Bombay Blues

by Tanuja Desai Hidier

Overview

The long-anticipated sequel to Tanuja Desai Hidier's groundbreaking BORN CONFUSED!

Dimple Lala thought that growing up would give her all the answers, but instead she has more questions than ever. Her boyfriend is distant, her classmates are predictable, and a blue mood has settled around the edges of everything she does.It's time for a change, and a change is just what Dimple is going to get - of scenery, of cultures, of mind. She thinks she's heading to Bombay for a family wedding - but really she is plunging into the unexpected, the unmapped, and the uncontrollable. The land of her parents and ancestors has a lot to reveal to her - for every choice we make can crescendo into a journey, every ending can turn into a beginning, and each person we meet can show us something new about ourselves. Tanuja Desai Hidier's BORN CONFUSED gave voice to a new multicultural generation. Now, Bombay Blues explores everything this generation faces today, with a heady mix of uncertainty and determination, despair and inspiration, haunting loss and revelatory love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545633871
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	08/26/2014
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	560
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Tanuja Desai Hidier is the critically acclaimed author of the groundbreaking novels Bombay Blues and Born Confused, which was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and hailed by Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone as one of the best YA novels of all time. Born and raised in the USA, Tanuja is a writer/singer-songwriter now based in London. For more about Born Confused and Bombay Blues, as well as her "booktrack" albums of original songs to accompany them, please visit www.ThisIsTanuja.com.

Editorial Reviews

07/01/2014
Gr 10 Up—In this lengthy sequel to Born Confused (Scholastic, 2002), 19-year-old, American born NYU student, Dimple Lala travels to Bombay with her Indian parents and her longtime DJ boyfriend, Karsh Kapoor, to attend the wedding of a cousin, Sangita. As Dimple immerses herself in family, culture, photography, music, love, and a search for self, Karsh embarks on his own spiritual journey, which draws him away from her. Traditions begin to falter when Sangita abruptly announces she is not marrying but instead pursuing a burgeoning art career. Sangita's sister, Kavita, opens up to the family about her homosexuality. While Dimple struggles to understand her unraveling relationship with Karsh, she has a spontaneous sexual affair with a "Cowboy" she just met. The protagonist and her remarkably progressive desi parents help Sangita and Kavita's traditional parents accept the liberated lives of their daughters. Visits to Bombay locales, temples, and landmarks add vivid authenticity to this middle-class story of self-discovery. Dimple narrates the ups and downs of her spiritual, cultural, sexual, and social journey in a challenging, often rhythmic "blues" style of inventive words, elliptical phrasing, colors, music, and artistic references. While the previous book engaged and informed readers about the protagonist's bicultural angst, this work assumes a familiarity with Hindi terms, Bollywood references, indie music and musicians, and street-art culture that may perplex less knowledgable teens. Nonetheless, for Dimple, exploring Bombay becomes a liberating metaphor for expressing passions and establishing beliefs.—Gerry Larson, formerly at Durham School of the Arts, NC

School Library Journal

08/04/2014
Dimple Lala, the Indian-American shutterbug whose teenage identity crisis and romance with the deejay Karsh were chronicled in Born Confused (2002), returns in this lovingly detailed homage to Bombay. As Dimple and Karsh arrive in India—she for her cousin Sangita's wedding, he to find closure after the death of his father and to break into the local club scene—they become increasingly estranged. Hidier's eye for awkward moments of cultural collision remains strong, as demonstrated in the cringe-inducing scene when the expatriate Karsh attempts to play traditional Punjabi music at a hip club more interested in electronica. When Karsh pushes Dimple away, seeking consolation in a religious sect, Dimple has a fling with a fellow photographer. Meanwhile, her soon-to-be-married cousin is disappearing at odd hours, and Sangita's lesbian sister, Kavita, plans to come out to the family. Once again, Hidier delivers an immersive blend of introspection, external drama, and lyricism, though the densely allusive prose ("my avast went ahoy. I gave my family the slip, took that last ship, akinship to Chuim Village. Left the banks of sense for the undercurrent") may leave some readers in the dust. Ages 14–up. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for BOMBAY BLUES:*"Dense, lyrical . . . [a] meditation on love, family and homecoming." — KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred review"Once again, Hidier delivers an immersive blend of introspection, external drama, and lyricism." — PUBLISHERS WEEKLYPraise for BORN CONFUSED:* "Absorbing and intoxicating, this book is sure to leave a lasting impression." — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, boxed and starred review"Compelling and witty . . . gives voice to a new generation of Americans." — USA TODAY * "A breathtaking experience." — KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred review"Complicated, chaotic, and absolutely charming." — SEVENTEEN An ALA Best Book for Young Adults An ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY Best YA Novel of All Time


*"Many readers may not persevere; those that do may stall out with the multiple false endings as Dimple stutter-stops her way to an ending—but, tragically, they’ll be missing out." Kirkus, starred review

From the Publisher

★ 2014-06-10
Long awaited, anticipated, likely to be debated: Dimple Lala is back.Hidier quietly revolutionized YA literature with Born Confused (2002), and this sequel indicates she’s intent on a repeat. Dimple, now in college and still with beat-dropping Karsh, heads to Bombay ostensibly for a wedding but really for so much more; still, perhaps, born confused, she is in search of home. Dense, lyrical, full of neologic portmanteaus and wordplay (“magnifishence”; “candlecadabra”): This is a prose-poem meditation on love, family and homecoming (or not) posing as a novel. Under the poetry lurks a simple story: a failing relationship and a dreamy but steamy affair; the pain of returning to a place where a loved one no longer lives. Dimple’s narration transforms mundane details into something more meaningful if less comprehensible—laced with the languages and cadences of India and set in the maze of Bombay (never Mumbai), there is a lot to decode and no glossary or map to help (a lack perfectly in keeping with the novel but frustrating nevertheless). Many readers may not persevere; those that do may stall out with the multiple false endings as Dimple stutter-stops her way to an ending—but, tragically, they’ll be missing out.Sankalp, a wish: that readers let the poetry and music transport them; it’s a journey worth making. (Fiction. 15 & up)

Kirkus Reviews