Los Angeles Times review (well, more of a reviewlette)

[rachelmanija]

Discoveries
By Susan Salter Reynolds

All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India
Rachel Manija Brown
Rodale: 352 pp., $23.95

WHEN Rachel Manija Brown was 7, her Baba-worshiping parents took her from Los Angeles (pet rats, pet toads, pet rabbits, goodbye!) to live on an ashram in Ahmednagar, India. Brown's mother, obsessed and fearful, believed that this was best for her child, who spent five years completely miserable in a school called Holy Wounds, run by British nuns, where she was punished and picked on by other students. When she was 12, her father left the "bizarro ashram," and Brown persuaded him to take her back to Southern California. She returned to India every summer until she was 17, then not again until she was in her mid-20s, when questions about her mother's and her own childhood demanded answers. "All the Fishes" is equal parts brave modern humor and bravely met sadness. No family ghosts will be banished by a mere 30-year-old wielding a pen.

http://www.calendarlive.com/books/bookreview/cl-bk-reynolds25sep25,0,3872634.story?coll=cl-bookreview

This has the seemingly obligatory factual error (the nuns were Indian, not British) and I'm not sure what to make of the last sentence, but hey, generally positive mention in the "LA Times!"

Comments

[larryhammer]

I do not understand that final sentence. I suspect an editorial intervention has created a nonsequitur.

---L.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Maybe she meant, "Brown may think she's banished the family ghosts by writing her memoir, but I bet they still haunt her. The best she can do is bravely face her permanent sadness."

[larryhammer]

That "mere" doesn't fit that interpretation.

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I'm up to the year 2000 visit. Gosh it's good.

I had to rip myself away to get to my desk things.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

That's an odd sentence.

Amazon tells me the book is now backordered from Rodale; I hope that's good news. (My preordered copy had gotten stuck in the system.)

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

That is a strange sentence. I don't understand it, either.

[canandagirl.livejournal.com]

"...a mere 30-year-old wielding a pen." Almost sounds spiteful. Maybe she thinks you're a nutcase. Do you want Ellie and I to beat her up for you?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

If it wasn't for my black-and-purple toe, which is still making me hobble pathetically today, I would indignantly reply that I can lay on my own beatings. But you two have fun.

PS. If you think that was spiteful, check out the review I got on amazon... she not only hated the book, she hated me-as-a-kid. Though to be fair, a lot of people hated me when I was a kid.

[canandagirl.livejournal.com]

I just went to take a look at it. It's a little harsh. "Well, no wonder you got picked on at school, you were a cold and unfeeling brat?" (I'm paraphrasing and being sarcastic). No story to follow? Did she know she was reading a memoir?

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I suspect the reviewer means that writing a memoir at 30 will not banish family ghosts, with the implication that doing so much later in life might have a chance.

[ewein2412]

yeah, I'd agree with that; I think they mean that you're too young to properly lay the ghosts to rest, either for yourself or for anyone else, not because you're not sensitive or mature enough, but because not enough time has passed and a lot of the ghosts are still actively haunting.