He describes witnessing a mob of men throw a tire over his teacher - his friend - and set him on fire as though it was nothing.

It also felt distant and cold, as though Raj's own history meant nothing to him. (It's Raj.) Not that that's a requirement for me, but it does help to get to know the person I'm supposed to be closest to in the story. In fact, I didn't even know his name until around the 19% mark. It's told in first person narrative, and I found it extremely hard to get into the main character and narrator's head. The writing and the style just didn't work for me. There are sentence fragments, sentences that seem out of order, and jumbled phrases that just don't make sense to me. I couldn't follow the narration - it jumped around, not only in time and memory, but between random, unconnected thoughts and observations. But unfortunately, almost immediately, I struggled with this book. I was hoping for this book to be beautifully written and expertly told. I was hoping that it would speak to me and allow me to learn something of what it was like to live through such things. I loved the cover, and the book description sounded fantastic - a story about India's turbulent recent history, the assassination of Indira Gandhi. I saw this book, and it looked really intriguing to me. I was recently browsing around on NetGalley after, oh. Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book for review from NetGalley.

Helium poetry book