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A review by clairewords
The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar
5.0
What a unique read, like flashes of a life, past, near present, present.
Mother lies bleeding on her suburban driveway in a quiet neighbourhood, shot by police.
Her hero (husband) may or may not be present.
She recalls growing up in the South, where she was born, the questions nevertheless about where they came from followed soon after by, go back where you came from, American born and raised, her beauty unappreciated, her talent undervalued, her car pulled over relentlessly.
We experience her helplessness and the progression of her dying state, lying there, witness to the banter of the police around her.
Mother of three girls, a constantly travelling and inattentive husband, who shares not her ethnicity, seems not to understand the impact it has on her life in the community; 'be nice' he says.
Snippets of her hurried life as she juggles everything, a job, a home, children, elderly parents
The memory of their dog, Greta, come back to life
Maybe it starts when...
Just maybe she changes the day when...
Perhaps she sinks into the muck of life the day that...
And then there are those Barbies
Startling, insightful prose in an unconventional form, weaves tapestry of a family and one woman who tries to navigate a culture she was born into but not of, doing her best, confronting a reality that doesn't want to accept her as she is, that judges her without knowing, that wants to put her in her place.
All this through demonstrations of flashes of her life, not a linear narrative, it's a picture building episodic creation of aspects of a life, in riveting prose, a portrait of Mother in hues of reds and blues.
Mother lies bleeding on her suburban driveway in a quiet neighbourhood, shot by police.
Her hero (husband) may or may not be present.
She recalls growing up in the South, where she was born, the questions nevertheless about where they came from followed soon after by, go back where you came from, American born and raised, her beauty unappreciated, her talent undervalued, her car pulled over relentlessly.
We experience her helplessness and the progression of her dying state, lying there, witness to the banter of the police around her.
Mother of three girls, a constantly travelling and inattentive husband, who shares not her ethnicity, seems not to understand the impact it has on her life in the community; 'be nice' he says.
Snippets of her hurried life as she juggles everything, a job, a home, children, elderly parents
The memory of their dog, Greta, come back to life
Maybe it starts when...
Just maybe she changes the day when...
Perhaps she sinks into the muck of life the day that...
And then there are those Barbies
Startling, insightful prose in an unconventional form, weaves tapestry of a family and one woman who tries to navigate a culture she was born into but not of, doing her best, confronting a reality that doesn't want to accept her as she is, that judges her without knowing, that wants to put her in her place.
All this through demonstrations of flashes of her life, not a linear narrative, it's a picture building episodic creation of aspects of a life, in riveting prose, a portrait of Mother in hues of reds and blues.