Sunday, April 30, 2017

***The Color of Our Sky: A Novel, by Amita Trasi

•LibraryThing.com Early Reviewer's Edition
•Indian author-debut novel

The Color of Our Sky is a fictionalized portrait of India’s devdasis servants of god. They are lower caste women who, from a prepubescent age, serve as prostitutes in the name of god.  Traditionally it was a revered position.  Today, these women are shunned by the culture that created them.  The plight of these women is fraught with abuse and murder, and is ripe with opportunities for child trafficking.

Trasi handles her subject matter with the care and passion it deserves and clearly has skill for her craft.  I liked her writing style, yet two things kept gnawing away at me as I read her novel.  First, she has the tendency to get carried away with her prose, rendering it overtly melodramatic.  Second, despite all thematic twists and turns, the ending was easy to predict.  How Trasi deals with this in her future work will ultimately define her writing as genre fiction or literary fiction, both valid forms of fiction.  A praiseworthy debut novel.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

****The Postman's Fiancé, by Denis Thériault

The Postman's Fiancé, by Denis Thériault, to be published 06/2017, translated from the French by John Cullen, French Canadian Literature.

LibraryThing.com Early Reviewer's book

This was a delightful and original book; one you cannot put down until fully devoured. Theriault’s writing style is elegant, his characters opulent and his descriptions enticing. His work has depth and mystery with meaning and a little verve.  Reality is skillfully suspended as one follows the protagonists on their way to love. However, before you read The Postman’s Fiancé, reading its predecessor, The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, is a must.  They are so beautifully intertwined; I cannot imagine reading one without the other.  The Postman’s Fiancée completes the first novella and together, they are extraordinary. I highly recommend this creative Canadian-French author!

Post-note: This book and the movie, While You Were Sleeping, have nothing in common except a very basic concept. They are two very different tales. Enjoy!