Burnt Sugar
How do you feel about book blurbs? Sometimes I pay attention to them, like if the blurb is written by an author I enjoy. (I took to heart Ann Patchett’s blurb for Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason…and after finishing the book, I wholeheartedly agreed!) But I often don’t, assuming that maybe they were dashed off or written out of obligation. Maybe that’s a false assumption…but I’m just being honest from a reader’s perspective.
I recently finished Burnt Sugar, the debut novel (not to mention Booker shortlister), by Avni Doshi. It’s a solid book, written in first person from the perspective of Antara, who grew up partly in an ashram with her “wild” mother, who in old age is experiencing memory loss. Yet this is also a very — hmmmm, I don’t really know how to say it — “gauzy” or “ethereal” novel. Despite the fact that Doshi writes in a great detail, I couldn’t really get a handle on her characters — it was as if they were all living out of reach, in a world far from me. (And no, I don’t mean “far” because it’s set in India. I mean almost otherworldly.) For what it’s worth, I felt the exact same way about R.O. Kwon’s The Incendiaries. If I had to discuss characters from either book in any meaningful way, I feel like I’d be talking less about actual people (yes, I know they’re fiction), and perhaps more about something fairytale-esque. Antara is experiencing loss and confusion and betrayal, and Doshi gives us a multitude of examples how. But for me, it was like there was some dissociation going on.
Speaking of dissociation: Maybe I should have known after reading the front blurb by Elizabeth Gilbert: “Dangerous and beautiful.” Describing a book as “dangerous” perks my editor ears up. What, actually, makes a book “dangerous”? To me, this is like describing a book as “wise” or “brave.” (Although I’ll give “brave” a little credit if someone is dealing with a really taboo topic.)
So maybe I’m creating a new genre — Dissociation Fiction. A lot of people probably like it. But personally, I need something written a little more “aggressive” or “confident.” (How’s that for two noncommittal words that perhaps I should use in a book blurb one day?)
originally published on instagram