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laurenb's review against another edition
2.0
I LOVED Born Confused and have read it multiple times. So it makes me sad that Bombay blues was so bad that I didn't even finish it. It was just so confusing...Maybe I'll try reading it again another day, but yikes.
papertraildiary's review against another edition
2.0
Sadly, because of how much I adored Born Confused and how high my hopes got in such a short time, this book was a big let-down. 550 pages and really I could count the big things to happen on my hand. I can tell Tanuja likes to write poetically, but most of the time it felt like it was clogging up the rest. And besides always being skeptical of everything every character says is meaningful and deep (that is not realistic), that just made it feel like the whole book was trying so hard to make a point of growing up and such. I'm still processing my feelings, but it was a drag of a read. I wonder if reading in short bursts does that? I wonder if I was in a different headspace if I'd like it? The main characters ended up becoming quite annoying and the character who I would have loved to read more about isn't really shown off until the end. I'll be bummed about this for a long time :(
kricketa's review against another edition
2.0
hmmmm. i loved "born confused" both times i read it and was really excited for this sequel. but i felt like the stream-of-conscious writing style, which worked so in BC, was magnified in BB to the point where sometimes i could not understand what was happening.
plus i was so angry at karsh that sometimes i didn't want to keep reading. and this is a long book. a lonnnnnnng book.
so, not a great experience for me, but if you loved BC it's still worth picking up.
plus i was so angry at karsh that sometimes i didn't want to keep reading. and this is a long book. a lonnnnnnng book.
so, not a great experience for me, but if you loved BC it's still worth picking up.
lazygal's review against another edition
4.0
The clash of cultural expectations that permeates Bombay Blues is interesting: the more modern (aka "raised/living in America") Dimple, Karsh, Kavita and Dimple's parents versus the traditional (aka "stayed in India") Sangita, Flip, Deepak and Sangita's parents. Karsh's DJ-ing in NYC includes bahngra, which is not what the clubbers in Mumbai/Bombay want to hear is a problem... Sangita's arranged marriage that will keep her from persuing her art studies is a problem... Kavita's lesbianism is a problem... and there are many others. They're handled deftly here, albeit with too-neat wrapping up towards the end.
It was, sometimes, difficult to remember that Dimple was 19 because she seemed to be a very young 19, making her choices regarding Karsh and Cowboy a little questionable. I found that repeating "she's 19" helped.
ARC provided by publisher.
It was, sometimes, difficult to remember that Dimple was 19 because she seemed to be a very young 19, making her choices regarding Karsh and Cowboy a little questionable. I found that repeating "she's 19" helped.
ARC provided by publisher.
dreamofbookspines's review against another edition
2.0
This quote sums up the entirety of the book. If you read nothing else in this review, read this quote to decide if you'll like the book:
*internal screaming*
The thing is, if I had been 19 when I read this, I probably would have loved it. Now, this is nearly 600 pages. I got stuff to do. Ain't nobody got time for that many pages, half of which read like the above. The story itself was interested, but got buried in the trash avalanche of words. There were some gems to be found, beautiful phrases and so on, but you really had to be prepared to wade through the garbage of the rest. I recommend thigh-high waders because that manure was bottomless.
What saves this book from being 1 (or 0) stars is the plot. But the plot can't redeem it. Plus, Karsh is annoying. That withholding dance that some people find so sexy just seems like a waste of time to me. There was a notably really excellent sex scene somewhere in the middle of the book, but again, it couldn't save the rest of it.
The last two chapters are even worse than the quote above. I wrote them off as complete nonsense, just spews of words strung together in what Hidier apparently thought was a pleasing fashion. And I'm sure it was, but after 500+ pages, I was fed up with her nonsense.
Cowboy mirror-shoring where I'd just been, me barebacking that hyphen, no lady-in-waiting but a cowgirl fate-gaiting, skippering, too, car lights sliding the many-cabled sails of this splurge of a surge of a bridge, as if it were sensuously blinking up and down, knowing if I were to bait it with my photographic tackle, snap it from this fast-speed pane, all I'd get'd be black backdrop skirred with neon squidges, skywriting hieroglyphically hippocamping, a neo-mythic X-ray lightning bugged with birds drugged, flying fish glug, zeppelins unplugged...now gazing into another set of rearview driver eyes (mappleblack, piquant), my re-return message to him, that bay-roving buckaroo, (sub)urban picaroon, just capriolistically hop-skipping-sent as that steeded sea-riding gangplanking swanimal of a finished yet incomplete - or was it unfinished yet complete?
*internal screaming*
The thing is, if I had been 19 when I read this, I probably would have loved it. Now, this is nearly 600 pages. I got stuff to do. Ain't nobody got time for that many pages, half of which read like the above. The story itself was interested, but got buried in the trash avalanche of words. There were some gems to be found, beautiful phrases and so on, but you really had to be prepared to wade through the garbage of the rest. I recommend thigh-high waders because that manure was bottomless.
