A Burning: A Read with Jenna Pick

This book was addicting and I finished it in two days. Short chapters make for quick reading. The story was well thought out and also felt like it could be a true story, sad but also the carried the truth of indifference- the easiest path taken so to speak. Overall I liked it and would recommend it.

I hate injustice. And if there's ever been a modern novel that that made me writhe against injustice, it would be "The Burning." The downward spiral of the unjustly accused protagonist against the rising fame and fortune of even her most loyal friends proves that anyone with enough encouragement is able to turn traitor. Though it would be more comfortable to think that government corruption on this scale could only happen in countries like India, I'm reminded by the Apostle Paul that "there is none righteous, not even one."

The synopsis describes this book as part thriller - a young woman, Jivan, thanks to a careless Facebook comment, is accused of a terrorist attack at a train station near her home, which kills 100+. A neighbor, Lovely, whom she is teaching English, could prove to be her alibi, but to do so will cost her everything. And there’s a third character, PT Sir, who finds himself heavily involved in a right-wing political party once taught Jivan.I found this book difficult to read (writing style) so I chose to listen to it and that helped. The story alternates between the three characters and is interspersed with short interludes (random side characters or events). It is very heavily focused on the political system of India and, as a result, I was often confused and unsure of what was going on. Thriller it is not. The only story I was invested in was Jivan’s, and the entanglement of the three characters lives that we are promised never happened in a big way like I was expecting.A Burning does, however, deliver on being a story of class, obstacles, choices, and corruption. Majumdar’s writing is actually quite good, and for that, I give it 2 stars, but ultimately it fell flat for me.

I was a little slow in catching onto the rhythm of this book, but once I did I began to appreciate the story. There is nothing redemptive about this tale. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the book and how the author delves into and develops each player. I am glad I persevered!

A wonderful read, but I found I had to take it slow, because it was desperately depressing. Almost in the paradigm of "a star is born", as some people rise others must fall.  Such is the case of Jivan, Lovely, and PT Sir. Jivan lives in a slum, attends school on a scholarship where PT Sir is a Phys Ed teacher, and tutors Lovely, a hijra, in English.  After witnessing a terror attack, Jivan becomes a catalyst for PT Sir and Lovely to seek change in their own lives.One tenant that is only addressed through subtext rather than context is ethics, morals, and corruption, which seem to be rampantly changing in everyday life for these individuals. They seek justice through the law but live their lives on a daily sheet of cheats and barters...Wagering each action and consequence against some sort of individual tally of life. This can be hard to reconcile with, specifically coming from a Western mentality of right and wrong.

After finishing this book, I've had to sit with it a while to decide how I feel about it. At first, I was angry and disappointed at the ending, but I now find that the final scenes (without providing any plot spoilers here) are what makes the story so compelling and memorable.Set in Kolkata, India, a young Muslim woman Jivan witnesses a terrorist attack on a train and a comment she posted shortly thereafter on Facebook leads to her arrest as the prime suspect. The evidence is thin, but social and political pressure to solve the shocking crime keeps her in the limelight. Her former gym teacher, PT Sir, who has aligned himself opportunistically with a local politician and is impressed with the power she wields, can possibly speak positively on her behalf during her trial, but is conflicted because of pressure from his boss.Lovely, the most interesting character in the novel, is a hijra (transgender person), can provide Jivan with the alibi to exonerate her from the crime, but is also conflicted because doing so could damage her burgeoning career as an actress.The story is told in alternative chapters in the voice of each character. I liked it best when Lovely was speaking because of her vivacious, hopeful, lilting style. The novel exposes the political, judicial and cultural corruption that seems so prevalent in India, as well as the huge economic disparities. There is apparently one system for poor people and another for more prosperous people.The novel builds to a suspenseful, explosive ending, but I can't say anything more about that without spoiling the plot!

Caught in the vicious circle of trial by media and justice by the masses is young Jivan who’s one comment on Facebook lands her in jail. Lovely, a transgender and PT sir are the other main characters starring in this searing portrayal of political, race, caste and class dynamics of India. I only wish the author wrote in fluent English rather than the broken one to depict the class of the characters and their lack of fluency; especially as it entails almost all of them and makes the flow a bit choppy. A must read!

