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breadandmushrooms's review
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
vaibhavsh2624's review
5.0
Sometimes you wake up and remember a dream you were having, you try to remember the exact details of what was it but you can't. The more time you spend awake thinking about it, the more you forget it. It's like trying to grasp something vanishing in this air, like running after someone you can't catch up with, like trying to hold on to the lover long lost.
Chaya Bhuvaneswar's short story collection 'White Dancing Elephants' feels the same. It's a collection of seventeen stories set in U.S. and India, revolving around daily lives of hauntingly familiar characters in painfully real situations. The characters are from margins of their respective societies, Indians in America, non heteronormative individuals, people of colour, people from economically weaker sections. It's very important that all these stories should be heard and read. The story collection does justice in portraying obscure sections of society.
From my reading of it, this book isn't everyone's cup of tea and there's no assurance that you will end up liking it. It's not a book trying to make you like it, it's not a hooking read, it won't keep you on the edge of your seats (except when you will fall of it due to shock or horror), but this is a book which, I promise, you won't be able to put down easily.
White Dancing Elephants, the very first story is of a woman grieving the child she lost to miscarriage. Something she had but never really had, something which was equal parts real and abstract. Chaya Bhuvaneswar does an amazing job of portraying the grief and shock of the woman wandering around grieving the loss.
Every story is something different, every story lures you close and then throws you off. It's a promise of warmth but on what cost. All the characters aren't likable, all the stories aren't digestible but you will find yourself connecting to people and situations which you never thought of in your dreams. Your emotions and sympathies might surprise you and betray you even.
These are human stories, nothing is sugar-coated, there's no cushioning, you fall and you fall hard but believe me once you make your peace with the pain, you won't regret reading it.
The only problem I had with the stories is that they end abruptly, leaving hundreds of unanswered questions and a fog of assumptions and speculations. The stories are open ended mostly, which I guess adds to the beauty of it.
.
Now that I am running out of adjectives and on the verge of handing out spoilers, I will wrap up by mentioning a few favourites of mine (in no particular order)
.
• White Dancing Elephants
• The life you save isn't your own
• Jagatishwaran
• The Goddess of beauty goes bowling
• Adristakama
• A Shaker Chair
• Orange Popsicles
.
I highly recommend it to everyone, it's an underrated book which should be talked about by everyone.
I give it 4.5/5 ⭐
Chaya Bhuvaneswar's short story collection 'White Dancing Elephants' feels the same. It's a collection of seventeen stories set in U.S. and India, revolving around daily lives of hauntingly familiar characters in painfully real situations. The characters are from margins of their respective societies, Indians in America, non heteronormative individuals, people of colour, people from economically weaker sections. It's very important that all these stories should be heard and read. The story collection does justice in portraying obscure sections of society.
From my reading of it, this book isn't everyone's cup of tea and there's no assurance that you will end up liking it. It's not a book trying to make you like it, it's not a hooking read, it won't keep you on the edge of your seats (except when you will fall of it due to shock or horror), but this is a book which, I promise, you won't be able to put down easily.
White Dancing Elephants, the very first story is of a woman grieving the child she lost to miscarriage. Something she had but never really had, something which was equal parts real and abstract. Chaya Bhuvaneswar does an amazing job of portraying the grief and shock of the woman wandering around grieving the loss.
Every story is something different, every story lures you close and then throws you off. It's a promise of warmth but on what cost. All the characters aren't likable, all the stories aren't digestible but you will find yourself connecting to people and situations which you never thought of in your dreams. Your emotions and sympathies might surprise you and betray you even.
These are human stories, nothing is sugar-coated, there's no cushioning, you fall and you fall hard but believe me once you make your peace with the pain, you won't regret reading it.
The only problem I had with the stories is that they end abruptly, leaving hundreds of unanswered questions and a fog of assumptions and speculations. The stories are open ended mostly, which I guess adds to the beauty of it.
.
Now that I am running out of adjectives and on the verge of handing out spoilers, I will wrap up by mentioning a few favourites of mine (in no particular order)
.
• White Dancing Elephants
• The life you save isn't your own
• Jagatishwaran
• The Goddess of beauty goes bowling
• Adristakama
• A Shaker Chair
• Orange Popsicles
.
I highly recommend it to everyone, it's an underrated book which should be talked about by everyone.
I give it 4.5/5 ⭐
lezreadalot's review against another edition
3.0
In the forest, no one can stop us from dreaming.
3.5 stars. Another semi-casualty of me reading books that I would normally like a lot, but just not at a time that's great for me? And I don't judge the book too harshly because of that, but it did affect my enjoyment. This is a collection of short stories about people (mostly women) in the Indian diaspora; mostly contemporary, but with a sprinkling of historical and paranormal. None of these are light and all of them are tough, tackling sexual assault, illness, child loss, family upheaval, and different types of trauma. A lot of them showcase women in various stages of academia, highlighting different experiences of being an Indian woman (and other women of colour) in that type of field. I really liked the writing style, especially when the author incorporated different stories and myths within it. A lot of the stories are very casually queer, and all of them in general talk insightfully about relationships and love and betrayal. I really would have enjoyed this a lot more if I was in the mood for it, because the writing really is commendable and the stories are original, but a lot of them just depressed me, haha. :/
Listened to the audiobook as read by Priya Ayyar; a pretty good performance. This is definitely an author I see myself picking up in the future.
Content warnings:
Spoiler
violent rape, physical assault, child sexual abuse, incest, miscarriage, infertility, cancer and cancer related death, other terminal illnessesOh, that you would only kiss me with the kisses of your mouth.
duashamsi's review against another edition
4.0
i love that the women in this collection are real and raw and fully fleshed out people before being South Asian(which they also are)
sakeriver's review against another edition
The stories in this collection are varied in tone and style but are consistently excellent. I find that I’m thinking a lot about the epigraph, which is from Seamus Heaney’s poem “Punishment,” a poem about complicity. And I’m wondering how or whether to see this collection with that frame—many of the stories are about the ways people fail each other, about cruelty or loss or missed opportunity. Lots to think about, for sure. In any case I definitely enjoyed the Asian and queer representation in these stories, and the ways that characters are allowed to be complex, sometimes even contradictory.
zarx's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25
jennms_qkw's review against another edition
5.0
So many short touching stories about our own world about women of color. Take this one slow also.
sujata's review against another edition
3.0
This short story collection was very challenging for me to read. A couple I really loved but most I didn’t Engage with any any real way.
plantonic_friendships's review against another edition
5.0
Engaging and at many times surprising - which isn't easy to do to me. This was one of my faster reads. If I wasn't so busy with work, it would have made it onto my 2019 list of completions.
It's a book I definitely will return to read again in the future.
It's a book I definitely will return to read again in the future.