In Beautiful Disguises

Rating:
Summary: Experience of life, damn it!
Review: A story about a young girl, who despite the cultural restrictions, thinks as freely as any other her age. Her naivete and innocence are evident in her 'experience of life' in The City. And yet these qualities are not over-exaggerated, but are instead set perfectly against the part of her dutiful to her weak older brother, Ravi and her parents. Dutiful not in any submissive sense, in fact quite the opposite. She is the oldest despite being the youngest of three. This book amazingly captures her passion for life and self-belief, and her strength shines through. I loved every minute of this book. The ending was frustrating, but at the same time strangely fitting. It was an easy read without being superficial, rather, deceptively simple. Rajeev Balasubramanyam definitely has a gift, often making me feel as though I was this girl, tapping into thoughts such as when she was looking at the elephant in the zoo, feeling helpless, but hoping her presence would take away his pain. This book is a masterpiece, and the only reason I wrote this review was because I couldn't let it go unsaid.

Rating:
Summary: Funny and thought-provoking
Review: Having just read The God Small Things, by Arundhati Roy, I was eager to read another book about India. In Beautiful Disguises is decidedly lighter fare than The God of Small Things, at least in its tone. The subject matter is actually quite serious as it deals with the realities of gender, family ties and class in modern-day India. The one disappointment, however, was the unresolved ending- it left me longing to know the fate of the plucky and interesting heroine.

Rating:
Summary: In Beautiful Imagination...
Review: I first read this novel for a creative writing class as a junior in high school. The second time I read it was the summer before I went away to University. The third time... well, I won't bore you with the details. Let's just say that my copy is so highlighted and underlined that it's hard to find an unmarked page. This novel is composed of many complicated parts: a relatively simple but effectively mythic plot; a brilliantly imaginative and naive 17 year old main character; a supporting cast of eccentric and yet still real people; and a setting exotic enough to survive bored American scrutiny. Each of these could have caused the book to sink into predictability and even banality, but under the author's skillful hand they become intriguing parts of a wonderful whole. I think that one of the reasons why I love this book so much was because of the time in my life that I first read it. I cannot really articulate all of the emotions that run through the head of a 17 year old girl, but Balasubramanyam can. I felt like everything that the main character said was something that would have come straight out of my own head. The first person narration only brings out the more interesting thoughts gracing her mind. My favorite: "...I thought, Reality is a Dream, and I was scared. I would never be fifteen again, not unless I could forget that sight, but some sights lay eggs" (pg. 238). That quote has floated around in my mind since the moment I read it, proving itself over and over again. The final part of this book that I would love to tell you about occurs in the middle. The main character takes a trip to the zoo in New Dehli. Every animal there is a symbol of another character in the novel. The interactions of the animals-- and the main character's feelings towards them-- are really allegorical. Plus, the language of the scene draws the reader in with a kind of exotic magic. Maybe that's the greatest thing about this novel: the sheer exoticness placed on a familiar story. This is like Joseph Campbell's mythic journey told out from the mind of 17 year old Indian girl. Her quest for rebirth could apply to any of us-- if only we learn to drape the world in beautiful disguises before dramatically pulling them away.

Rating:
Summary: In Beautiful Imagination...
Review: I first read this novel for a creative writing class as a junior in high school. The second time I read it was the summer before I went away to University. The third time... well, I won't bore you with the details. Let's just say that my copy is so highlighted and underlined that it's hard to find an unmarked page. This novel is composed of many complicated parts: a relatively simple but effectively mythic plot; a brilliantly imaginative and naive 17 year old main character; a supporting cast of eccentric and yet still real people; and a setting exotic enough to survive bored American scrutiny. Each of these could have caused the book to sink into predictability and even banality, but under the author's skillful hand they become intriguing parts of a wonderful whole. I think that one of the reasons why I love this book so much was because of the time in my life that I first read it. I cannot really articulate all of the emotions that run through the head of a 17 year old girl, but Balasubramanyam can. I felt like everything that the main character said was something that would have come straight out of my own head. The first person narration only brings out the more interesting thoughts gracing her mind. My favorite: "...I thought, Reality is a Dream, and I was scared. I would never be fifteen again, not unless I could forget that sight, but some sights lay eggs" (pg. 238). That quote has floated around in my mind since the moment I read it, proving itself over and over again. The final part of this book that I would love to tell you about occurs in the middle. The main character takes a trip to the zoo in New Dehli. Every animal there is a symbol of another character in the novel. The interactions of the animals-- and the main character's feelings towards them-- are really allegorical. Plus, the language of the scene draws the reader in with a kind of exotic magic. Maybe that's the greatest thing about this novel: the sheer exoticness placed on a familiar story. This is like Joseph Campbell's mythic journey told out from the mind of 17 year old Indian girl. Her quest for rebirth could apply to any of us-- if only we learn to drape the world in beautiful disguises before dramatically pulling them away.

