Review: Rajdeep Paulus', "Swimming Through Clouds"

First, a confession: I rarely, if ever, read within the romance genre. And the only Young Adult reading I've done in the recent past has been SF/F. So Rajdeep Paulus' debut novel, "Swimming Through Clouds", a contemporary teen romance, is as out of zone for me as it gets. I picked up the book almost entirely unsure of what to expect - both in terms of style and story. And, okay, I freely admit to starting with a terribly high number of preconceptions about the story arc. Among other things, I expected book filled with teenage angst, bff problems, and the ecstasy and trauma of romance-as-a-teenager. Seriously, ("Come On!" as Job would say), what else is there to a teen romance?*

Um, a fair bit, apparently.
Paulus' debut novel is indeed a boy-meets-girl story. But one that is delightfully devoid of the tropes that have been done to death by every high-school movie ever made. Sure, Talia is the quintessential outsider-looking-in lead character. But instead of secretly aspiring to be beautiful and part of the 'in' crowd, she is a teenager working actively to stay out. In the place of clique-based drama, the novel relies on Talia's life, with its particularly dark past and excruciating present, and on her relationship with the beautiful Lagan Kumar Desai to engage the reader. And in the place of fluffy bff issues, Raj Paulus takes on some serious, painful, heart-wrenching and problematic ones - domestic abuse, child abuse, sex trade (which I certainly did not expect out of a teen romance).
In the process, Swimming Through Clouds, becomes a very real, believable and touching story.

Paulus' is a very compelling storyteller. The characters - all the characters - are beautifully fleshed out. Stylistically (going by the foreword and lead in), Paulus' authorial voice is a perfect fit for the story that she's narrating. The romance between Talia and Lagan is delicate (given all the big issues with which they're dealing) and on the whole, rather adorable. At the same time, the narrative is also successfully poignant and poetic.

A few of things that I've been thinking about - first, there is the suggestion that Lagan's personality, his ability to be a pillar of strength and support to Talia, is driven by a deep and unshakable faith in the Divine. But I love that the treatment of Lagan's spirituality and its role in his life is not ham-handed.

Second, there are hints of Indian identity and third culture upbringing in the novel (Talia is half Indian, Lagan is of Indian origin). I'd have liked to see these fleshed out in more than cursory ways. But I can see how that would take away from the crux of the story as it stands.

And finally, I've been thinking about the whole "boy-rescues-girl" situation - specifically, about why I wasn't as troubled as I thought I would be with that construct in the novel. In general, I prefer female teenage protagonists who are more Willow Rosenberg and less Bella Swan. Talia Vanderbilt is somewhere in between. Despite the rescue motif, the novel is redeemed because Paulus writes Talia as a strong, determined girl caught in a bad situation (rather than, say, a hapless gel awaiting prince charming). In fact, the women in the novel, are layered, multi-faceted people, even if we don't always know everything about them. Like I said, Paulus' character building is very masterful and goes a long way to making this novel as powerful and irresistible as it is.

The short take: Read it. It's delightful, surprising and moving.

*Okay, I realize I sound(ed) like a complete ass. And especially after reading "Swimming Through Clouds", I stand suitably chastised. 

Review: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) - Mindy Kaling

I have to open by confessing a very deep and unshakeable personal bias against event looking at memoirs of famous folk, epseically if they're in the entertainment business. I'm not even sure when, where or how I developed this bias. (And it probably has to do more with snobbery than with any other, more lofty reason.) All I know is that when I see anything marketed as a biography / memoir of an even marginally famous person, my bullfighting hackles go up, my eyes, of their own volition, roll all the way to the back of my head (making, as you might imagine, for a very uncomfortable visual experience) and I have to shake my head peremptorily because it is so hard to be all rich and famous and under-doggy all at once and still to still write about yourself in a non-self-aggrandizing way.

This, mainly is why I kept ignoring Mindy Kaling's, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
Until last week.
While working on the South Asian Women Writers project, I ended up stalking this Aishwarya's blog (that's not me, y'all! That's a younger and so much cooler friend) and as it turns out, she said this about the book:

Unlike Fey and Moran, Kaling never actually mentions the word “feminism”, but there’s an implicit political stance in sections like these, and the book is all the better for them. 

After that, I had to read the book. (South Asian Woman Writer, Political Stance, Comic - totally outweighed celebrity memoir.)

Kaling's book is a quick and entertaining read.
She writes from the perspective of being South Asian in the United States. And (as someone thinking about raising a third culture child) I'm quite amazed at how easily she wears this aspect of her personality. I love that this doesn't dictate her tone or outlook. But it also does, y'all - I mean, being a child of immigrant professionals is a thing that frames Kaling's views without overpowering them.

