Mathangi Subramanian

I read this one because the author did an event at my local bookstore (she was lovely!) and I was happy to support her and the store. I did not have the opportunity to read the book before the event so couldn’t ask questions but I did enjoy the discussion between her and the Indian women in attendance who talked a lot about the disparities between girls and boys in Indian culture and how it’s been changing over their lifetimes. They also shed light on Hijra people in India which I’d never heard of before and they play a small role in this story.

But: Back to the book!

It took me a little while to get a handle on all of the characters and to learn why each one was special but by the end I certainly did care about all of their fates. It’s almost impossible for me to really understand the situation they are in and how their lives can be so different from mine where even basic elementary school education is a luxury and they have parents who can’t read or write and they live in a slum that could be bulldozed at any moment.

The more I think about it, the more I’m realizing how much I liked this book.

… (altro)

A People's History of Heaven is about friendship and loyalty. Set in a Bangalore slum nicknamed "Heaven" that's about to be bulldozed, the story moves back and forth in time to tell the stories of a group of teenage girls and their mothers and grandmothers. For generations, the women of Heaven have survived and thrived because they have worked together, supported each other, and formed a large, extended family.

The story is told from the point of view of the teenage girls, but no one girl is identified as the narrator: "There are five of us girls: Deepa, Banu, Padma, Rukshana, and Joy. Born the same year in the same slum. In the same class at school." Each girl's story is told in the third person by a first-person plural, omniscient, unidentified "we," the group as a whole. It's a unique way to emphasize the importance of the group's identity to their survival, and I loved it.

I was less in love with the author's tendency to use incomplete sentences as a narrative device. She does it a lot and it makes the whole book sound breathy and rushed, as if we were catching snatches of narration here and there instead of reading the story whole. It would work if it were used more sparingly, but so much of the narration is just strings of incomplete phrases that it starts to feel repetitive and irritating.

Regardless, A People's History is a wonderful book that will make you want to hug your friends and maybe even your mom.… (altro)

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Subramanian-Les-toits-du-paradis/1190694

> LES TOITS DU PARADIS, de Mathangi Subramanian. — Mathangi Subramanian fait partie de celles qui abordent tranquillement les réalités du quotidien au sein d’un bidonville.
Elle situe son roman, Les toits du paradis, à Bangalore, plus connue comme la Silicon Valley du sous-continent.
Elle y met en scène des femmes de caractères ; et de générations différentes « à qui on ne la fait plus », toutes aussi intelligentes et courageuses face à l’adversité, en l’occurrence la plus récente et ravageuse : la destruction de leurs maisons par un bulldozer.
Les héroïnes sont cinq adolescentes, très différentes de caractères et d’orientation, farouchement solidaires, décidées à répondre à la souffrance et à l’injustice par l’amitié, l’amour, la bienveillance, l’entraide, soutenues et éclairées par l’exemple de leurs aînées.
Le misérabilisme n’a pas cours dans ce livre, ode à la fraternité joyeuse et à la résistance active… Éditions de l'Aube. (Isabelle MORIN-LARBEY et Shamms TCHAO)
—Les Carnets du Yoga, (385), Mars 2020… (altro)