Book Short
A Burning: Thrilling debut novel
Review by Stephanie Miller
A teenage girl posts something foolish on Facebook. She is summarily arrested as a terrorist, tossed in prison, and held in frightful conditions for months waiting for what is essentially a sham trial. There are people who could help her, people who could stand up for her and speak to her honesty, industry, kindness, and difficult childhood. They do not do so.
This despairing scenario happens to an impoverished girl named Jivan in India, where the class system as well as the eager ignorance of public opinion are both ready to crush her. It’s a hard story to read, because this kind of inadequate justice is just as plausible in the United States for the underprivileged and immigrants. Yet, “A Burning,” the stunning debut novel by Megha Majumdar who grew up in Kolkata, India, is also easy to read, hilariously clever, and a beautifully sensitive portrait of people who are each simply striving for their share of the vast riches of their nation.
Striving for your own, however, means you must ignore the pleas for help from others.
PT Sir is not well liked as a gym teacher at Jivan’s secondary school. He joins a right-wing political party, where his ambitious choices link his rise to Javin’s fall. When his chance to help Jivan arrives, PT Sir is told, “Legal right? You have much to learn about politics.” He chooses the latter — and his own place in the party — over Jivan’s legal rights.
Lovely is a social outcast with endearing warmth and humor. Her alibi could be key to Javin’s defense, but sharing it would immediately destroy her own aspiration to escape the slum as an actress. At her make-it-or-break-it audition, she thinks of Jivan in her dark, dank cell, knowing that no one is coming to help her. The shame, heartbreak, and love in her performance bring everyone on the set to tears.
Javin’s mother is loyal to her daughter, despite what it costs her in the aspersion of the neighbors. But she has no resources or education. She sacrifices all she has to help Javin orchestrate having her side of the story told, but they are thwarted by the way Javin’s naive and honest words are twisted in order to garner the highest level of social sensation possible.
Most of us believe we would do the right thing whenever we can. But when my most precious dreams are at stake, how would I really choose?
Micro Shorts
‘The Art of Resistance,’ by Justus Rosenberg
This fast-paced memoir is the thrilling story of an Eastern European teenager’s escape from the Holocaust and four years in the French Underground. Written when Rosenberg was 99 years old (in 2020), this is an incredibly unsentimental telling of intrigue, danger, politics, personal intelligence and wit, and quite a lot of death-defying luck. Along the way, we meet some of the many artists and intellectuals he helped escape.
‘Again and Again,’ by Jonathan Evison
Who is Geno Miles? An old man, suffering from delusions? Or a true anomaly? Namely, a thousand year old person who has been reincarnated dozens of times and is still searching for his one true love. This creative and historically fantastic story is gripping and astonishing. It’s written so well that while you know it can’t be true, you feel it just might be.
‘The Book Spy,’ by Alan Hlad
Another of Hlad’s many WW2 stories, this is based on the mostly forgotten group of American librarians who were hired by the nascent CIA. Their mission: to capture foreign newspapers on microfilm for the Library of Congress. It was a short step from that “innocent” documentation to becoming a double-agent spy for plucky, ambitious, and resourceful Maria Alves. This is a light read. While I found Maria’s bold adventures somewhat unbelievable, I learned in the acknowledgements that Hlad combined several real life librarian-spy histories to create her character.
‘Old Maine Woman,’ by Glenna Johnson Smith (Maine Author!!)
Born in 1920 in Ashville, Maine, Johnson Smith wrote these enjoyable columns for Echoes and Yankee magazines in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. They are funny, sensitive, and full of home-spun wisdom, as you’d expect from a hardy Mainer. There’s a bit of E.B. White in her observations of local characters. I especially enjoyed her writing on the hard work of growing older.
‘The Lions of Fifth Avenue,’ by Fiona Davis
I picked this up at the main New York Public Library building. Which is also the setting of this inter-family story of two strong women. Living a generation apart, each struggles to become her true self and live a contented life. Each has to solve a mystery of disappearing manuscripts, books, and other historical assets which threaten their career and social survival… And may keep them from the ones they love.
