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A review by patroclusbro
Mother Ocean Father Nation by Nishant Batsha
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I had really wanted to like this novel, but it left me a bit at a loss, and disappointed in general.
Batsha manages to create some beautiful, lyrical moments here and there, I especially enjoyed how he described desire and sibling relationships. I also did like his overall concept to create a broken family facing a breaking, fictional country and to ask about impermanent homes in a colonial world.
That being said, until the very end I waited for something to genuinely touch me. There are a lot of missed oppurtunities to go deeper, emotionally, and really work out those characters and their stories. I am not entirely sure: The pacing and overall suspense was either sufferring from trying to squish in too many little scenes at the sake of a broader picture, or from not fleshing out those scenes and writing, simply, a longer book.
What struck me as nonreflective, too, was that throughout the whole story the reader doesn't get any chance to see the native people of the island as anything other than a formerly oppressed group that suddenly became a thorough, militant aggressor. I kept waiting for some layers in that depiction, but it simply did not come. That way, Batsha missed the chance to give his book momentum and to put it into a real conversation about postcolonialism, migration and exile, for example with Fanon, Feuchtwanger or America is Not the Heart (Elaine Castillo).
In the end, I felt like all was already said by the synopsis.
Batsha manages to create some beautiful, lyrical moments here and there, I especially enjoyed how he described desire and sibling relationships. I also did like his overall concept to create a broken family facing a breaking, fictional country and to ask about impermanent homes in a colonial world.
That being said, until the very end I waited for something to genuinely touch me. There are a lot of missed oppurtunities to go deeper, emotionally, and really work out those characters and their stories. I am not entirely sure: The pacing and overall suspense was either sufferring from trying to squish in too many little scenes at the sake of a broader picture, or from not fleshing out those scenes and writing, simply, a longer book.
What struck me as nonreflective, too, was that throughout the whole story the reader doesn't get any chance to see the native people of the island as anything other than a formerly oppressed group that suddenly became a thorough, militant aggressor. I kept waiting for some layers in that depiction, but it simply did not come. That way, Batsha missed the chance to give his book momentum and to put it into a real conversation about postcolonialism, migration and exile, for example with Fanon, Feuchtwanger or America is Not the Heart (Elaine Castillo).
In the end, I felt like all was already said by the synopsis.