What saves this book from being 1 (or 0) stars is the plot. But the plot can't redeem it. Plus, Karsh is annoying. That withholding dance that some people find so sexy just seems like a waste of time to me. There was a notably really excellent sex scene somewhere in the middle of the book, but again, it couldn't save the rest of it.
The last two chapters are even worse than the quote above. I wrote them off as complete nonsense, just spews of words strung together in what Hidier apparently thought was a pleasing fashion. And I'm sure it was, but after 500+ pages, I was fed up with her nonsense.
emma89's review against another edition
Born Confused was one of my favorite books in high school, so I was really excited to hear the author released a sequel a decade later. But now I kind of wish I'd never learned about this book. The writing is still beautiful, but I have a feeling I already know where the story is going and I don't want to go there. Dimple and Karsh feel like totally different characters, which is very sad. (And where is Gwyn???) And I just can't do books where one of the main characters comes to painful terms with the death of a parent. Just can't do it. So I think I'm going to have let this book go unfinished.
ego21's review against another edition
The prose poetry was distracting and hard to decipher and seemed superfluous. In addition, while Dimple was still a lovely character, no one was demonstrating any potential for growth. Lastly, characters from the previous novel had drastic and unrealistic personality changes I didn't enjoy.
backonthealex's review against another edition
5.0
When first we met Dimple Lala in Born Confused, she is a 17 year old Indian American who up until now had been living in the confusing space between those two words with nothing concrete to stand on - a space where she is too Indian to be American and too American to be Indian. She is an ABCD - American Born Confused Desi (Hindu for a person from South Asia).
Dimple is also a talented photographer, carrying her Chica Tikka, her third eye SLR camera, everywhere and recording everything with it. A gift from her beloved grandfather, her now deceased Dadaji, its photographs were how the two bridged their language barrier, communicating their lives to each other in pictures from half way around the world - Dimple in New Jersey, Dadaji in Bombay. Dimple also found herself involved with the boy her parents had considered 'a suitable boy' and whom she originally rejected simply because meeting him was arranged by their parents. The very handsome Karsh Kapoor is a favorite Indian DJ playing gigs in Manhattan night spots.
Now, in Bombay Blues, it is two year later and Dimple is 19, a student at New York University and still with Karsh. Dimple is heading to India along with her parents to celebrate the Lala's wedding anniversary and for the wedding of Dimple's sister-cousin Sangita. Karsh arrives a few days later, to hopefully break into Bombay's music scene and to DJ Sangita's wedding. Dimple and Karsh have been growing apart recently and she is hoping the trip will help them reconnect to each other again.
But Karsh has other work to do - he needs to find closure and come to terms with his father's tragic death, a death that has shattered him. This work that doesn't include Dimple, but does include some Hare Krishana, especially after his first DJ gig doesn't go as well as he had hoped.
And in reaction to Karsh pushing her away, Dimple has a fling with a fellow photographer simply know as Cowboy. She had noticed him at the airport and after running into him a second time in Bombay, Dimple decides it is a fling that is meant to be.
For her part, Dimple, has taken two giant steps backwards since her cross cultural identity crisis in Born Confused. Now, she needs to rediscover and reconnect with who she is and what she wants to be. Oddly enough, it is the bride-to-be Sangita, the most traditional appearing character in the novel, who teaches Dimple about finding ones true self - about identity fusion and finding a way to bridge her Indian and her American selves.
To add to all this, Sangita's sister Kavita, who came out to Dimple in Born Confused, is determined to now come out to her parents as a lesbian, as well. But when her ex Sabina shows up in Bombay, well, things get interesting…
The story lines in Bombay Blues are actually quite simple, just as they were in Born Confused. It is a story about journeys - internal and external journeys in search of 'home.' And that is just what gets interrogated in this novel - the idea of what and where home is.
I loved Dimple in Born Confused and the way she took the reader along on her coming of age journey. In Bombay Blues, Dimple again invites us to ride along in rick, tuk tuk, on foot or by taxi through the maze that is Bombay, narrating her story using the same funny, deprecating, sarcastic stream of consciousness thinking as before, but with a difference. Two years has given her stream of consciousness a more mature feeling, so her language is much more lyrical with incredible alliteration, wonderful word play, and poetic imagery.
Hidier holds the reader spellbound as she perfectly catches all the tensions, all the confusions, all the jealousies, all the happiness that make up a novel about family, friendships, relationships, identity. All the while, she conjures up the sight, sounds and smells of Bombay, creating a lovely aromatic and musical reading experience.
If you haven't read Born Confused, that doesn't mean you can't read Bombay Blues. It does work as a stand alone novel since you are given enough information to be able to understand how Dimple has arrived at where she is in the beginning of this second novel.
