This road trip has everything. Nipple bells, booze, flying carpets, sexy oranges, lesbians and bad decisions.

 

Very retro cover.

Adijan and Her Genie by L.-J. Baker

This is one of those sneaky books that jumps on you, like that drunkard in the neighboring table asking for a smoke in exchange of funny adventures. Ok, it seems random why that image jumped on me, but it fits.

This book is far from perfect as it direly needs editing/formatting (maybe that last one was my copy, I am going to hunt for a print), it gets so chopped that you are not sure when the scene has changed, what is happening and it jumps so briskly that it breaks the fluidity. One thing that bothered me, is that we have a character with intellectual disability that it is nicely handled and part of the plot is how people tend to dismiss or talk over them, not giving the agency and respect they should have and yet, we had to wait for a long long time for them to have a voice. That was a waste, specially when the character is so carefully drawn.

The book promises a charming and light reading (at least, that was the impression I had) and it doesn’t disappoint, it threads lightly between picaresque, endearing, sad, troubling, tragic and scary. By that, I am impressed. Sure, I would like to see some points more developed, but it isn’t a flaw not to, it would be a different book then and I wouldn’t like that.

Random mumbling.

I have to confess that I wasn’t prepared when the book got serious, when the characters´ picaresque nature started to be shaped as more complex and deeply flawed. I started to get bitchy about Adijan´s repeated bad judgements. It annoyed me big time, until I thought: what if Adijan isn’t the sharpest crayon in the box? At what point our humongous brain condemns that? Is it that we love to think that we, and thus, our heroes would do better and make the smartest choices? I guess that was on me and I was humbled. We snap at the things that have a pointy edge, that bite, that scare us when we project. Maybe we aren’t the sharpest crayon either, but it is easier to think otherwise.

After that bite of humble pie, the other despairing characteristic of Adijan, that is, her being an irresponsible drunk, also changes with perspective. This is not a funny disaster, but someone who wants to do better, but cant. It is anguishing seeing her stumble towards sobriety, at finding dignity in a scary world that denies it to the less fortunate. I just felt horror when you have scenes where flogging is a natural response to any mistake, that some rich turd can scream: that is a liar/thief (yeah, that´s all the procedure), grab them and cut their arm/tongue in the square and you are fucked then. It is not a funny disaster to see Adijan slowly recover, to recognize how booze traps people, making it harder. Either way, we never get too deep into the drama mode.

Now, Adijan bickering with Zobeide, a tragic stuck up nasty woman, it gets a bit uncomfortable as they snap and say nasty things to each other, touching lightly another set of delicate subjects: class, homophobia, sex work, sexual abuse, consent. At one point, I thought how insensitive Adijan was with Zobeide´s situation, the horror of being a sex slave forced to comply and making fun of that, but then again, Adijan´s mom was a sex worker, her aunt that cares deeply for her is head of a brothel. She grew in said brothel. Tricky stuff.

Shalimar as sunshine bliss personified is a refreshing representation of intellectual disability. Adijan´s crusade to stop people from infantilizing Shalimar, to recognize her agency and autonomy, to love Shalimar unconditionally, not despite her disability, but as her own person. That was something beautiful to read.

The ending felt so good, but abrupt. You want a bit more of Zobeide, Adijan and Shalimar, Aunt Takush and best boy (he is a man, but earns the internet label) Fakir, you care for their journey, how they grow and hopefully, I may have grown a little bit too.

And then...

Highly recommended, this road trip has everything. Nipple bells, booze, flying carpets, sexy oranges, lesbians and bad decisions.