Scan barcode
A review by karnaconverse
Mother Ocean Father Nation by Nishant Batsha
3.0
The government of a small South Pacific island is overthrown and the minority Natives begin working toward change that is designed to demote the majority Indian population from power and the successful lives they've built
Batsha reveals the effects of the military coup through the stories of two siblings, one who has been studying at a university in the capital city and the other who has stayed in the village and is destined to take over the family's grocer business. Both are searching and Batsha uses interior narration to share details about their childhoods, their questions, and their secret desires. The reader learns much, but I found this technique confusing and somewhat clunky as it is interspersed with the third-person point of view that so authentically describes the effects of the coup: food prices go up, tariffs are imposed on imports from India, businesses are either closed or commanded to open at the new general's command, soldiers patrol the streets, a census is taken, the Indians are expelled.
I was invested in both siblings and their search for self but I was very interested in Batsha's interpretation of the military coup and its effects of those forced to leave. Here, I see some similarities with our present-day refugees and the decisions they've made, though Mother Ocean Father Nation makes the visa process seem a bit easier than I think it actually is.
Batsha reveals the effects of the military coup through the stories of two siblings, one who has been studying at a university in the capital city and the other who has stayed in the village and is destined to take over the family's grocer business. Both are searching and Batsha uses interior narration to share details about their childhoods, their questions, and their secret desires. The reader learns much, but I found this technique confusing and somewhat clunky as it is interspersed with the third-person point of view that so authentically describes the effects of the coup: food prices go up, tariffs are imposed on imports from India, businesses are either closed or commanded to open at the new general's command, soldiers patrol the streets, a census is taken, the Indians are expelled.
I was invested in both siblings and their search for self but I was very interested in Batsha's interpretation of the military coup and its effects of those forced to leave. Here, I see some similarities with our present-day refugees and the decisions they've made, though Mother Ocean Father Nation makes the visa process seem a bit easier than I think it actually is.