All the stories that mention her parents and family make me want to meet them. Seriously. I'm not saying I'd take notes or anything from them, but I *do* want to meet the people who raised this brown kid to be so self-assured.*

Her stories made me laugh out loud more than once. She's funny and self-reflective, but almost never self-deprecatory. And the thing that I love the most - her stances. As Aisha points, she never says feminist, but devotes entire sections to the female body, strong women in television entertainment (Amy Poehler is, according to Kaling, every bit as cool and warm as she seems). The tone stays consistently sassy - yep,  even when she's narrating her "Poor in New York" stories and "I dated a Crappy Human Being" ones.

Towards the end, the book does taper off in terms of content. But really, I get the impression that she's said all she wants to say for now. I would like to see her revisit some of these sections in say, seven or eight years from now - I'm not sure that merits a book, but I'd love to hear whether ... you know she does the Poehler thing and calls her husband by his last name, or if she finds a person that she wants to be friends with. Or... you know, stuff about her life post Rainn Wilson and the Office, post The Mindy Project.

If nothing else, you should read this book to find out how Mindy Kaling is different than her on-screen role, Kelly Kapoor (from The Office). I still wouldn't buy it and store it for posterity. But I sure as hell recommend reading it.

Footnotes
*(I know, I know parents can only do so much, but when I meet particularly resolved-seeming foreign born desi kids, I want to, almost immediately, atleast watch their parents from a discreet distance to see what role they're playing, exactly.)

Saga (Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples)

You know how, sometimes, you find a book that is so delightful, so compelling that it simply must be read, like right now? Saga is one of these books.

After hearing Tansy talk about the book on the Galactic Suburbia Podcast, I could not resist picking it up (New parents, warriors, warring alien races - Come on!). I say "pick it up" to mean "I put aside everything else I am reading to go through ten issues of the graphic novel in one night.


There is so much that I absolutely *love* about this book.
Fiona Staples' illustrations are brilliant. They're bold and engaging without being over the top.
The cover of the first issue (below), whatever the Dave Dorman story, is brilliant. I'm both surprised and appalled that breastfeeding would be construed as vulgar and / or unnecessary. The cover beautifully captures the Epic nature of Saga (how cool is it that we can say that and not be entirely circular!).




The other art in the book that completely swept me off my feet is from Issue #7 - a 'memories of the soil' sequence. Woo! Spectacular!
Best of all, though, Staples' work and BKV's speak to each other so perfectly (seriously, get to #8).

And starting the readers out in the middle of the war, at a childbirth - well played, Vaughan. The rest of the series, so far, has followed through on this compelling opening issue. The characters are delightful -

I love that all the women so far as smart, competent, and  awe-inspiring. They're real and their equal footing (so far) is not at all forced or self-conscious. And Best of all, they're not infallible.

For me, the realness of these characters along with the meta fiction at work (the D. Oswald Heist novel-in-a-novel) refresh even themes (war without purpose, star-crossed pairs) that have been hashed to shreds by now. It helps, I think, that the graphic novel itself is self-referentially sardonic with these ideas.

For now, the thing that I don't like about Saga is that it is a new graphic novel.
Let me rephrase that. It is an ongoing graphic novel which means I have to wait patiently for the next issue to be out.



And while I do that, I insist that you wait with me. So go, go read this. Now!

Day 4

This year, I don't have to grade while trying to squeeze in a post a day. I don't have schoolwork. I don't have deadlines to meet and papers to write* And so I've been diligently reading the posts of everyone who signed up to do this.

And...Oh My Goshiness of All Goshinesses, Y'all.

I'm overwhelmed - first, by the sheer commitment to this madness of writing every day and next, by the things that are being written. This year especially, so much of what I'm reading is making me think about my own stances / views / preoccupations (see my last post) and keeping me honest (see zugenia's post for the day)!

(In a related aside: You should go order stuff from Jumbo Jibbles' store. If you do it in the next half hour, you can use that fantabulous 40% off discount she's running right now.)

And for all that - this is a very public thank you, just four days in. We're a little over a sixth of the way there. Woot!

*Because, you know, I've taken time off school for the moment.

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Writing everyday is making me mentally sift through things that I want to talk about on the blog. This is good because it keeps me from ranting endlessly. But it is also frustrating because sometimes, I mentally find the perfect way to say what I want but can't get to a writing device on time and so that phrasing evaporates. (Aight, just because I'm not in school doesn't mean I'm free, etc. My hours are otherwise filled with things that need doing.)

