Blue Boy

This book was wonderful. As I read I totally felt like I knew Kiran, and I was with him through this year or so of his life. The description and delightful writing really cause you to open your heart and look outside the box of life. I must say my eyes were opened and the world is now a different place. Kudos to the author, this book will stay on my shelf and will be passed on to my children!

(Disclosure: My family knows Rakesh Satyal's family; but I'm 10 years older than him and have seen him once in the last two decades) BLUE BOY covered all-too-familiar ground for me. Like protagonist Kiran Sharma, I was an Indian boy raised in the Midwest. Like Kiran, I observed firsthand, often painfully, the dynamics and context of Indo-American culture: the clinging to Indian-ness, religious customs, education, and exclusively Indian friends; the double whammy of racist white kids and mean fellow Indian ones; the hyper-challenge of fitting in, whether in friendships, family, or country of residence. Unlike Kiran, I was stereotypically boy enough to like baseball, rock music (okay, Whitney Houston too), and mean kids (for self-preservation, if nothing else). And I never wore makeup or did ballet. As far as I recall. That's why BLUE BOY worked so well for me. On one hand it captured beautifully the angst I felt--but denied at the time--about being simultaneously Indian, American, all of the above, and none of the above. On the other, it gave me fresh perspective, through the eyes of remarkably observant, self-aware, and witty Kiran. In this way BLUE BOY opened a double-window for me: into my own experience and that of a boy distinct from me in key ways. As personal as Kiran's journey into the netherworld of junior-high talent shows, doomed sleepovers, city-park-sex voyeurism, and boorish Indian adults and kids is, it's precisely that personal depth which makes it so universal. Some may argue that the book's episodic nature (i.e., it's only loosely driven by a central plot--Kiran's attempts to determine whether he's truly an avatar of Krishna) makes it less compelling; I would counter that BLUE BOY coheres wonderfully around something we all share: our adolescent sojourn, internal and external, to find ourselves and exactly where we fit in. In Kiran's case, the journey, and its highly refreshing destination, is one you'll want to accompany him on.

"Blue Boy" is a funny and bittersweet look at childhood as it verges toward something else. The pleasure in beauty and creation, the feelings of isolation, and the all-consuming curiosity will be familiar to anyone with an honest memory. Wonderful!

Cincinnati is an unlikely place to find a reincarnation of the blue god Krishna. Yet, here we meet an adolescent boy in the early 1990's who paints his face using his mother's make up and believes himself to be just that. This coming of age novel explores the life of Kiran, an American boy who hopes to dazzle his uncreative schoolmates, parents and teachers in his school talent show. He is keenly aware of how different he is from those around him, especially from the Indian peers he sees regularly at religious and social functions. However, his position as an outsider makes him a keen observer able to perceive the foibles and inner-workings of groups in a way that is in some ways advantageous to him. Attempts he makes to ingratiate himself fail. A chance at bonding with two girls at his school turns into a humiliating experience. Bonding over "boobies", his burgeoning group friendship with his hunchback lunch companion and a tall boy quickly goes sour. His art teacher scorns his artistic talent and creativity. His attempt to tattle to family friends about an adolescent affair he witnesses goes horribly wrong. Even the librarians seem to scorn him when he huddles in the corner of the library doing research on the history of Hinduism. Other than his Jewish tutor who appreciates his abilities, Kiran's closest companion turns out to be the doll he reveres and keeps hidden, Strawberry Shortcake. Kiran's journey is both hilarious and heart-rending as it is filled with a keen sense of detail. His tale is indelibly his own. Rakesh Satyal is a natural story-teller leading the reader on a sympathetic journey through the painful steps of adolescence and sexual discovery. Kiran perceives something essential about people through the rhythms of their speech and the theatricality of their actions: "To me, they are more than just girls. They are a manner of speaking, peppered with slang and cast in a joyous lilt." The people he encounters are exotic and fascinating for the boy, but ultimately unknowable. Satyal brilliantly describes Kiran's queer perspective of the world and the ways that this viewpoint causes the boy to feel both joyous and isolated: "Being gay is a self-contained, alternate world." When Kiran notices his skin turning blue, he becomes convinced that the aspects of his personality which set him apart from everyone else must have been imparted upon him from a divine source. The great tragedy at the heart of the novel is that Kiran feels he must become the reincarnation of a deity to display his unique skills and assert the importance of his life. The truth is that Kiran is already a very talented, beautiful and important individual - he just doesn't realize it yet living in a community that doesn't appreciate his unique qualities. Importantly, he doesn't allow himself to be silenced. His parents love him dearly and understand Kiran better than he thinks. Satyal skilfully reveals how Kiran's mother is keenly aware of her son's peculiarities. Tho

Satyal, Rakesh. "Blue Boy", Kensington, 2009. An Inspired Debut Amos Lassen I received my copy of Rakesh Saytal's "Blue Boy" late last week and as I read it I got a completely new perspective of Indian American life that moved me and kept me laughing at the same time. Kiran Sharma is a twelve year Indian American living in the suburbs of Cincinnati. He has the usual obligations of a son in an Indian family--he is expected to be an honor student, to honor his gods, to find a nice Indian girlfriend and, above all, to make his parents proud of him. Yet it is not so easy for him--he is rejected by both Indian and American kids and he occupies his time by putting on his mother's makeup, practicing ballet and playing with dolls. He just can't seem to be "normal". When he has a revelation from the Hindu god, Krishna, the gender-bender, he begins to feel that he is his reincarnation and he begins to mold his life to be Krishna while, at the same time, he struggles with understanding his sexual confusion in light of what he feels is his potential goodness. We learn about humanity in this book by seeing that it is much larger than our own small personal worlds and what we consider to be our own reality. Following Kiran's journey through life we have a great time. It is painful and beautiful written in gorgeous prose. Watching Kiran trying to find what he thinks is normalcy is heartbreaking and we see that is Kiran himself that makes him who he is. There is humor and compassion as well as wisdom in this book and Kiran shows us that it is not always necessary to fit in and that if someone must stand out, he should do so with verve and nerve. He is unlike anyone we have ever read about before and he carries hope, the most important of human emotions. But as different a character as Kiran is, those of us who have had to deal with being different, will see part of himself in Kiran. This is a wonderful book and I cannot recommend it highly enough.