Kiran just wants to fit in. Not quite American enough for the kids at school, not quite Indian enough for his family overseas. Not quite “normal” enough for the neighborhood adults, but not able to out loud what makes him different. He fights against the bullying and looks for ways to explore his creativity, but still feels like something is missing. It takes years and even a trip to his family’s homeland in India before both he and those closest to him will understand exactly what makes Kiran who he is and why that is so special.
Rahul Mehta gained notoriety for Quarantine – their collection of short stories about gay men in America with Indian heritage. No Other World is Mehta’s debut novel, following in the same vein as the short stories. This novel does not shy away from difficult topics including underage sex including statutory rape, adultery, prostitution, and more. This novel is not just a coming of age in terms of sexuality, but in terms of culture and ethics. Mehta delivers a beautiful narrative around the power of family but also the value of space to find yourself in the world.
I give No Other World 4 out of 5 stars. I appreciate the culture included in these pages and realistic look at the difficulty faced by immigrants to America and their children in terms of assimilation while still honoring their heritage. I also appreciate the way Mehta approached the taboo around being queer both in American and Indian cultures during this era. However, I had trouble following this book at times and it took a good bit before I really got engaged with the characters or plot. Some pieces of the plot also seemed disjointed, like Kiran watching Chris at night, or the events at the Cathedral. While they may have impacted later events in the book, Mehta didn’t do a great job of tying them back together and the earlier events seemed like stand-alone moments in the characters’ lives. My absolute favorite scenes were those set in India – Mehta’s writing comes alive on those pages and feels like they were given a new freedom in those chapters.
Given the sexual nature of several scenes in the book, I would direct this novel to more mature audiences over 16 years old. I would recommend this book to readers to enjoyed Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner – I kept thinking about it throughout reading the novel. I would also recommend this to book clubs looking for a good choice for Pride Month this June – this has a lot to unpack and a lot to cover from multiple viewpoints.
I chose No Other World for the Read With Lindsey Reading Challenge prompt “by an LGBTQ+ author”. There really are so many great authors that fall into this category and so many great books to choose from. Two books that were extremely important on my reading journey over the past 5 years that would be great options are Mad Honey and The House in the Cerulean Sea. Mad Honey, written by Jodi Picoult and transgender author Jennifer Finney Boylan features two prominent transgender characters and how “normal” society treats them when they both know and don’t know about their status. The House in the Cerulean Sea is a fantasy book that feels like part X-Men, part love story, but all late-in-life coming of age and finding yourself. Both of these books and our feature today help readers see characters in the LGBTQ+ community and make the accessible – something that might not be possible in every American community these days. This is why banning books simply because it contains an LGBTQ+ character is a travesty – we are preventing people from seeing and understanding viewpoints and people that are different than them. Different is bad…just different.
In honor of my eldest child and all those of us out there celebrating this month…Happy Pride! Look for me at a Free Mom Hugs booth a Pride events around Georgia this month and come grab a hug!
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What I’m Reading
- Current print book: Apostle’s Cove, William Kent Krueger
- Current audio book: The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones
- Book I’m most looking forward to: Marrying the Ketchups, Jennifer Close
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