And one of these things I managed today (see, segue!) was to finish reading Stupefying Stories December 2012.

I'm wary of doing a full-fledged review (S.B. just did one of a different book on her blog).
I enjoyed the read - although several of the stories tread a predictable path - humans exploiting other worlds, invasion of the body-snatchers, hope in a post-apocalyptic world, that sort of thing.
On the whole, however, the writing of the eleven stories is engaging.

Jon David's "We Talk Like Gods" is delightful.
And despite its rushed ending, I also loved Mark Wolf's "Tiny, Tiny Hungers".
Both, Shaun Duke's "In the Shadows of the Empire of Coal" and Joel V. Kela's "The Gods of Sand and Stone" have some pretty evocative imagery.

A. A. Leil's HoPE does interesting things with narrative voice - although, again, the idea in general put me in the mind of Justina Robson's, "Natural History".

The one story that I absolutely loved, however was Lou Antonelli's "The Relic" with its little tongue-in-cheek commentary about decontextualization of history.

I'm undecided on how I feel about only two of the stories having female protagonists ("MoonBubble" by Eric Cline and "Avocado, Rutabaga, Aubergine" by M. Benardo).

But in all, you should pay a Dollar ninety-nine and get the kindle version of the book and read it.

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Oh Deary, Deary Me. It's past midnight and my carriage has turned into a pumpkin, apparently.
Well, time for some pie, then.

More Rebecca Black

Based on her post, I'm revisiting my recent post on Rebecca Black to say a couple of things:

One) I agree with Prabha, Australo and my dear sibling that it is a catchy tune. (Much in the same way as "Tum To Teharey Pardesi" or Michael Buble's version of "I'm feeling good" neither of which I like very much.)

Two) Sure, she is thirteen and the song gives that away. But really, yes, stop being trolls, people Trolls.

But finally, I also stand by the idea that the song is terrible. And woe is the internet.
There. That's it. 

Phoren Desi Khana

Ah so finally, the promised review of the only desi restaurant in town
Scroll further down for The Verdict

Or read on for a brief story:

Over the last four months, as a desi homebody in foren land, I've learnt to cook. A lot.
But every once in a while I crave Indian food without having to go to the bother of cooking it.

And thus it was that I found (what is apparently the only Indian restaurant in town) tada!: Aroma

As a precautionary measure, we asked around, googled the restaurant and looked at the few reviews available before going.
I'm not a fussy eater. But Urgh.

And then I went back with great hope and foolishly against my better judgment.
Oh sigh! all over again

The Place: Aroma
Address: 1100 SE 14th Street , Bentonville, AR, USA
Meal: Dinner
Number of visits: 2
Rating: 1.5 to 2 on a scale of 5
Cost: 10$ + tax per adult; 5$ + Tax for children

The Ambiance:
The restaurant is sparse clean and has a very tiffin-centre feel to it, minus the hearty fare.
But hey! its a restaurant, and you are there to eat... so lets not count ambience in our rating.

The Service:
is non existent. To their credit they do try but I don't reccomend the place at all if you you are pressed for time.

Food! Food! Food!
Food served is mainly North-Indian fare - both on the buffet and a la carte.
Your buffet options are limited to a boring repetitive fare: Biryani (mutton & veg), Rotis, 2 veggie gravy curries and two non-vegetarian curries swimming in oil, Dal, and two meat starters.
The accompaniments include a couple of salads and a raita.

Be warned, the veggie is much, much better than the non-vegetarian food.

The meat is tough, lacks in taste, and smelt mildly stale both times that I dined there.

Another disappointment is the lack of desserts on the buffet.
(hey! I love a good sweet-dish after a hearty Indian meal - my stomach also has a separate compartment for desserts ... and chaat)

The gravies (minus meat) and Dal are my favorite picks - they taste decent and make for happy accompaniments to the rotis.

The A la Carte menu offers more variety but will cost you several minutes in time.

Well, it is the Only option for an Indian eat-out in the area and ends up drawing a sizable crowd.

My verdict: give it a miss
It is definitely not work the 10 + taxes that you will pay for the buffet or more that you wil end up paying for the a la carte.

Get online, get recipes, cook - however new you are to Indian food, you'll do a better job than this.
Or heh, mail me and maybe I'll cook for you. Ha!

Coming up

I've been meaning to:
1) Review what seems to be the only Indian Restaurant in Bentonville
2) Write an Ode to Daisy's food, christmassiness and hospitality

But, 'tis the holiday season, and I'm stuffing my face with yummy christmas cookies, courtesy, Daisy.

... stay tuned in and I promise to post