Customer Reviews

Ode to Lata

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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I have read this book on my way to New York from Los Angeles. Including the transit time, I spent about eight hours reading it -- on and off. I simply could not put it down. It is a story so real and resembles every LGBT Muslim's struggle to put his past and his present together.

Ali Khosla, an Indian Muslim from Kenya, lives in the fabulous queer city of West Hollywood, California. Ali has some major issues to deal with. First, he lost his father when he was only five. Second, he is gay and Muslim. He was brought up in an Indian Muslim house in Kenya and now lives in West Hollywood. All of these are things that clash like two speeding cars on the freeway, going to each other's direction -- a ticking bomb, to put it midly.

Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla can write like no other. His short chapters allow you to take the time to breath from all of the sex the sex-obsessed Ali is thinking or doing. Of course, it wouldn't be any drama without a Desi Ma(mother) involved. Lets just let you read the book, shall we? This is a good one, da-h-lings!

This hard to find book was published about five years ago and unfortunately has practically faded from the gay lit scene. If you liked Sulayman X's "Bilal's Bread" or Shyam Selvadurai's "Cinnamon Gardens," you will also like this book.

At first the story of young West Hollywood party boy Ali seems like typical tricks-and-treats frothy gay lit. Soon, though, you begin to glimpse the prejudice Ali endures as a young gay Indian man, and the pressure of his family to live a "normal" life.

His mother comes from India and visits Ali for a nearly unbearable length of time. Ali desperately pursues an old flame, Richard, not fully understanding his infatuation and slowly crawling away from his insecurities as he chases. Ali's changing friendships flavor the atmosphere, too. The novel is not heavily plotted, but does progress nicely as an unusual slice-of-life, multicultural story.

By the time "Raat gayi, baat gayi" ("it's over," in Hindi), you will have traveled a colorful trail.

If you've watched Queer as Folk, you know it deals with mostly self-obsessed, 20-something gay people and their issues. (If you're gay and over 20 you know the issues.) Like QaF, it also includes some pretty graphic sex scenes. What livens up the story is the multicultural cast of characters, and the increased family tensions brought into play.

If you're gay, have survived your 20s, and have been fortunate enough to find a partner, you may grow weary of the main character's whining about boyfriend trouble. You might be interested, though, in the perspective of a gay Muslim Indian (by way of Kenya).

I'd recommend this as a quick summer or weekend read.

A couple of notes:
[1] There is a glossary in the back of foreign words and phrases.
[2] The dust cover notes that Dhalla is working on a screen adaptation of the book. Best of luck to him. A film is probably a better vehicle for this story.

Dhalla's finely honed writing skills almost but not quite manage to mask the fact that his story is basically a whiny, insubstantial roman a clef that eventually grates. Maybe finding true love in Los Angeles is really this difficult, but it seems that the choices made by Dhalla's protagonist Ali are not especially wise. Street hustlers usually are not good husband material, a fact of gay life that cannot have been unknown to Ali, given his sexual and social history. Neither are promiscuous party boys, another object of Ali's misguided affections. No wonder he is miserable.

Unfortunately, there is no relief for lovelorn Ali, whose unhappiness is the result of his own failings, not the fault of his suitors. This sort of gay self-loathing and failure to connect is a very old, very hackneyed plot.

The book does have something to offer, however, in terms of seeing gay life from the perspective of the gay Asian and South Asian subculture, which is its only redeeming point.

This first novel is not only a powerful drama but also very informative - I didn't know that there was an East Indian community living in postcolonial Kenya. This story tells you a lot about Indian culture, and what it is like to grow up in a city like Mombassa. We are constantly peppered with images from Ali's childhood, and we really get a sense of the innocence and traditionalistic life that existed there particularly after the British left. Dhalla's work is almost like stream of consciousness - we are constantly blasted with Ali's thoughts and feelings as he battles to come to terms with his failed relationships with Richard, Nelson and Bill. What saves this novel from being an over-the-top melodrama is the way Dhalla presents his different themes: coming to terms with one's cultural inheritance, family relationships, HIV/AIDS, coming out, casual sex, racism within minority groups, and loyalty and betrayal in friendships. And he brings the Los Angles/Hollywood gay scene to life in a way that hasn't been done since John Rechy: the drugs, drinking, the nightclubs, the body fascism, and the plasticity of much of the scene are presented in vivid and spot-on detail.

The story adeptly moves backwards and forwards in time from Ali's childhood in Kenya where we learn about his traditional Indian childhood, his relationships with boys, and his overbearing and overprotective mother, or "Mummy" as he calls her, to the present, where Ali cruises Santa Monica Boulevard on the weekends, searching for true love and his "ideal" man. Ali is such a complex, conflicted and multi-faceted character. Torn between the traditional East Indian culture of Kenya - where men are expected to marry and father children, and gay men are often closeted - to the modern, urban sophisticated world of Los Angeles, where gay sex is available for the taking, and life is dictated by the Santa Monica nightclubs, saunas and sex clubs. Ali is looking for love in an environment that he thinks is harsh and impersonal, and the final scene in the Hollywood sex club where he realizes that he can't go on living like this will leave you breathless. Yes - the sex in this novel is powerful, raw, and piercing, but never gratuitous. In fact, Dhalla has infused his story with a powerful, all embracing eroticism.

