Blue Boy is a tale of a young Hindu boy in America, trying to find his way through the confusion and turmoil of puberty as he transcends from boyhood to adulthood. A fairly straightforward and common synopsis no? No. Satyal's Blue Boy is in fact a flamboyant, effeminate child who likes to secretly put on his Mother's make-up, play with dolls and take ballet lessons. He also likes to look at adult magazine's and partake in voyeurism most sordid, being very childlike in some ways and very adult in others.
On one hand Kieran has his Hindu life, his family dynamics and the wider Indian culture of large parties, food and awkward social conventions. On the other, he has school, talent shows, friends who turn out to be enemies and a heightened sexual awareness. Not fitting in to either life and struggling to find his way on his own is a breeding ground for much of the humour as we follow Kieran on his voyage of self-discovery.
Despite stating otherwise, we felt that much of Kieran's flamboyant and carefree character was a reflection of Satyal's himself and therefore seemed fairly self-indulgent. Especially as Kieran comes to the conclusion that he must be a reincarnation of the Hindu god, Krishna. Adopting Krishna's habits of eating butter, playing the flute and having blue skin, Kieran descends into the bizarre and finds himself in ridiculous situations where we neither feel sorry or despise him.
Blue Boy was a light-hearted, easy read, but not as laugh-out-loud as we had expected. It had moments of comedy as well as poignancy and it provided an interesting insight into another culture, albeit from the perspective of a stupidly smart, blue-tinged adolescent.
March's read is Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and we will be meeting at the Black Lion, Nantwich at 8pm on Sunday April 6th. New members are always welcome to join us! Please contact nantwichbookworms@gmail.com or see the blognantwichbookworms.blogspot.com
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