{"id":1745,"date":"2014-12-17T01:34:03","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T09:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/?p=1745"},"modified":"2014-12-17T01:34:03","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T09:34:03","slug":"book-review-she-of-the-mountains-by-vivek-shraya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/book-review-she-of-the-mountains-by-vivek-shraya\/","title":{"rendered":"Book review: She of the Mountains, by Vivek Shraya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Shraya-She-of-the-Mountains.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Shraya-She-of-the-Mountains-166x206.png\" alt=\"Shraya She of the Mountains\" width=\"166\" height=\"206\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1746\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Shraya-She-of-the-Mountains-166x206.png 166w, https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Shraya-She-of-the-Mountains-282x350.png 282w, https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Shraya-She-of-the-Mountains.png 352w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 166px) 100vw, 166px\" \/><\/a>Shraya, Vivek. She of the Mountains. Illustrations by Raymond Biesinger. Arsenal Pulp Press. 2014. $18.95. 149p. PB. 9781551525600.<\/p>\n<p>Simultaneously retelling the Hindu story of creation and the story of a boy and the girl he loves, She of the Mountains weaves mythology and reality together until lines blur and the reader sees both as one story. The main character, referred to only as ?he,? is oblivious to the obvious fact that he is gay. As he becomes aware of his own orientation, the reader also watches the relationship between Parvati, the Hindu mother of the universe; Shiva, the lord of destruction; and Parvati?s son, Ganesh. <\/p>\n<p>Shraya effectively tells a large story is a short book. This brief tale has merit in both its retelling of Hindu mythology and its story of the love that ?he? and ?she? share. Intentionally ambiguous, this story avoids much of the typical character development and plot devices other stories share. <\/p>\n<p>The literary writing style of this short novel will discourage readers accustomed to more standard plot-driven writing; nonetheless Shraya?s work would fit well in a public or academic library included with a collection of Hindu tales. <\/p>\n<p>Jenni Frencham, Librarian<br \/>\nCesar Chavez Middle School, Hayward (CA)  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shraya, Vivek. She of the Mountains. Illustrations by Raymond Biesinger. Arsenal Pulp Press. 2014. $18.95. 149p. PB. 9781551525600. Simultaneously retelling the Hindu story of creation and the story of a boy and the girl he loves, She of the Mountains weaves mythology and reality together until lines blur and the reader sees both as one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1197,"featured_media":1746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}