From Publishers Weekly
Anamika's the kind of girl her traditional peers aren't quite sure about: is the sexually precocious heroine of Dawesar's second novel (after
Miniplanner) a feminine
Didi or a masculine
Bhaiyya, a cerebral schoolgirl or a predatory lecher? After studying chaos theory in her high school physics textbook, Anamika feels justified in pursuing three simultaneous same-sex affairs, with her doting servant, her impressionable schoolmate and a beautiful older woman who inspires such complicated feelings that Anamika nicknames her India, after their vast and varied homeland. Anamika uses sex as a means to investigate life's chemistry and her autonomy outside of rigid Brahmin mores. Despite the intensity of her passion, particularly for India, Anamika's comic stiffness is evident in such amorous declarations as "I want to collapse my wave function into you." As issues of caste, meritocracy and self-sacrifice arise, Anamika purifies her intentions by channeling them into helping a troubled male student, Chakra Dev, who's almost as oversexed as she is. If the unusual secondary characters occasionally seem as gratuitous as pornographic movie extras, Anamika's ponderings and emotional reversals are lavished with as much attention as a 16-year-old girl would demand. Despite its meandering path, the novel achieves an impressive balance between moral inquiry and decadent pleasure, pleasing the intellect and the senses - if not necessarily the heart - of the open-minded reader.
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Review
“If Lolita had grown up in India, she might have debuted in a novel like this.
Babyji is riveting, a great gift to read.” –Vendela Vida, author of
And Now You Can Go“I loved
Babyji. It’s a cunning lithe defiant sexy tiger’s roar of a book.” –Ali Smith, author of
Hotel World“From the moment Abha Dawesar dropped me slap-bang into the middle of Anamika’s complicated life, I found myself fascinated. How often does one encounter a sixteen-year-old who applies her preternatural intellect not only to her far-ranging sexual conquests but also to quantum physics and India’s complex caste politics? Irreverent yet tender, compassionate yet hard-headed, precociously wise and undeniably sexy, Dawesar’s Anamika channels a wonderful new Indian reality. More power to her.” –Meera Nair, author of
Video“I loved
Babyji. It’s a cunning lithe defiant sexy tiger’s roar of a book.” –Ali Smith, author of
Hotel World