From a literary standpoint, this book is good, if not borderline great. I’ve read comments by others complaining about the different perspective shifts (first person to third person) for different characters, but I really enjoyed it. It allowed me to pick it back up and remember who was currently narrating (not that i had to pick it up often. This is a deceptively short book, with a TON of “blank space” generated by having very short chapters, sometimes only a page and a half long). I did notice the author had a habit of ending chapters with a description of whatever generic sights/sounds/people are occurring outside or around the character (far too many chapters end with whatever mundane city “sound” is happening outside). While overall this creates a good tone and depiction of India, it seems a bit flurid/bombastic. (Good chapters should end with action or drama, that makes you want to keep reading).I went into this book with little clue as to the plot and was shocked by how bleak the story was. It read like a dystopia, made all the more tragic by the fact that it was realistic. There was little redeeming joy in it. For those who read for fun/romance/whimsy, this might be a harrowing novel. Additionally, I felt one minor plot point (a character is conveniently “discovered” as an actress) to be very unrealistic. Another common complaint I read online is that the three story threads do not tie together very well. This is true, however, I’m not sure they were intended to. I think they offer perspective by contrast rather than merging.Overall, this book has alot of merit, and though it saddened me deeply, a mark of a good book is that it makes you feel something.

Let me start by saying that this book is beautifully written. The author portrays her culture with courage, depth, humility, candor, and profound respect. It is one of the world’s worst kept secrets that the government, especially at the lower levels, is often gallingly corrupt. The storyline, although predictable, is still moving and heartbreaking. I appreciated how this book highlighted various fringe/minority groups as well. The main character is Muslim, which is a dangerous way of life in many parts of India. This is even portrayed in a scene of horrendous and fatal violence against a Muslim family whose only crime was eating beef. However, without expounding and in an effort to avoid politicizing this review, I will simply say that while I felt compassion for the character “Lovely,” I did not appreciate the subtle attempt at normalizing gender dysphoria. This is my primary reason for downgrading this novel.This is a “chew and spit” book for me, meaning I did not necessarily feel the need to abandon it, but I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I otherwise would have if it weren’t for certain themes. While it is poignant and well-written, and provides wonderful insight into Indian culture, I do not recommend this book, especially for younger audiences. The mature content and inappropriate portrayal of mental illness are not appropriate for teens and below. For older audiences, I would recommend group reading so that discussion can help with processing and digesting with compassion but Godly discernment.

A Burning by Megha Majumdar“One morning, daylight fails.”A Burning is Megha Majumdar’s first novel, combining a character study, a political tempest, a communal heartbreak. The chapters are brief and punchy, told from three rotating points of view: Jivan, a teenage girl who lives in a Kolkata slum; Lovely, a hijra with acting ambitions who Jivan is tutoring in English; and PT Sir, Jivan’s gym teacher who joins a rising Hindu party movement. Their personal connections are thrown into relief when Jivan gets caught up in a criminal case involving a terrorist attack (which takes place within the first few pages - no spoilers!).“The rules are different on a rainy day.”While the plot of a terrorist attack and its aftermath is the main driver of the novel, I especially loved the urban details of the city of Kolkata. Because Jivan and Lovely are both surviving on the lower rungs of society, the street with its vigor and filth is never very far from view. The hawkers, the dirt, the heat, the crowds - all of it feels tangibly present: “A pillow filler is walking by, twanging his cotton-sorting instrument like a harp.” A great deal of the novel takes place in a prison and that whole dire ecosystem feels painfully real: “It is as peaceful as it gets in a cage.”I found the main characters compelling, if a little simply drawn (a bit like icons of themselves). For instance, it came as a surprise to me that Jivan was Muslim because nothing in her family’s cultural or religious traditions (or her name or her speech patterns) hints at this. Her religion is a critical pivot in the plot but we’re simply told what she believes. However, there’s enough else going on to keep a reader thrillingly occupied. Majumdar’s gift is in showing how poverty and communal strife can grow slowly yet inexorably into something quite frightening. As different as America might be from India, when it comes to how both countries treat those accused of terrorism, there’s not much moral or ethical ground between them.“There is a lot about life that the law misses.”At the individual level, the characters in A Burning are faced with choices that bear upon their personal lives, liberties, and ambitions. Majumdar refers to “the riot economy” and how the persecution of certain groups leads to profit for others. I am reminded of the choices American citizens have made to look away from systemic racism, gun violence, immigrant children locked in cages, the poisoning of water and land and air. There are many roads to fascism and no country is immune, even with constant vigilance. For me, literature plays a huge role in that apprehension. A Burning is a quick read, and I found myself in tears at the end. I’ll happily read more by the author.

