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steveatwaywords's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
What a magnificent read. A lyrical and subtle exploration of dozens of vital questions, woven by its conclusion into some moments of wonder.
But wait. Let's get those nay-sayers out of the way first. If you are seeking a tightly-written, action-directed, straight-to-streaming IP that doubles as beach read fantasy and tear-jerking melodrama, go somewhere else. Choices for you are being churned out by writing teams and AI by the thousands.
So, despite that warning (and the several warnings the novel's narrator also provides along the way), let me say that this is an absolutely compelling page-turner and every scene felt immaculately directed to its effect. Those effects are explicitly not conventional plotting, though this exists, as well, almost (but definitely not) incidental to the larger text. How does one sustain a book that takes over 100 pages for its octogenarian grandmother to rise from her bed? How when it takes over 50 pages for her to go from a standing position to one fallen? And then, when something momentous truly does occur, it is sometimes whisked through in a page or brief patch of sentences.
Why are we reading?
For Shree's reflections, her reveries on life at all ages, her satirical digs at social mores and conservative proprieties, our posturing and political priorities, our entrenchments and blindness to the compassion and humanity requisite to gender, to disability, and to infantilizing of the aged. About the graphic and unsettling challenges to senior care--from smells and sounds in bed-sharing to bathroom routines and crises. Shree's lens is at once a marvelous and uncomfortable macro look at a single family's c0lliding myopias and also a despairing but affirming diatribe on the fundamental brokenness of South Asian social-political history and . . . everyone's.
So slow down. Don't try this book "skipping over the asides" as so many reviewers attempted. You miss not only the idea of the novel, but also its wonderful word play and turns of thought made all the more resonant by gifted translator Daisy Rockwell. Seeing what she produced here for remarkable and poetic moments made me marvel at what she must have been working with in the original Hindi. What she has given us from Shree is an English translation both subtle and beautiful.
I want very much to talk about how the book comes together at its end, but I will not spoil it. It is full worth the journey for its dazzling and significant close. But I will add this: this has been marked as a work of experimental fiction, and contrasted to mainstream Hindi literature, it certainly is that. But I would note that this is, too, a work of magical realism. We know it almost as quickly as a Buddha statue waits its moment in the grandmother's room or she inexplicably raises her cane into the air. Our mysterious, partly-connected narrator weighs in frequently in relating the story, and this too can seem an odd structural choice--but it, too, becomes a powerful idea. Slowly, over time, reverie to reflection, subtle moment to memory of substance, Shree's novel draws together difference and opens outward and outward. Readers skipping this story, missing it or glossing over it, failing to give it their attention, are indeed part of its very subject.
But wait. Let's get those nay-sayers out of the way first. If you are seeking a tightly-written, action-directed, straight-to-streaming IP that doubles as beach read fantasy and tear-jerking melodrama, go somewhere else. Choices for you are being churned out by writing teams and AI by the thousands.
So, despite that warning (and the several warnings the novel's narrator also provides along the way), let me say that this is an absolutely compelling page-turner and every scene felt immaculately directed to its effect. Those effects are explicitly not conventional plotting, though this exists, as well, almost (but definitely not) incidental to the larger text. How does one sustain a book that takes over 100 pages for its octogenarian grandmother to rise from her bed? How when it takes over 50 pages for her to go from a standing position to one fallen? And then, when something momentous truly does occur, it is sometimes whisked through in a page or brief patch of sentences.
Why are we reading?
For Shree's reflections, her reveries on life at all ages, her satirical digs at social mores and conservative proprieties, our posturing and political priorities, our entrenchments and blindness to the compassion and humanity requisite to gender, to disability, and to infantilizing of the aged. About the graphic and unsettling challenges to senior care--from smells and sounds in bed-sharing to bathroom routines and crises. Shree's lens is at once a marvelous and uncomfortable macro look at a single family's c0lliding myopias and also a despairing but affirming diatribe on the fundamental brokenness of South Asian social-political history and . . . everyone's.
So slow down. Don't try this book "skipping over the asides" as so many reviewers attempted. You miss not only the idea of the novel, but also its wonderful word play and turns of thought made all the more resonant by gifted translator Daisy Rockwell. Seeing what she produced here for remarkable and poetic moments made me marvel at what she must have been working with in the original Hindi. What she has given us from Shree is an English translation both subtle and beautiful.
I want very much to talk about how the book comes together at its end, but I will not spoil it. It is full worth the journey for its dazzling and significant close. But I will add this: this has been marked as a work of experimental fiction, and contrasted to mainstream Hindi literature, it certainly is that. But I would note that this is, too, a work of magical realism. We know it almost as quickly as a Buddha statue waits its moment in the grandmother's room or she inexplicably raises her cane into the air. Our mysterious, partly-connected narrator weighs in frequently in relating the story, and this too can seem an odd structural choice--but it, too, becomes a powerful idea. Slowly, over time, reverie to reflection, subtle moment to memory of substance, Shree's novel draws together difference and opens outward and outward. Readers skipping this story, missing it or glossing over it, failing to give it their attention, are indeed part of its very subject.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content
Moderate: Grief, Homophobia, Ableism, Death, Dementia, Murder, Gaslighting, Confinement, Deportation, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Animal death, and Death of parent
Most of the more graphic or disturbing qualities of the work are kept off-stage and referenced. But all of these form a significant part of the plot and character-shaping of the protagonist and addressed, for the most part, in honest and healthy ways.katy_bee's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I'm still getting my head around this one. It's very dense and the stream of consciousness style of writing means and obscures the meaning. It's one you have to concentrate for.
