Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place

Neema Avashia's experiences, growing up as the child of Indian immigrants in Appalachia, as she notes in the book, are incredibly unique! Her storytelling about how her unusual upbringing has shaped her experiences later in life questions the lines along which identity is normally divided in the consideration of political and social identities. I really enjoy the ways in which she writes about her childhood and the adults who loved and protected her.

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maceydowns's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.25

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carriepond's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

Another Appalachia is a memoir of essays in which author Neema Avashia, who is Indian and queer, reflects on growing up in West Virginia.

I really liked this essay collection. I appreciated hearing about Avashia's experiences, which she recounts with equal parts love, respect, and gentle critique. And for all the parts of Avashia's upbringing that were not familiar to me, a white woman married to a man whose religion and culture were very much the dominant culture growing up, Avashia's feelings of simultaneously belonging and not-belonging and the way she grapples with loving a place and a people who do not always love her back (relationships that both "nourished and starved" her) resonated with me nonetheless.

This is a slim essay collection with a lot to like. Recommend for people who like personal essays and especially for those looking for nuanced portrayals of what it means to be Appalachian.

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