excellent first novel by social anthropologist- novelist born in Kolkata (Calcutta) and educated at Harvard and Hopkins, written in three voices, a Muslim girl from the slums who is wrongly arrested and jailed with no way out, her hijra (transgender, third gender) friend who has to chose between slim hopes for a film career and providing the alibi which only possibly might free her friend, and their primary school male gym teacher who falls deeper and deeper into the personal rewards of abetting and doing the dirty work of a fundamentalist Hindu party that wins the election. The language is rich and evocative, giving the feeling of the worlds inhabited despite being in English.

"A Burning" is beautiful with spare prose and intertwined stories illuminating aspiration, class structure and nationalism. The Indian setting moves us away from familiar depictions and customs of the themes, making the focus sharper.Jivan is a slum-living shop girl who witnesses a terrorist attack on a commuter train in which 100 people die and hundreds are burned. A seemingly innocuous comment in a Facebook conversation makes her a target of investigation and prosecution.PT Sir is a physical education teacher at the less than average girls school Jivan attended. Essentially seduced by a free snack offered because of a political party emblem he picked up at a rally, he stumbles on a career ladder with access to power and wealth, steps on and keeps climbing.Lovely is a hijra, a transgender woman who is at once an outcast who begs for her living and, with her sisters, sought after for blessings of babies and bridal couples. Jivan was teaching her English to improve her chances for the film career she was so confident could be hers.This is a compelling debut novel. It's compact and makes the most of braiding the stories and revealing more and more of the corruption, constriction and success.

This novel fails (and fails badly) for a few reasons.First, the author never satisfyingly braids the three storylines together. Remarkably, the three main characters are only in the same room with each other once, and in this scene they can't see each other due a curtain separating them. How do you build conflict between characters who never interact? Answer: you don't.Second, the transgender woman's thread is laughably irrelevant. The author appears to have snacked on an edgy, hot-button issue then decided she didn't want it for an entree. The character itself, Lovely, has no interest in the condemned girl and barely bats an eye at the moment of her Big Moral Challenge (become a movie star or take up with a convicted terrorist--hmm, tough choice). If a major character doesn't care about the plot she's in, why should we? And why is her interior voice delivered to us in broken English? Does this Indian person really think in broken English and not her native tongue? Of course not. Perhaps the author, whose sentences are roughly at the Dick-and-Jane level, felt more comfortable in this mode; or perhaps thought it would sound cooler. The problem is it's fatally illogical.Third, the characters are totally unappealing, but not interestingly unappealing. The transgender person is vapid and shallow and remains so throughout the novel. The condemned girl is angry and hopeless and remains so throughout the novel. The gym teacher is the only one of the three who changes, but his arc is obvious from the get-go and proceeds basically unimpeded throughout (his own moral crisis is as brief as tea on a horse).My question is, who stands behind this drivel and why? Like the condemned girl in the novel, it's time people made their voices heard, in this case decrying the phony publishing business that packages amateurism like this and calls it literature.

Liked the overall story lines. Narration from one character who is learning English is not entirely useful. The story is based on lower middle class of India where English is not general medium anyway. Therefore just having one character's narration all in present/past continuous did not play out well in my mind.I also found, bit lack of originality. Quite a few of incidents are based on true news paper reports. This book should not be be categorized as 'political thriller' it should be better 'political drama'.. minor details anyway....but again it is a good read and highly recommend. Definitely paints a bleak and yet real situation.

I enjoy reading books where chapters are written in different characters voices, recounting the same events but with very different perspectives and personal truths. A Burning is heartbreaking in that the accusations, conviction and death of an innocent young woman is used as a political stepping stone for one, a movie career for another. These “promotions in life” are chosen over telling the truth, being a person of honor, and protecting the innocent. The woman who was falsely accused is treated as a non-person, a scape-goat, an easy patsy because of her youth and naïveté. The supporting characters chose their own advancement over truth and righteousness - thus condoning and participating in the continuing decline of humanity. Although they try pardon themselves by thinking they can chose other battles, or that they deserve the favor bestowed on them because of their own past injustices, inevitably they are only solidifying the system of greed, intolerance, and those with money will always come out on top.

