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ofmj's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
charlottesometimes's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
paperbacks_and_priyam's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
shambhavi_basnet's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
sendlasagna's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
CW for book, not the review: Mention of child sexual assault, mentions of domestic abuse and brief romanticisation of that abuse, description of prison torture, description of girls forced into prostitution through poverty, I'm fairly certain I've missed mentioning noticing mentions of war-national violence-Islamophobia-cultural genocide etc cause I'm too used to this when it's based in the Indian subcontinent.
The cishet world system almost made me want to quit but the very good ecological descriptions and eco-social ideas kept me going. For instance, the scene page 76 creates between white butterflies, a diabolical current and a fisherman I imagined to be old, rowed out at sea at what I imagined was night-- maddening that it just casually exists in a book and then is smoothly woven in to plot _after_ its thrilling entry with no preamble.
Page 119: “With no one else to call his own, he entered a monastery. He shaved his hair off and tried to meditate. Within a week, he ran away from the place. He enrolled himself in Rangoon University. Orphans, he realized, needed human bonds, ordinary distractions, and excuses to hang on to. Not the metaphysical emptiness propounded by a prince who had everything— kingdom, palace, parents, wife, children— only to give it all up.” 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
I like how the trope of the unnamed wife is reversed for Rose Mary’s story. I also like the subtle wit with which post-Independence Indian poverty is described.
I’m reading this while I’m also thinking of planetary time and Anna Tsing and this is certainly one way to write that.
When you don’t braid your prose evenly across action, description, dialogue and interiority, it starts to become difficult to focus, because the reading rhythm is strained. About 3/5th into the book, there is too much interiority and description (for the planet as a character and metaphor) and I had to start skipping sections.
Called my grandma to hear about the hills. She instantly launched into praise for and connections with the right-wing. Called another grandma for stories of the Gangetic plains. She didn’t finish a single sentence but grandfather butted into the call, eager to tell the stories properly, and between them, they brought alive a kilometre square of old Delhi. The poetics of the moment aren’t lost on me— I was pacing in a room in Singapore, tracing everything they said on Google Maps, while my cousin and her baby son finished dinner, listening to a bed time story composed of history of every scale.
Pages 285-288 are a goddamn delight. Swarup can definitely write longly drawn and satisfying, closed circles.
The cishet world system almost made me want to quit but the very good ecological descriptions and eco-social ideas kept me going. For instance, the scene page 76 creates between white butterflies, a diabolical current and a fisherman I imagined to be old, rowed out at sea at what I imagined was night-- maddening that it just casually exists in a book and then is smoothly woven in to plot _after_ its thrilling entry with no preamble.
Page 119: “With no one else to call his own, he entered a monastery. He shaved his hair off and tried to meditate. Within a week, he ran away from the place. He enrolled himself in Rangoon University. Orphans, he realized, needed human bonds, ordinary distractions, and excuses to hang on to. Not the metaphysical emptiness propounded by a prince who had everything— kingdom, palace, parents, wife, children— only to give it all up.” 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
I like how the trope of the unnamed wife is reversed for Rose Mary’s story. I also like the subtle wit with which post-Independence Indian poverty is described.
I’m reading this while I’m also thinking of planetary time and Anna Tsing and this is certainly one way to write that.
When you don’t braid your prose evenly across action, description, dialogue and interiority, it starts to become difficult to focus, because the reading rhythm is strained. About 3/5th into the book, there is too much interiority and description (for the planet as a character and metaphor) and I had to start skipping sections.
Called my grandma to hear about the hills. She instantly launched into praise for and connections with the right-wing. Called another grandma for stories of the Gangetic plains. She didn’t finish a single sentence but grandfather butted into the call, eager to tell the stories properly, and between them, they brought alive a kilometre square of old Delhi. The poetics of the moment aren’t lost on me— I was pacing in a room in Singapore, tracing everything they said on Google Maps, while my cousin and her baby son finished dinner, listening to a bed time story composed of history of every scale.
Pages 285-288 are a goddamn delight. Swarup can definitely write longly drawn and satisfying, closed circles.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Police brutality
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Sexual assault and Child abuse
breadandmushrooms's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
atgerstner's review against another edition
challenging
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
melnee's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
vaibhavsh2624's review against another edition
5.0
Journalist and Educationist Shubhangi Swarup's Debut Novel 'Latitudes of Longing' is as magical a reading experience as it gets. Longlisted for DSC prize 2019 and JCB Prize 2018 (which was how I discovered the book) the sparkling novel raises the bar quite higher for future novelists of India.
What's it about? That is a question difficult to answer without giving away most of the book, I'll still try to entice your imagination. The book opens with the following line,
"Silence on a tropical island is the relentless sound of water."
.
If I were you, I'd go grab the book now because that first line is all it took to get me hooked.
As the book opens we meet the newly married couple Girija Prasad and Chanda Devi, living on Andaman Islands and navigating the waves of marital life. Girija Prasad, a scientist trying to figure out the way fault lines work under the islands in the early years of Independent India.
But that's just the beginning and there's certainly much more to keep you turning the pages, a clairvoyant who talks to trees, ghosts of British Aristocrats and Indian soldiers, octogenarian lovers, a geologist, a superstitious dictator, a mother struggling to get her revolutionary son released etc.
The writing is fluid, yet keeps the narrative strong and binds the reader, one is never tempted to look away from the pages. The story travels through India, Burma and Nepal reaching the remotest and touching the deepest reaches of your heart, leaving one with a longing so profound that you won't be able to stop thinking about it.
It's storytelling at it's best and I can go on and on, but one must take the first hand experience of being mesmerized by this gem. Don't believe my words, just pick it up yourself and you will be grateful to the author (I certainly am). Highly Highly recommended, if you only read one book this year, make it Latitudes of Longing, a true Masterpiece.
What's it about? That is a question difficult to answer without giving away most of the book, I'll still try to entice your imagination. The book opens with the following line,
"Silence on a tropical island is the relentless sound of water."
.
If I were you, I'd go grab the book now because that first line is all it took to get me hooked.
As the book opens we meet the newly married couple Girija Prasad and Chanda Devi, living on Andaman Islands and navigating the waves of marital life. Girija Prasad, a scientist trying to figure out the way fault lines work under the islands in the early years of Independent India.
But that's just the beginning and there's certainly much more to keep you turning the pages, a clairvoyant who talks to trees, ghosts of British Aristocrats and Indian soldiers, octogenarian lovers, a geologist, a superstitious dictator, a mother struggling to get her revolutionary son released etc.
The writing is fluid, yet keeps the narrative strong and binds the reader, one is never tempted to look away from the pages. The story travels through India, Burma and Nepal reaching the remotest and touching the deepest reaches of your heart, leaving one with a longing so profound that you won't be able to stop thinking about it.
It's storytelling at it's best and I can go on and on, but one must take the first hand experience of being mesmerized by this gem. Don't believe my words, just pick it up yourself and you will be grateful to the author (I certainly am). Highly Highly recommended, if you only read one book this year, make it Latitudes of Longing, a true Masterpiece.