Verdict: Read it

I picked up this book because the subject matter has been something I've been turning over in my head for a long time. I hadn't heard of Neera Chandhoke before.

As an outsider here, there are some themes that continually make themselves visible. Violence is one of them. The older I get, the more puzzled I get that I didn't see the inherent violence in the United States where I grew up as well, but perhaps age just opens eyes. India has it's own way of viewing and manifesting violence. The country is so large and the chaos so much that it's both expected and often passed of as inavoidable. A fatalistic societal outlook and the numbers affected and their composition versus the body of people in India make violence an accepted fact. 

The author spends some time in history books as the country was formed and born. Often times, history explains the present, and I agree that India is no different than anywhere else. She addresses violence against women, communal violence, Kashmir, the North East, and Maoists. These are all specific manifestations of a broader mindset. Most of the cases of violence you find fall under one of these headings, though not all. 

I rather wish Neera Chandhoke would have addressed some of the societal attitudes and history that has resulted in the culture of violence as an accepted characteristic. I feel it would have helped in the understanding of why these manifestations, and many other occurances of violence, happen regularly in India. 

That being said, this is a subject that it would be impossible to encompass in one book. The subject matter was laid out in a organized, cogent, supported manner, which is always a joy to read.  I've said many times that India's inherent difficulties are extemely difficult, if not impossible, to improve. This is one such area. However, calling out the violence is the first step to slowly moving the needle towards violence being unacceptable as a societal attitude. 

Not a long or complicated read, but do take the time to contemplate what the author is saying and how many people simply accept the state of things as inevitable. 

Read it!

~Becky~

Boys from Good Families - Usha K.R.

Fiction

Verdict: Meh

I have not read anything previous by Usha K.R. It's been so long since I've been to the bookstore that I honestly can't remember if this was a recommendation or simply had a nice cover. Who knows.

Boys from Good Families follows a privileged young man through his life, first in a house with servants somewhere in a village in Karnataka, then on to the US, then eventually back to that same house after his parents die and the house needs to be dealt with. 

There are so many themes in this book that I have read before that I almost felt that I HAD read this book before. But I know I haven't. The son who goes away to the US to find himself or make money, the love story about falling for one of the servants and how that's completely unacceptable, having property that you don't particularly want in a country you don't want to live in but it's still yours and your responsibility to take care of. Siblings who also want and feel they have a right to share in said property. Marriage that ends in disaster because the person they married to turns out to have no ambition, care, nor morals. I could go on. The themes in this book definitely aren't ground breaking ones. It's simply but well written. 

I didn't not enjoy reading this novel, but I certainly struggled to find anything unique about it that I did enjoy. The characters and experiences need more depth and less stereotyping. 

Not a bad novel, but nothing groundbreaking.

~Becky~

The Far Field - Madhuri Vijay

Fiction

Read it!

I initially picked up this book because the art work on the cover is beautiful, and I am very glad I did.  Madhuri Vijay has created something very special with this novel. This is my first exposure to her as an author, and I can't wait to see what else she has written/will write.

This novel is about Shalini. She is from Bangalore who has a very ordinary, yet troubled childhood. Her mother's mental issues are never spelled out, but it's clear she has something wrong. The mother is amused by a wandering Kashmiri clothing seller who comes many times to visit her in her home.  As a child, Shalini can feel that something is wrong, but can't quite put her finger on it. After her mother commits suicide, Shalini decides to find the carpet seller and get her questions answered. Only she doesn't really have a solid location for him, just an old story that he told that helps her in a starting direction. She stays with his extended family for a while and then his son when they agree to help her find him. She exists in a vacuum and passes her time there, wondering if she should stay permanently. Stumbling into a falsely peaceful looking area, she affects the lives of everyone she stays with trying to get her questions answered. Ultimately, her family finds her and a colonel brings her back, then sleeps with her. Her report on the events that she saw in Kashmir are misconstrued to assist the army and the Kashmiri's son is arrested. Shalini is left to live with the fact that inspite of her neutral intentions, her decisions have left a permanent, horrifying mark on people she grew to care about. 

The author unwinds and untangles one thread at a time for us as she goes on an epic trip to uncover some unresolved questions from Shalini's childhood. I know it sounds like a huge trope, but it's very well done. Vijay addresses mental health, infidelity, Kashmir, and how sometimes our actions have unintended, irreversible consequences. It's not a difficult read (though like most of the novels I read, it's quite long), but it does leave you feeling desperately like you wish there was a different outcome. It disturbed me for a few days after I read it.

This isn't my first exposure to the atrocities that continue to happen in Kashmir, but I was very much hoping that the ending would have been at least neutral. It definitely wasn't. I also very much enjoyed (in the literary sense, not seeing a character suffer) how the author focused not only on mental illness and how it can be difficult for an individual, but the long, ongoing consequences that the rest of the family may face. I felt a distinct concern for Shalini the entire novel as it is so obvious that she is wandering lost and trying to make sense of things that were never even spoke of, not to mention explained.

Take your time and wander through this. Its a hell of a book.

~Becky~

Delhi Noir - Omair Ahmad et Al

Fiction

Short Stories

As I mentioned, I have been very into short stories as of late. I have to be honest, the introduction to this collection sold me before I even started on the stories. The stories did not disappoint either. 

These stories feature the grittiness of life in Delhi. After visiting a few times, Delhi is not a place I'd ever want to visit again, for many of the reasons that come to the forefront of these stories. They are not happy ones, nor ones that give you any hope for humanity. Yet people move along with their lives because that's just how Delhi is. 

The authors and stories chosen gel very well together and do an excellent job of portraying the city in a realistic way that is often missing from the sanitized, glamorous life that the rich and famous live. 

Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh

Fiction
Verdict: Read it

Amitav Ghosh is another author that I am become extremely fond of reading. Sea of Poppies has taken two very different characters and placed them next to each other and you can't help but contrast them. 

One character, an orphaned white woman, leaves her adoptive home due to unreasonable restrictions. She comes from a place of privilege, sanitation, and servants. 

The other is a woman from the central plains of India. One that still covers her head, but had the courage to run away with a man after he foiled plans for her to be burned on her husband's pyre and is hunted there forward.

Both women find themselves on a ship headed to Sri Lanka in the hope that working on a plantation will bring them safety and a comfortable life - more comfortable than the one they are running from. 

Set in a time when Britain was present in India, the language is stunningly confusing to understand at first. It's a bastardized mix of English and Hindi that apparently was common and popular among the English when they colonized India. As someone who understands both languages, it's a confusing ride for a while. Once one catches on, it's very amusing as well as horrifying to watch both languages being butchered so badly with so much arrogance. 

Read it.

Becky