This is also a story of Los Angeles, and how a single gay man from an immigrant community copes in a big, modern city. How does Ali reconcile the needs of his mother, and the powerful ties of his cultural heritage with the needs of his friends, lovers, and life in modern Los Angeles? This is the thematic core of the book and Ali's journey throughout, and I think that at the end of the novel he has come along way in figuring out how he's going to do this. There is no doubt that Ghalib Dhalla is an enormously talented writer, and he's given us an insight into a little publicized part of the gay community. I just hope that we will be able to experience more of Dhalla's work in the years to come.

Michael

Splendid work! Ghalib has taken us through a struggling child's soul trying to make his culture accept his identity, at the same time fighting wars with a family he left in Mombasa, Kenya that demands of their only grandson and child to meet the ordinary and "normal" requirements of giving them an heir. The entire book is of a homosexual's struggle to live as "normal" as he knows how, at the same time trying to get over his obsession of his lover. All the time, Ali has a wonderful circle of friends in LA who do not leave his side through all his painful struggles with love and obsession. Added to that is great humor. I could not keep the book down. I laughed and cried with Ali! I can't wait for the Two Krishnas to hit the book store. A must read for everyone. Very well written, Ghalib!

Ode to Lata

Great attempt for a first novel. I read this book from a different perspective than I presume most reader will do, because I am from the same town in Kenya and I belong to the same community. Because I grew up in the same environment and seemed like I had a parallel life to Ali I could relate to the circumstances the author is trying to portray. Otherwise, if someone is not form that background (Indian from East Africa) it would be difficult to understand the culture and thinking that drives the Indian community he is talking about.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I probably know the author even thou I think he is a few years younger than I am, but several incidences like the suicide of a Shenaaz in Mombassa and his friend Salman In LA seems like I know these characters because they are based on actually people I used or still know. I cried and I felt sorry and I could relate to Ali's feeling, the relationship he has with his mother, the insecurity to assimilate into the GAY culture, his alienation from the community and his return to it.

What I didn't get out of this reading his strength in building the characters, I didn't feel connected to them or feel the lonely agony that most of them were going through. It is difficult to classify this novel as good literature or compare him to his ideal M G Vassanji, (a Canadian Indian writer from East Africa, from the same community) who writes about the Indian Ismaili community in East Africa, USA & Canada.

It's an easy book to read and follow, Ghalib has a way with words that he twists into poetry the flow of the book is well connected. I wish he had spend more time writing about Kenya and had less of the sexual encounter that seems like Ali was having day in and day our and concentrated more on what Ali was really feeling and what he was suffering. Well I agree again that I could see much of my life parade in this book expect the visits to the bathhouses.

A good read and I would recommend to anyone who is trying to understand minority assimilation into the gay America.

Thanks Ghalib for touching my soul and telling the world that has been suppress within me for many years. I look forward to the movie and hope its full of songs by Lata.

I read Ode to Lata in one night. It made me laugh and cry and even angry at times. This book is a powerful exploration of the joys and agonies of love and doesn't try to sugarcoat any of it. Reading it made me feel like I had been granted permission to somebody's innermost thoughts and feelings. What stands out most about this novel is that even the main character, Ali, is not some heroic, positive embodiment of all that is good. Like the other characters, Ali is multi-layered and possesses, like the rest of us, the good and the bad in his personality. He is human so we can relate to him. Ghalib Dhalla's writing is so poetic at times, even the darkest passages in the book take on a musical quality to them and leave you amazed. I only wish it had spent a little more time in Ali's homeland of Kenya where Dhalla is at his best but I still enjoyed all the places it takes you to, including some very disturbing ones. Good books should leave you with some kind of a lasting feeling just like good movies. Ode to Lata is such a book.

Ghalib captures the essence of what most of us have or will go through at some point in their lives in their quest for the ironic difficulty in finding simple happiness. At times, some of the main character's revelations were all too poignant. Ghalib's writing is astute and vivid. Ali's yearning for constant physical and emotional belonging was anything but fictional. At times, Ali's dramatics and self-loathing made me grind my teeth in vain frustration - probably because of how easily one identified with him. I was pleasantly surprised that there was only a conclusion of the book - but not an ending to Ali's drama. Life has no ending when you're still breathing.

I cannot remember when I've read a first novel any better than this one. The writer has a great flair for words and writes beautiful, evocative prose. He has created a unique protagonist in Ali, an East Indian who grew up in Kenya and has recently moved to Los Angeles. He works in a bank during the day and spends many of his nights looking for Mr. Right or obsessing because he cannot find him. There is a bit of Ali in a lot of us. While much of the action takes place in the gay bars, sex clubs and baths of Los Angeles, the territory sounds familiar and has a universal ring to it. Besides having to deal with his own inner demons of self-worth, Ali must contend with a visit from his Indian mother upset about his "life style" and the fact that since he is an only child, she will never have grandchildren. (Only a saint or fool would let his mother visit for three months.) When Ali's mother isn't trying emotional blackmail on him, she's watching American television. Two of her favorite programs are "The Bold and the Beautiful" and Jerry Springer. Mr. Dhalla discusses with honesty the problems of race and color in his own East Indian community as well as other communities. As is too often the case, those with lighter skin get treated better. Ari must face his own racism when he meets and falls for Nelson who is black. And the hustler Billy hates black people as well. (Does all this sound too familiar?)

If you are looking for a politically correct gay novel where the protagonist meets and "marries" a gay accountant, proceeds to buy a house with him, complete with a fence and a dog, this novel isn't for you. If you want to read about a character who in all his failings is as real as people you know, some of whom you care about, then this one's for you. In the first lines of this novel, Ali says that there are only two things worth living for: passion and truth. He says he has experienced a lot of passion but the truth eludes him. Mr. Dhalla has written a novel full of both passion and truth.