Reviews

Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir by Rajiv Mohabir

howl_calcifer's review

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emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

tarduslectorum's review

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4.0

Beautifully written, i cried a few times while reading it. It's a book for any child of the hindustani diaspora. about identity, sexuality, self-worth, ancestry. It's hard for second gen(?) kids to feel connected to anything and this book makes me think that feeling connects us i guess

charismae_reads's review

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emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

suswana's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

mateusjobim's review

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challenging dark slow-paced

2.0

anna_kristine's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

2.0

diyanux's review

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challenging emotional

3.5

supervocalic's review

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4.0

Somehow the author has found a way to beautifully honor his ancestors whilst his own family rejects both him and his efforts. I’m thankful for stories like this of resilience and acceptance of self. In an afterword interview, Rajiv says “I’ve stopped trying to guess what they feel about me.” May we all arrive to a peace like this.

uto's review

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5.0

Finally done!! An anticipated read that I've been putting off for a while, but I'm glad I finally got around to it! It was a wonderful read, my heart is heavy, and I will maybe add more to this review once I've processed my emotions. I recommend it.

seneca6891's review

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2.0

This read like three memoirs. One memoir is Rajiv trying to reconnect to his family’s pre-indenture past, another explores what it means to be gay and Indo-Caribbean, and the third is a dysfunctional family memoir. The memoirs never really meet each other in a cohesive way. Perhaps the book’s disjointed structure is intended to mirror the author’s fractured identities.

The book is at times repetitive, and I found myself growing impatient with the experimental structure (prose, poetry, songs and poetry in Hindi/Creole).

A lot of what the author intended to do seems unresolved. We are told he wants to grapple with what it means to be gay and Guyanese (hence the title “Antiman”) but his Guyanese identity feels like the least explored element in the book.