30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 4
Book 24/30
A German professor who has been passing as Indian for her entire adult life is found to have been born white, and because she has placed herself in the public eye and has become a pop culture figure/icon, controversy explodes. (The author was inspired by the cases of people like Rachel Dolezal—who gets a couple mentions in the book—to write a story engaging with a fictional and heightened version of that story.) We see through the lens of Nivedita, a biracial Indian/German woman who has been longing to find her place in the world, and found it studying with Saraswati (the infamous professor). Nivedita herself is a public figure through her blog, where she writes under the alias Identitti (for obvious pun related reasons, but also because she likes breasts). Both of them are caught up in the scandal, and the book follows the aftereffects.
This is a very strange book, and it’s hard to talk about why. You’re not going to find a plot here, mostly just a lot of conversations about people talking at/to/over/under each other about race, but also gender and identity politics in general, among other things. And they are talked about in a way that is very academic (since the controversial figure in question is a professor of postcolonialism and the main character is her star student) but also highly, highly personal. This is most definitely not a book for the average reader; you have to be into the topics they are discussing. But also, this is a messy book about messy, real-world issues, and the author refuses to pass judgment on any of it. And she writes it in such a way that I was compelled to keep going, despite being by turns disturbed, rankled, confused, and annoyed. Admittedly, this is a satire so some of this is expected, but it definitely didn’t feel like any satire I’ve read before, and I was unsettled the entire time I was reading, which I think was the point.
There’s also the fact that it slides more and more into fabulism the longer the book goes on, as Nivedita has regular conversations with the Hindu goddess Kali (see the fabulous cover of the book), who acts as her conscience throughout. The things that are making me round this down to three stars despite that the style and subject matter had me (a person who has a hard time with lit-fic) riveted to the page, are twofold. Heh, twofold. Underused, underappreciated words are fun. Anyway, the first thing is that the book is a bit too long. I became frustrated with about fifty pages of it in the middle where the characters just seemed to be having the same conversations over and over, and nothing was being resolved or moved along. It was just dragged out a bit too long (though the climax/resolution of the book somewhat makes up for it).
The second thing is that there were these totally random, actually disturbing sex things littered throughout the book that really, really turned me off, and I have no idea what the author was going for by including them. Am I supposed to be shocked? Why? If not, am I supposed to pass judgment on the MC? (I did.) Am I supposed to believe this is normal behavior? Is her weirdness with sex related to her shifting identity? I have no clue, but if I never have to read another sentence where a woman (very, very briefly) thinks about having sex with a dog, has a threesome with her cousin, and/or uses someone else’s vibrator while listening to that person have sex with her girlfriend, I will be very, very happy. Maybe I’m just very American, or very asexual, but I really do not see the point of any of that.
Anyway, all that said, this is an extremely interesting and relevant book and I think that more people should be reading and talking about it. If you were interested in Yellowface last year (and whether you liked it or not), this also might be a book for you.
Oh, and something else cool! A lot of the book is made up of tweets of people reacting to #Saraswatigate or whatever, and the author solicited genuine reactions from intellectuals and pop culture figures (none of whom I knew, but presumably they are well known in Germany), so that lent it a definite air of authenticity. She also reappropriates actual tweets and quotes from real life figures such as Jordan Peterson (who Saraswati debates at one point in the novel), J.K. Rowling, and Ibram X. Kendi. (There are extensive notes in the back.)
All in all, thorniness and messiness aside, I’m really glad I read this, and if it sounds at all interesting to you, I hope you read it too, and then come back here so I can talk about it with somebody.
[3.5 stars, rounded down]
Read Harder Challenge 2024: Read a book in translation from a country you’ve never visited (Germany).
