A review by lindentea
Identitti by Mithu Sanyal

challenging funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

To students in Intro to Postcolonial Literature classes in anywhere between 15-45 years this will probably be a banger. As of right now it felt like doing my college coursework, scrolling through Twitter, and occasionally getting texts from friends about their situationships, but like in a way where everyone has a little bit of that Smith College insufferableness going on, including the reader. Like I'm both smart enough and chronically online enough to get this (not as in understand but as in read and be like "omg wow Mithu Sanyal you are cooking," and like sometimes I was but other times I was like ok... and...) But I finished this several days ago and I still don't know what to think about it to be very completely honest because while I love the concept of a novel like this -- one that's very much in conversation with academia and academic texts -- , I was intrigued by the premise, AND I absolutely flew through the first half... the second half literally just became people sitting around and talking in what felt like a void. Like everyone was their own Possible Postcolonialist Perspective, insane white woman included, and they would Conveniently walk into the room and sit down on Saraswati's saffron-yellow couch and Express Their Perspective on the Conversation they walked into. The ending being inspired by a REAL
mass shooting
also left a bad taste in my mouth, no matter how symbolically poignant it was that
German officials and media actually called it a racist hate crime.
 
Somewhat unrelated, but made me want to read WAYY more Turkish-German literature especially re: race, racism, & identity!! I know they're more racialized in the context of German society than I am in the US but damn that would be good to put myself in contact with re: identity formation!!