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A review by jesikasbookshelf
The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar
3.0
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! The narrative is a miraculous play with the way in which memory works and how a story should be structured. I understand that some readers may find this jarring, but personally I loved it. The author writes beautifully - her prior work as a poet is clear throughout - and she gives the reader everything they need to understand the story and think upon its message themselves, rather than over explaining everything for no apparent reason.
I particularly enjoyed the way in which Laskar makes her point clear - it is not huge declarations of racism and sexism that actually grind down women of colour, though granted those aren't something anyone needs in their life. Instead, it is the continued build up of every, single, small but discriminatory interaction which eventually pushes a person too far. It is the day to day comments, interactions and pointed behaviour that eventually add up to a life filled navigating a sea of overt and institutionalised cruelty which can break a person.
This novel explores such a life, lived in experiences such as these, for the unnamed Indian American mother of 3. It does so beautifully and with a great sense of a sorrowful heart at the state of the world.
For me, it bothered me that the Mother doesn't ensure that the white Father of her children fully understands the racism that both she and her daughters experience. He is an absentee father and husband, but I felt quite strongly that keeping things from him as they would upset him (and because her daughters want her to) ultimately is part of the problem. It should upset him, but not having the conversation means that you are perpetuating a state of denial, and so I didn't like this particular part of the novel as I felt that, had this conversation eventually have surfaced between the couple, the discussion regarding race in this novel would have ultimately been much more gut wrenching on an inter-personal level.
Overall, though, I enjoyed this, and it is well worth the read!
I particularly enjoyed the way in which Laskar makes her point clear - it is not huge declarations of racism and sexism that actually grind down women of colour, though granted those aren't something anyone needs in their life. Instead, it is the continued build up of every, single, small but discriminatory interaction which eventually pushes a person too far. It is the day to day comments, interactions and pointed behaviour that eventually add up to a life filled navigating a sea of overt and institutionalised cruelty which can break a person.
This novel explores such a life, lived in experiences such as these, for the unnamed Indian American mother of 3. It does so beautifully and with a great sense of a sorrowful heart at the state of the world.
For me, it bothered me that the Mother doesn't ensure that the white Father of her children fully understands the racism that both she and her daughters experience. He is an absentee father and husband, but I felt quite strongly that keeping things from him as they would upset him (and because her daughters want her to) ultimately is part of the problem. It should upset him, but not having the conversation means that you are perpetuating a state of denial, and so I didn't like this particular part of the novel as I felt that, had this conversation eventually have surfaced between the couple, the discussion regarding race in this novel would have ultimately been much more gut wrenching on an inter-personal level.
Overall, though, I enjoyed this, and it is well worth the read!