Rating:
Summary: Where can I get a sister like this?
Review: I loved it, that's all I can say. Main character was brilliant, sweet, and refreshingly independent. The ending didn't make complete sense to me, but it was a novel worth reading overall, and it left me uplifted. I felt like he didn't know how to end the work, so he ended it as he did. (I won't go into the ending to prevent spoiling it for others.)

The perk to reading In Beautiful Disguises is you can feel the passion that goes behind each and every character's niche in life. This is rare in books, because usually the individuality of each interaction is sacrificed for the sake of keeping the focus on the main character.

Read it...and laugh.

Rating:
Summary: Lovely, just a little too self-conscious.
Review: I picked up this book in the local library drawn by the lurid cover :). Now, I used to be a voracious reader, but my attention span has progressively shortened, and now very few books can really hold my attention. This one did. Its narrative pulls you in immediately, and feels really grounded in the sights and sounds of its setting. The heroine is a riot - spirited, precocious and original. The few things I didn't like were:
- The introspection/analysis of the heroine got too weighty at times for instance, too many repetitious observations about Ravi
- Some of the metaphors felt really forced. I don't have the book in front of me to give examples, but I noticed that all through the book.

All in all, I'd recommend this for people who want a relatively easy and fast-paced read that makes you think at the same time.

Rating:
Summary: Artistically narrated but disappointingly unreal.
Review: The Indian name of the author had drawn me to this book, the story of an 18 year old Indian girl from the south who runs away to The City in the north to escape the marriage arranged by her drunken father and ends up as a maid in the household of Mr Aziz and Ms Marceau. As I continued reading more about this stereotype of an abused Indian female deserving our sympathy and needing redemption, it dawned on me that there was nothing Indian about the narrative. It became evident to me that the author had no first hand knowledge of contemporary India. In dealing with the escapades of the free-spirited teenage girl, the author fails to address the issues of the status of women and the cultural restrictions on them. He does not know the barriers and taboos dictated by the caste system which is still alive in the minds of Indians. The diversity of cultures and the difficulties posed by the variety in languages do not seem to concern the author. The teenage girl after traveling alone for 24 hours by train from a Kannada speaking town in the south reaches The City without any trouble and joins the servants of the Aziz family to begin work immediately. The Aziz family is only half Indian, drinking wine and eating steak. But the servant women drinking champagne with the masters, smoking cigarettes and taking day-offs also are unlike servants in any Indian household. The back drop of India with all its complexities does not suit well to the credibility of the events narrated.

Mr Rajeev is successful in capturing the emotions, feelings and inner thoughts of the teenage girl though he gives very little detail while explaining external events and situations. This throws the reader often into confusion. After reading a 246 page novel one is left without even the name of the heroine, let alone the languages she knew.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Writing
Review: This is one of the most captivating and charming books I've read in ages.

Rating:
Summary: Lacking
Review: When I picked up this book, I expected intrigue and a good dose of India. Instead, I found much lacking in this book. For me, it was too unreal; it didn't seem to say much about India at all, and the regional transitions were too fluid. Also, the interpersonal relationships were not accurately portrayed. In addition, the writing seemed dead and rushed.

Rating:
Summary: Lacking
Review: When I picked up this book, I expected intrigue and a good dose of India. Instead, I found much lacking in this book. For me, it was too unreal; it didn't seem to say much about India at all, and the regional transitions were too fluid. Also, the interpersonal relationships were not accurately portrayed. In addition, the writing seemed dead and rushed.