It also takes a while to get going and I find myself wishing it had got further along sooner.
However, I got into the style and flow of writing in time and it was interesting to read about the lives, relationships and histories of the characters
It also takes a while to get going and I find myself wishing it had got further along sooner.
However, I got into the style and flow of writing in time and it was interesting to read about the lives, relationships and histories of the characters
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Transphobia, Murder, Kidnapping, and War
melodyseestrees's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I read an uncorrected proof and I am someone who lacks cultural understanding of the culture within the text. With these notions in mind I continue.
I still enjoyed the story and was fully aware that several of the nuances escaped my understanding. For example the Rosie was handled throughout the tale felt strange to me. The relationship between KK and Beti. The relationships between Beti and her siblings. The unreliable narrator factor within a character we had implicitly trusted.
It is on me as a reader for not researching the factors I did not find easy to understand and I do recommend thoroughly reading the translators notes as well as doing your own research. The tale is subtle in its whimsy and serious in its message. This is an important story for many people to read, even though it will take work on their part to mend the cultural gap. The writing style is different to that of many stories published for an American audience. I think that is beautiful. Take your time, write in your copy, highlight sections.
I still enjoyed the story and was fully aware that several of the nuances escaped my understanding. For example the Rosie was handled throughout the tale felt strange to me. The relationship between KK and Beti. The relationships between Beti and her siblings. The unreliable narrator factor within a character we had implicitly trusted.
It is on me as a reader for not researching the factors I did not find easy to understand and I do recommend thoroughly reading the translators notes as well as doing your own research. The tale is subtle in its whimsy and serious in its message. This is an important story for many people to read, even though it will take work on their part to mend the cultural gap. The writing style is different to that of many stories published for an American audience. I think that is beautiful. Take your time, write in your copy, highlight sections.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Xenophobia, Animal death, and Body horror
Moderate: Transphobia, Trafficking, and Murder
Minor: Kidnapping, Violence, Death of parent, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and War
deedireads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Tomb of Sand, translated to English from the Hindi, is a masterpiece of both storytelling and translation. I’ve simply never read anything like it.
For you if: You love language, are OK with feeling unmoored while reading, and aren’t afraid of a challenge that’s very much worth it.
FULL REVIEW:
TL;DR REVIEW:
Tomb of Sand, translated to English from the Hindi, is a masterpiece of both storytelling and translation. I’ve simply never read anything like it.
For you if: You love language, are OK with feeling unmoored while reading, and aren’t afraid of a challenge that’s very much worth it.
FULL REVIEW:
“Once you’ve got women and a border, a story can write itself. Even women on their own are enough. Women are stories in themselves, full of stirrings and whisperings that float on the wind, that bend with each blade of grass.”
Whew, where to start with this one? While Tomb of Sand isn’t going to be quite right for every reader, there’s simply no denying that it’s a masterpiece of both storytelling and — as for Daisy Rockwell’s English from the Hindi — translation. It’s also unlike anything I’ve ever read before, which was both exciting and challenging. I’m so glad it won the International Booker Prize, prompting so many of my friends to read it and recommend it to me over and over.
Told in three parts, the book is about the matriarch of a family in India and her daughter. In part 1, Ma grieves the death of her husband and won't get out of bed. In part 2, she moves in with Beti and deepens her friendship with a hijra (trans) woman named Rosie. In part 3, Ma and Beti travel abroad and we come to realize just how much about her we did not know.
As I said, this book challenges the reader — at least, it will challenge Western readers (which I think is a very good thing, tbh). It asks us for patience and trust, looping and playing and experimenting and waxing and taking every shape but a linear one. The narrator’s voice reminds me of a capering jester, and reading it feels like you’re flying on the wind that moves around, above, and between everyone and everything. The wordplay is joyful and begs you to admire the care Rockwell took with this translation. There were, admittedly, parts where I zoned out a bit, allowing myself to just be carried along — but honestly, I think that also felt like kind of the point.
This book is for those who love language for language’s sake, and for those who are interested in exploring themes like borders (physical, imagined, cultural, of the self), family structure, nature, and joy itself. (It won’t be for those who prefer things to be relatively straightforward, or feel uncomfortable when unmoored, or prefer a book carried by plot.)
I was moved, provoked, impressed. And so very glad I read this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Transphobia, and Grief
Moderate: War and Violence
Minor: Murder
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