Scan barcode
A review by tommooney
The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar
2.0
Quite interesting to begin with but by the end I thought it was quite a poor novel.
Laskar writes about something that doesn't get much air time - the experience of Indian Americans in modern society. Her fragmented storytelling seems to have irked a few on here but I didn't really have an issue with that, in fact that was my favourite part of it.
My issues lie with the characters. Firstly, the protagonist and her family, whose interesting story is not at all fleshed out. I am not really sure why she doesn't name any of them and this feels like a needless gimmick. I also have a little bit of a problem with pretty much every white person in the novel being a racist and every non-white person being open and friendly and accepting. While I get the point, I'm not sure this is a particularly helpful or accurate portrayal of Americans. But then again I live in Britain, not the American south, so perhaps I underestimate the depth of the divisions that side of the pond, compared with here.
Laskar writes about something that doesn't get much air time - the experience of Indian Americans in modern society. Her fragmented storytelling seems to have irked a few on here but I didn't really have an issue with that, in fact that was my favourite part of it.
My issues lie with the characters. Firstly, the protagonist and her family, whose interesting story is not at all fleshed out. I am not really sure why she doesn't name any of them and this feels like a needless gimmick. I also have a little bit of a problem with pretty much every white person in the novel being a racist and every non-white person being open and friendly and accepting. While I get the point, I'm not sure this is a particularly helpful or accurate portrayal of Americans. But then again I live in Britain, not the American south, so perhaps I underestimate the depth of the divisions that side of the pond, compared with here.