Blue Boy
by Rakesh Satyal
Kensington Publishing Corporation, May 2009
352 Pages
Kiran is a twelve year old boy and a bit of an outcast. At school he is the only Indian-American kid. When he is around other Indian-Americans, they still treat him differently because something about him is odd. He doesn’t like hanging out with the boys and playing ping-pong. Kiran relates more to the girls with their Baby Sitters Club books and Strawberry Shortcake dolls. One afternoon, after Kiran snuck away to play with his mother’s make-up, he gets caught with blue make-up all over his face by his mother. Thinking quickly, he tells her that he was making himself like Krishna, the Hindu deity with blue skin. Krishna is known for his flute playing, his love of butter, and for romancing women. Kiran begins to believe that he is the latest reincarnation of Krishna and begins trying to live his life as the deity would.
I really, really liked this book. It’s probably going to go right up there with Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s I Am Not Myself These Days as a book I will buy a copy of to give to friends. The story itself is kind of a comedy of errors as Kiran becomes obsessed with the lie he originally told and the subsequent lies that follow as he tries to live up to Krishna. There are parts where he is stealing porn to eats tubs of butter. These scenes are enjoyable to read but I often found myself feeling a sense of dread because I knew somehow, at some point, Kiran would get caught. More often than not, that’s exactly what happens.
While I would come right out and call this a coming-of-age story, Kiran does grow as a character and becomes more assure of himself. As he models himself after the Hindu deity, he begins to become more confident in himself. As a result, he manages to alienate the few friends he has and his family too. All his mother and father want is for Kiran to be normal, and it’s hard for them to understand why he acts weird.
This book also does a good job of explaining Hindi culture and traditions to folks like myself who don’t exactly know much about it. There are religious ceremonies and other events that happen in the book. But none of them left me wondering what the heck just happened. Looking back, I liked that this book was so infused with another culture because lately i’ve been reading a lot of books that features Caucasian protagonists who lack any pride in their heritage.
Anyway, to sum up, I really enjoyed this book. You should go get a copy of it.
I face the task of moving for the second time this year. After the last time I realized that perhaps I am something of a book hoarder, and not in the good way. Last time I counted I had over 300 books and only 50% of them I have read. I’ve resolved that I must clear out some of the books that I have either read and have no intention of reading again or ones that I know I will never get around to reading. The problem I face now is what do I do with them?
