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liiiily 's review for:
Baumgartner's Bombay
by Anita Desai
It's a hard book to review. Desai does an excellent job using juxapoisition to portray Hugo's experience as an imigrant in Inida wih that of his Jewish experience in Germany. She implements language in a skilfull way to highlight cultural identity, or the lack of cultural identity, and how that contributes to Hugo's isolation from society. That being said I felt nothing reading this. The story itself is harrowing, but I couldn't connect with any of the characers, nor did I care for Hugo. It's sad and depressing, which I know is the point, but this felt like reading a texbook raher than a novel; it failed to make me emotionally invested as a reader.