{"id":44222,"date":"2018-07-23T11:12:15","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T15:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=44222"},"modified":"2018-07-11T20:35:42","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T00:35:42","slug":"immigrant-montana-amitava-kumar-library-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/immigrant-montana-amitava-kumar-library-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar [in Library Journal]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-43992 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/05\/Immigrant-Montana-Amitava-Kumar-BookDragon-530x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"530\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/05\/Immigrant-Montana-Amitava-Kumar-BookDragon-530x800.jpg 530w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/05\/Immigrant-Montana-Amitava-Kumar-BookDragon.jpg 630w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/>Blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction, Vassar English professor\/journalist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amitavakumar.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Amitava Kumar<\/a>\u2019s (<em>Husband of a Fanatic<\/em>) second novel is a hybrid text that moves seamlessly between his partially autobiographically-inspired Indian immigrant graduate student Kailash and numerous real-life figures and events.<\/p>\n<p>Kailash arrived in New York as a graduate student two decades previously, and his transformation from foreigner to citizen is reflected in his very name, adapted to Kalashnikov \u2013 an iconic Kumar irony because a Soviet assault weapon is more American than the holy pilgrimage site Kailash&#8217;s name suggests \u2013 or truncated to the easier AK or just 47. Kumar explicates Kailash&#8217;s &#8220;in-between&#8221; immigrant journey through his loves, his friends, and his mentors.<\/p>\n<p>In what is cleverly presented as a self-defense before an imaginary judge, Kailash recalls and challenges his memories, underscoring both his assimilation and his rebellion.\u00a0Kumar enhances his shrewd, agile prose with (seemingly) disparate images \u2013 think exhibits for the defense, including Dr. Ruth, a Picasso painting, a handwritten John Berger missive, a monkey astronaut \u2013 to create an affectingly collaged portrait of a searching young man.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verdict<\/strong>: Cosmopolitan readers interested in multicultural literary fiction \u2013 \u00e0 la Kiran Desai, Ha Jin, and Hanif Kureishi \u2013 will find affinity in this modern <em>Bildungsroman<\/em> of an erudite global citizen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: modified from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/bookverdict.com\/details.xqy?uri=Product2018-07-01-4476109.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Fiction,&#8221; <em>Library Journal<\/em>, July 1, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction, Vassar English professor\/journalist Amitava Kumar\u2019s (Husband of a Fanatic) second novel is a hybrid text that moves seamlessly between his partially autobiographically-inspired Indian immigrant graduate student Kailash and numerous real-life figures and events. Kailash arrived in New York&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,52,53,6535,17,18],"tags":[3075,83,6608,58,10,11,51,8020,25,70,13],"class_list":["post-44222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-indian","category-indian-american","category-repost","category-south-asian","category-south-asian-american","tag-amitava-kumar","tag-assimilation","tag-bookdragon","tag-coming-of-age","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-identity","tag-immigrant-montana","tag-immigration","tag-library-journal","tag-love"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar [in Library Journal] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/immigrant-montana-amitava-kumar-library-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar [in Library Journal] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction, Vassar English professor\/journalist Amitava Kumar\u2019s (Husband of a Fanatic) second novel is a hybrid text that moves seamlessly between his partially autobiographically-inspired Indian immigrant graduate student Kailash and numerous real-life figures and events. Kailash arrived in New York...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/immigrant-montana-amitava-kumar-library-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-23T15:12:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-12T00:35:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/05\/Immigrant-Montana-Amitava-Kumar-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"951\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/immigrant-montana-amitava-kumar-library-journal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","og_description":"Blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction, Vassar English professor\/journalist Amitava Kumar\u2019s (Husband of a Fanatic) second novel is a hybrid text that moves seamlessly between his partially autobiographically-inspired Indian immigrant graduate student Kailash and numerous real-life figures and events. 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