And, it is another big book - my copy of Born Confused is 432 pages, Bombay Blues comes in at 560 pages, so they are an investment in time. But if you stick to it, to the end, you will be rewarded with a reading experience you won't soon forget. Besides, don't you just love the name Dimple Lala?
This novel is recommended for readers age 14+
This book was an EARC received from NetGalley
This review originally was originally posted on Randomly Reading
Dimple is also a talented photographer, carrying her Chica Tikka, her third eye SLR camera, everywhere and recording everything with it. A gift from her beloved grandfather, her now deceased Dadaji, its photographs were how the two bridged their language barrier, communicating their lives to each other in pictures from half way around the world - Dimple in New Jersey, Dadaji in Bombay. Dimple also found herself involved with the boy her parents had considered 'a suitable boy' and whom she originally rejected simply because meeting him was arranged by their parents. The very handsome Karsh Kapoor is a favorite Indian DJ playing gigs in Manhattan night spots.
Now, in Bombay Blues, it is two year later and Dimple is 19, a student at New York University and still with Karsh. Dimple is heading to India along with her parents to celebrate the Lala's wedding anniversary and for the wedding of Dimple's sister-cousin Sangita. Karsh arrives a few days later, to hopefully break into Bombay's music scene and to DJ Sangita's wedding. Dimple and Karsh have been growing apart recently and she is hoping the trip will help them reconnect to each other again.
But Karsh has other work to do - he needs to find closure and come to terms with his father's tragic death, a death that has shattered him. This work that doesn't include Dimple, but does include some Hare Krishana, especially after his first DJ gig doesn't go as well as he had hoped.
And in reaction to Karsh pushing her away, Dimple has a fling with a fellow photographer simply know as Cowboy. She had noticed him at the airport and after running into him a second time in Bombay, Dimple decides it is a fling that is meant to be.
For her part, Dimple, has taken two giant steps backwards since her cross cultural identity crisis in Born Confused. Now, she needs to rediscover and reconnect with who she is and what she wants to be. Oddly enough, it is the bride-to-be Sangita, the most traditional appearing character in the novel, who teaches Dimple about finding ones true self - about identity fusion and finding a way to bridge her Indian and her American selves.
To add to all this, Sangita's sister Kavita, who came out to Dimple in Born Confused, is determined to now come out to her parents as a lesbian, as well. But when her ex Sabina shows up in Bombay, well, things get interesting…
The story lines in Bombay Blues are actually quite simple, just as they were in Born Confused. It is a story about journeys - internal and external journeys in search of 'home.' And that is just what gets interrogated in this novel - the idea of what and where home is.
I loved Dimple in Born Confused and the way she took the reader along on her coming of age journey. In Bombay Blues, Dimple again invites us to ride along in rick, tuk tuk, on foot or by taxi through the maze that is Bombay, narrating her story using the same funny, deprecating, sarcastic stream of consciousness thinking as before, but with a difference. Two years has given her stream of consciousness a more mature feeling, so her language is much more lyrical with incredible alliteration, wonderful word play, and poetic imagery.
Hidier holds the reader spellbound as she perfectly catches all the tensions, all the confusions, all the jealousies, all the happiness that make up a novel about family, friendships, relationships, identity. All the while, she conjures up the sight, sounds and smells of Bombay, creating a lovely aromatic and musical reading experience.
If you haven't read Born Confused, that doesn't mean you can't read Bombay Blues. It does work as a stand alone novel since you are given enough information to be able to understand how Dimple has arrived at where she is in the beginning of this second novel.
And, it is another big book - my copy of Born Confused is 432 pages, Bombay Blues comes in at 560 pages, so they are an investment in time. But if you stick to it, to the end, you will be rewarded with a reading experience you won't soon forget. Besides, don't you just love the name Dimple Lala?
This novel is recommended for readers age 14+
This book was an EARC received from NetGalley
This review originally was originally posted on Randomly Reading
maithreyi's review against another edition
3.0
Got this from Net Galley. Had mixed feelings, but mostly positive, about "Born Confused", but read it in high school. I remember Dimple's revelations on straddling the cultural divide reminded me of my own experiences. It is so refreshing to check in with her a few years into college and see that we're still on the same page, especially with the introduction of desis-from-india vs desis-from-america dichotomies. The writing felt more rich and vivid than "Born Confused" and the themes explored have matured with the characters (infidelity, first-loves, LGBTQ+). Overall, it was a really compelling read. Though I personally didn't connect very much with the clubbing/partying/DJing scenes, I liked how they reflected Dimple's own growth and point of view as an artist.
ietondo's review against another edition
2.0
I had occasional moments of feeling connected to Dimple, which probably saved me from writing the book off completely. Compared to "Born Confused" (and despite the length of the novel), I felt it was too choppily written for me to engage with it fully; I finally managed to get into the flow of the book in the last fifty or so pages, and wish the rest of the book had felt like that.