Moving Mountains

I found She of the Mountains, by Vivek Shraya to be absolutely intriguing in that the

flow and wording makes me feel as if I had entered each person’s mind at once, listening to each

character’s conscious thought stream and feeling the whole range of emotions for the respective

situation. Shraya conveys embarrassment and loneliness especially well, to the point I feel that

pit of dread and anxiety in my stomach while reading scenes like when has sex with the girl

under her desk and when he swimming at the end of the novel. That’s why I’m surprised that

Shraya felt so uncomfortable and unable to write poetry as she can evoke so much emotion in the

reader and that’s what good poetry, and good writing in general, does. I know that I am a white

female so I will never fully understand the struggles that come with being a person of color but

in my humble opinion Shraya has a poetic gift that far surpasses the white authors who are

consistently being hailed as leading poets. The way she combines longer, multi story prose and

poetic descriptions lead to very moving imagery that breathe a new life into the thousands of

years old story about the creation and life Ganesh. The Ganesh storyline connects to the modern

day one because both the main character and Ganesh are seen and treated as different and

therefore feel a type of isolation that is unknown to the heterosexual, caucasian dominant

population. Parvati eloquently points out that despite “Ganesh’s supposed strangeness, if the

others would only look more closely, they would behold a tender heart, able to love regardless of

size or status or expectation.” (pg.61) This quote summarizes the attitude everyone, including

myself, needs to live by in order to promote a peaceful and respectful existence. I judged this

book just by flipping through it but when I took the time to read I learned what I would have

missed out on. The poem “Trojan” by Ocean Vuong perfectly encapsulates that feeling in the

closing line “They will see him/ clearest/ when the city burns” as he is triumphing by being his
truest self even though the world may threaten his existence and tell him he’s wrong in the way

he’s exist. Despite the words “when the city burns” sounding aggressive they’re a metaphor for

the wrath that karma will ensue, not a threat of physical arson because the LGBTQ+ community

and its supporters are committed to peaceful integration.