God Loves Hair

Starred review from September 29, 2014
Hinduism and its institutions can heap shame on gay adolescents just as effectively as the Judeo-Christian world, Shraya's collection of short stories shows. Originally self-published in 2011, this terse, honest account of growing up gay in an East Indian family living in Canada explores layers of identityâimmigrant, male, cultural consumer, sexual being. "Maybe you should dress me up in a sari and see what I would look like as a girl," his young narrator tells his Indian aunts coyly, reveling in the jewelry and makeup that go with his costume. Later, in his teens, the boy tries to manage amorphous and confusing desires by dedicating his life to God at a religious summer school. An older adherent follows him back to his room: "Just sit next to me for a second." Caution and excuses are no help: "He grabs my face with his hands and slams his chapped lips against mine." Shraya's stripped-down prose has documentary force, and Neufeld's illustrations, with their intersecting planes of translucent color and their linoleum block-style images, add humor and bite. It's an important addition to the library of coming-out literature. Ages 12âup.

Starred review from July 1, 2020
Linked, illustrated vignettes, reissued in a 10th anniversary edition with a new cover and foreword by Cherie Dimaline, inspired by Shraya's childhood spent learning to love her queer, brown, complex self. This work of creative nonfiction begins with Shraya's mother's prayers for two sons. This binary, gender-based bargaining with Hindu gods is a stark contrast to the author's fluid gender identity: although Shraya now identifies as transgender, she wrote this book before coming out and has kept the pronouns and male identifiers from the original. The book moves between India and Canada, and Shraya's treatment of India is refreshingly nuanced and affectionate. In Canada, Shraya's 5-year-old self is spanked for trying on lipstick without permission, but in India, his aunts eagerly wrap him in saris and bangles and praise his prettiness. Several stories capture Shraya's changing relationship with his Hindu faith, from the disappointment of failing to convince the Hindu sage Sai Baba to take him on as a student to the ecstatic discovery of the half-man half-woman deity Ardhanaraeeshwara ("I am not invisible anymore"). Each vignette beautifully captures the tension Shraya's younger self felt navigating the intersections of gender, race, and faith. The author's stunningly honest voice is suffused with tenderness not only for her past self, but also for other young people currently coming to terms with multiple identities in families and societies that may not be accepting of their full selves. A lyrical meditation on growing up queer, brown, and Hindu. (Short stories. 12-adult)

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