This Beautiful, Ridiculous City

November 18, 2024
“Everyone writes about New York with so much tenderness, even when they are sick of it,” Sohini observes in the opening pages of her reflective, rambling debut. Born in a suburb of Calcutta, Sohini grows up immersed in a heady blend of Indian and Western culture but is particularly fascinated by New York City as depicted in American novels and films. As a young adult escaping an abusive relationship, she takes the plunge and moves to the Big Apple. Though her account is peppered with quotations from writers who lived in New York, including Joan Didion, Fran Liebowitz, and Dylan Thomas, it’s just as much about India and the ways Sohini balances her homeland with her chosen home. She draws luscious spreads of food to contrast her favorite family dishes with the international cuisine she encounters in America, and cutaway diagrams detail the pros and cons of living in a busy multigenerational house versus a two-person apartment. Much of the story is told in bold full-page compositions anchored by symbolic imagery: Sohini entering a door in the spine of a book, windows opening to reveal moments in time. The narrative builds to no great revelations, but those equally entranced by the mythology of New York will enjoy themselves. Agent: Leah Pierre, Ladderbird Literary Agency.

December 13, 2024

Sohini's first full-length graphic novel is a lovely, personal paean to the unique charms and comforts of New York City. Sohini puts her own experience in the context of her cultural forbears seeking answers and inspiration in the United States' foremost metropolis, with influences as far-reaching as Sylvia Plath, Alison Bechdel, and Shah Rukh Khan. As an adult immigrant from India, she offers a unique perspective on New York's allure for her personally--as an escape from a difficult, destructive relationship in her twenties, and as a chance to find her own space after living in close, often suffocating physical proximity to her extended family. She realizes, critically, that New York also represents the full realization of a capitalist, globalist notion of success that grew exponentially in India in the 1990s, one embodied in the Bollywood films of the time. She sees too how this widespread capitalist fantasy has led to New York City's increased gentrification. Sohini's wide-ranging reflections are accompanied by visual vignettes of the city's sunsets, apartment mise en scene, well-known landmarks, and sensual (often food-based) delights. VERDICT A gently journalistic approach to graphic memoir. Sohini's love of New York and evolving understanding of her self within its powerful context work in concert for a radiant read.--Emilia Packard

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2025
Sohini's author-illustrator debut is an intimate graphic memoir centering New York City as the source of her personal healing and creative birth. She moves back and forth between her ("outermost") suburban Calcutta upbringing with its colonial education to her immigration eight years ago that saved her very life. After devastating losses, an abusive relationship, and three suicide attempts, she fled to New York (with which she was already long familiar), fueled by an enthralled obsession with "any depiction of the city in celluloid or prose." Sylvia Plath, Jack Kerouac, Colson Whitehead, and Alison Bechdel all enticed her to their NYC, creating "a homecoming in reverse." Enabled by a "full ride" PhD to SUNY Stony Brook, she becomes "a full-fledged, living, breathing manifestation of the impossible dream [she] had been fostering for years." Sohini's art--drawn over "twelve or more hours a day for six months straight"--electrifyingly bursts in full color with architecturally meticulous details throughout. Her love letter to "this beautiful, ridiculous city" proves to be a vivid celebration of survival and belonging.

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January 15, 2025
Finding solace in the big city. Growing up in the outskirts of Calcutta in an era of unprecedented economic liberalization, Sohini obsessively read books about New York City. Her romanticization of the city that had produced writers like Sylvia Plath, Alison Bechdel, and Colson Whitehead led to her decision to immigrate to the city of her dreams to pursue her Ph.D., a choice that was also propelled by her need to escape an abusive romantic relationship plagued by betrayal and deception. While living in Calcutta, Sohini struggled with intense mental health issues as well as grief about her grandfather's sudden death. New York, however, felt like a place that suited her intensively introverted personality and her emotional connection with both cooking and consuming food, which she'd forged growing up in her intergenerational Indian home. Something about the city broke her depressive patterns, providing her with a life force that she hoped to maintain despite the economic threat of gentrification. Sohini's gorgeous illustrations are in and of themselves marvels of bright colors and elegant compositions. Unfortunately, much of the accompanying text lacks the coherence of the artwork, partly because the narration lingers on historical context and other topics that abruptly shift the tone of the story. The author also has a tendency to allude to past trauma without giving readers details. While her healing relationship with New York is inspiring, the underlying reasons for her sudden ability to cope with her mental illness and her traumatic past are never fully explained. A beautifully illustrated memoir that is hampered by uneven narration.

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