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g_ah's review against another edition
4.0
you may hate the book for a lot of things, but you can't deny that it's written very beautifully.
balfies's review
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It is a travesty that this is not recognised as part of the Australian literary canon. A truly jaw dropping novel, which explores the intimate agonies of a 1980s childhood in Sydney as a Catholic Goan Indian girl through magical realism. Funny, imaginative, always always thoughtful, this book may be my favourite of the year.
Our narrator protagonist Mina is a girl so sensitive she has antennae on her head which reveal her emotional depths; her older sister a cruel, precocious genius; her younger sister held in a perpetual state of attested development by children's cartoons; her bipolar mother slowly deteriorating into a bird; her subterranean father building a warren under the house to escape reality.
The excruciating detail of every childhood decision is rendered with such perceptive alacrity that it confounds me. Not to mention: I'm friends with the author, who was until recently a work colleague of mine - and she wrote this aged 23! Abject genius, this is a must read.
Our narrator protagonist Mina is a girl so sensitive she has antennae on her head which reveal her emotional depths; her older sister a cruel, precocious genius; her younger sister held in a perpetual state of attested development by children's cartoons; her bipolar mother slowly deteriorating into a bird; her subterranean father building a warren under the house to escape reality.
The excruciating detail of every childhood decision is rendered with such perceptive alacrity that it confounds me. Not to mention: I'm friends with the author, who was until recently a work colleague of mine - and she wrote this aged 23! Abject genius, this is a must read.
frankie_s's review against another edition
4.0
The edition I had needed another proofread, but I really enjoyed the high stakes of the everyday in this book. It was by turns funny and devastating, but I wasn't always feeling the magical realism. Still, looking forward to the new book by this author, "Saudade".
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