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Reviewed by:
  • God Loves Hair by Vivek Shraya
  • April Spisak
Shraya, Vivek God Loves Hair; illus. by Juliana Neufeld. Arsenal Pulp, 2014 110 p
Paper ed. ISBN 978-1-55152-543-3 $18.95
E-book ISBN 978-1-55152-544-0 $8.96     R Gr. 11 up

In this reprint of a self-published Canadian book from 2011, a man looks back on his youth with wit, grief, anger, and a keen eye about how he became the adult he now is. As a kid, the author was an Indo-Canadian boy negotiating efforts at fitting in even with all the ways he clearly did not, from his long hair to his interest in things that have traditionally signaled girlhood. Some passages are short, describing a particular incident, while longer essays summarize eras of his childhood and adolescence. All sections are titled and accompanied by a single illustration. There is clear collaborative effort between the author and the illustrator, Neufeld, and the drawings are indeed one of the strongest elements, sharpening what are occasionally long passages into one searing image that captures the same tone. For the most part, however, Shraya has edited this carefully, using each multi-page story to add to the ones before, resulting in a volume that is clearly written by retrospective adult, but one who still carries the scars of his childhood and adolescence with him. This may resonate most with older teens who may have also seen enough glimpses of life beyond high school to fully appreciate the evolution of the trapped, bullied kid represented to the sharp, poetic man who remembers being him. [End Page 229]

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