After listening to an interview by its author, I enjoyed reading this novel. Set in India which is a country I have visited multiple times (although not in the city where the novel is set), I enjoyed various perspectives of the three main characters. Each character was clearly depicted and interrelated in more ways than one. I enjoyed getting a glimpse local Indian politics as well as its depressing prison system. The author was realistic and offered an honest picture of Indian society and politics, and the struggles for those who try to move up in society. The novel was a fast and accessible read short chapters which propelled the story along at amazingly fast paste. An excellent debut novel by American writer of Indian descent.

My wife ordered this book based on its reviews and her interest in fiction books about modern India. My interest has been more non-fiction and about colonial India and the Mongols rule. Yet, Ms. Maiumdar’s book caught my interest. The publisher says Maiumdar is a Harvard Grad who was born in India and now lives in New York City. This is her debut novel.The first thing a reader will notice is the narrative style of the writing. It has three major characters whose voices change from first to third person. The book is written in declarative short sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. This took me some getting used too. But I slowly realized that the characters, the social settings, and plot were as vivid as a long Dicken’s novel. Indeed, the main pleasure of reading this book is its language and style. The book's structure enhances the character's perspectives and I am sure each will stick in my head for a long time. The plot examines the use of social media (in this case Facebook) and how it can lead to intolerance and misunderstanding. The suspense of the book is the march of each character’s self-interest.The book is at once depressing and also a testament that all lives matter (in this case Muslim lives). Its characters are all underclass (even the one who is a teacher). They are slum dwellers who dream for the middle class. At times, I thought the book’s depictions were stereotypes. Perhaps not, but if this is how it is, it’s a sad time for India.Just a bit of the plot: The main character is Jivan, who witnesses a terrorist attack on a train that kills 100. She is a schoolgirl who lives in a slum next to a major garbage dump. She is taking a bundle of books to a younger girl she is teaching English. That girl’s name is Lovely and she dreams of becoming a movie star. Jivan’s teacher also yearns for a better life, a middle-class life. He knew Jivan had great potential… why then did she drop out of school? She should not have been on Facebook. Jivan is arrested. These three: know she is innocent.

As written in other reviews A Burning is a beautifully written and potent novel with several important themes. It truly captures the minds and hearts of each of the three main characters, as well as the spirit of the India that the author wants to present. Fair warning, what you will discover about human nature within these pages is not pretty. Although there are moments of levity and/or beauty, this is ultimately a very tragic story. It will leave you saddened and infuriated without the satisfaction of redemption. That said, A Burning is a brilliant commentary on human nature, familial love, politics and how fear and influence can dictate justice.

Though sent in contemporary India, the thoughts, feelings, and issues are universal truths that are reflected in today's Black Lives Matter. The covid-19 epidemic has also pointed out the disparity and injustice in the world. How do you persist when you live in a society that does not recognize you while you have vast hopes and dreams for your future? How do you persist when you have an oppressive society that does not acknowledge who you are so you battle to rise above your circumstances? These ruminations are interwoven in this book as reflected in 3 characters who each have a distinct voice. Jivan, a Muslim girl, living in a Kolkata slum is accused of a terrorist crime she did not commit but was convicted and sentenced to jail. Where was the evidence and was she sentenced because of her poor underprivileged status ? Or was it religious circumstances observe in the religious struggles between the Hindus and Muslims? PT Sir is a teacher desirous of power and becomes attached to a right wing party and advances while compromising his values. Finally there is Lovely, a delightful hijra who though not book smart, lives with determination, wanting passionately to become a famous actress. They all know Jivan and their connection to her becomes an important strand. One of the threads that ties these characters together is their grit, inventiveness, and intelligence, something I have observed in my few times in India. This is a wondrous novel that highlights gender differences, class struggles, and the corruption of a system .Does anyone recognize this? Another do not miss book!

A Burning does so many things beautifully - a compelling momentum, believable characters and dialogue, believable action, and granular details that make reading the book feel like traveling, to someone else’s street, someone else’s home, in full texture as if you could feel the air on your skin and the actions all around you. It’s a book that feels exceptionally real.Jivan is a well-developed character whose personal ambitions, although simple, are thwarted by a system that doesn’t support some of her most basic needs. She has a striving and self-assurance over being able to create a more comfortable life for herself and her family. Unfortunately, her individual efforts may be crushed by the unequal and exploitative nature of her society.