... Rakesh Satyal's fabulous and fun novel, Blue Boy. The girls and I discussed our March book last week over Indian food at Kiran, coincidentally the name of the book's protagonist (unfortunately, the restaurant fare was not as delightful as the book--my opinion only). While Publisher's Weekly had this to say:
Satyal's lovely coming-of-age debut charts an Indian-American boy's transformation from mere mortal to Krishnaji, the blue-skinned Hindu deity. Twelve-year-old Kiran Sharma's a bit of an outcast: he likes ballet and playing with his mother's makeup. He also reveres his Indian heritage and convinces himself that the reason he's having trouble fitting in is because he's actually the 10th reincarnation of Krishnaji. He plans to come out to the world at the 1992 Martin Van Buren Elementary School talent show, and much of the book revels in his comical preparations as he creates his costume, plays the flute and practices his dance moves to a Whitney Houston song. But as the performance approaches, something strange happens: Kiran's skin begins to turn blue. Satyal writes with a graceful ease, finding new humor in common awkward pre-teen moments and giving readers a delightful and lively young protagonist.
(May)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
book club had this to say:
V: "This book was too precious; and I just loved all of the 80s references."
K: "When he mentioned Poochie?! Too awesome. This book was so cute. I loved everything except for one corny part: the fact that Kiran's skin was actually turning blue."
In unison: "Not necessary, it's true. But everything else was great!"
R: "I could totally envision his talent show costume."
V: "I over-identified with some of his situations, I'm just saying..."
OK, of course our discussion went deeper than that--we're not entirely superficial, geez. We appreciated how the author tied religion in with how Kiran ritualized his secret make-up applications; how Kiran's mother fought with herself when she encouraged Kiran's dancing even though she felt it might be indulging in her son's homosexuality (although it was never spoken of or hinted at); how Kiran and his father's tense relationship was always loving during the last moments of their church service, once again alluding to the idea of ritual. Because I highly recommend Blue Boy, I don't want to divulge any "spoilers," so I'm not going to go into further detail about this coming-of-age story, only to say that Satyal covers so many important/relevant issues in such a unique and thoughtful way, that I believe everyone can read this book and take something special away from it. This book was definitely a winner!
Our April book selection is Of Bees and Mist, by Erick Setiawan. So far one of my book club friends is over-identifying with some of the characters' situations, which could be good or bad. I'm curious and am therefore starting tonight (I know I'm behind, but only because I had to finish another book first--I'll discuss this one in another post later).
God, I love books!
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