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A review by booklywookly
The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara
3.0
Review by Prateek - @BooklyWookly on Instagram
Got to know about the book and the author for the first time after the Pulitzer 2023 announcement. The premise intrigued me.
Strong and a gripping start. Had me hooked on to read more before I sleep. Vauhini painted a beautiful picture of her village and the community. There was a warm and cozy feeling with hints of impending doom. The three or four timelines that were running parallel was also comfortable to get in and out of. Didn’t feel disoriented the way some other books have had me.
However, there were things I didn’t like.
Keeping track of all the Indian characters’ names was a chore. I can’t believe those who are not from South Asia will not have difficulty keeping track of lo the village characters. Some characters weren’t developed enough for me to even bother remembering their names.
Keeping track of all the Indian characters’ names was a chore. I can’t believe those who are not from South Asia will not have difficulty keeping track of lo the village characters. Some characters weren’t developed enough for me to even bother remembering their names.
The book could have used a better editor to edit out the not so needed parts. Especially the very repetitive and annoying fascination of the author to describe everyone’s breath. (It was sour. It was always sour. Except for that one time when it was honeydew. Still!)
Some inspirations for characters were too obvious and too on the nose. Didn’t feel clever and it nullified the imagination part. Also the trope of a Brown-skinned Indian landing in predominantly white America and being awestruck by everything fair was cliched as hell.
And then there was that ending. The climax was unsatisfactory as hell and rushed out.
And now, a controversial take. The central character being Dalit, and the author being from Dalit community, kind of felt like more of a marketing decision, that doesn’t impact the storyline. If you take all the mentions of Dalit from the story, it will make no difference to the story at all. Intentional or not, I don’t know. Always good to see representation. So full marks on that. I would love to see it being done more meaningful and impactful way.
All in all, it was a decent book. This was a grand concept for a debut book and I appreciate the efforts. Imagine it as fusion of a Jhumpa Lahiri book with that of Emily St. John Mandel’s, but less memorable. But hey! Pulitzer finalist FTW! I hope Vauhini writes more, I would love to read more from her.