Monday, 22 June 2009
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It's Multicultural
It's Multicultural
What is? Big Toes in Heaven.
It is a multicultural book in that Yoli was adopted in China, raised there for a few years, and then moved to the States as an elementary-aged child; Karyn is proud of her Black heritage; Ria is thankful for her Catholic background and large, well-functioning family; all five hang out with a clique of Indian girls; and all except Ria flirt with and date Middle Eastern guys.
Any book set in DC would be inherently multicultural.
This book also has a sound track. Life happens to music, and so does this book. It has a soundtrack. Many of the songs are multicultural...Brazilian jazz, Indian techno-pop, German synth-pop, an Arabic love song among them.
Check these out (and the song at the top that I can't seem to get to the spot below!):
"You Can Win If You Want" comes in to the novel in Chapter 5 when Nadeem Numair is introduced. He is Paulina's coworker and later date rapes her. He never listens to anything but Modern Talking, and plays the songs on repeat, one per day. According to my sister-in-law who is a trained victim's advocate, this sort of behavior is not unusual for an abusive person.
"Brasiliera" by Gabriela Anders is a relaxing song found in Chapter 14, "Drama and the Blue Room." Ria and Paulina are invited by Nadeem and his friend Zaki to go to a club's VIP lounge. They run into a drunk Yoli who is all over a guy she's not interested in.
"Aicha," by Khaled is in Chapter 44, "Friends Don't Do That." Paulina and Karyn are drunk and in a nightclub with Nadeem. It's a very romantic song, a stark contrast to the date rape that happens shortly after Paulina hears the song.
What do you think of these songs? Would you be interested in the sound track?
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Comments (7)
I like them - especially the first 2!
@Neeka1 - Thanks. Me too. I'm not really a huge fan of the 3rd song, but it plays an important role in the novel and it suited the character that it's associated with.
I love listening to a lot of different music so I definitely would be interested!
I would definitely be interested in a soundtrack to a novel! Great idea. I've really enjoyed listening to all 3 of these this morning.
@TheCheshireGrins - Hey, how are you doing? I've been worried about you ever since I heard about the Red Line Metro accident.
@AliasUndercover - Glad you liked them!
@BigToePeople - I'm fine! The accident happened over kind of by Catholic U. I live on the opposite side of the red line (Shady Grove is my stop). I had gotten fed up with an earlier delay on the red line (there was a train malfunction at the Tenleytown station) so my boyfriend and I just decided to have dinner in the city. The commute in this morning was pretty rough but all things considered, it was fine. Thank you for thinking of me!
@TheCheshireGrins - PHEW! I'm so glad you're fine. I actually tried to look through the crowd in a few of the shots I saw on the news, until I realized that I may or may not recognize you from the few pics I've seen at your site. I knew you were on the MD side, but wasn't sure where. Sounds like a fortuitous dinner in the city.