Tournament of Books discussion

Ban En Banlieue, by Bhanu Kapil


About the Book (from the book's description on GR)

Bhanu Kapi's Ban en Banlieue follows a brown (black) girl as she walks home from school in the first moments of a riot. An April night in London, in 1979, is the axis of this startling work of overlapping arcs and varying approaches. By the end of the night, Ban moves into an incarnate and untethered presence, becoming all matter soot, meat, diesel oil and force as she loops the city with the energy of global weather. Derived from performances in India, England and throughout the U.S., Ban en Banlieue is written at the limit of somatic and civic aims.


About the Author (from Wikipedia)

Bhanu Kapil (born 1968) is a British-Indian writer who currently resides in Colorado. She teaches at Naropa University and as part of Goddard College's low-residency MFA program. She is the author of a number of books, including The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers (2001), Incubation: A Space for Monsters (2006), and Ban En Banlieue (2015).

Kapil's first book, The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers, was written in the late 1990s and was submitted to Kelsey Street Press by a friend of hers. Khapil has noted that "Left to my own devices, the whole manuscript would be . . . trash. A kind of note-taking never made public." From an early age, she had an interest in becoming a writer, and cited Salman Rushdie's 1980 Booker Prize win as a formative experience for her: "...perhaps then, for the first time, I understood that someone like me: could. Could look like me and write.". In early 2015, The Believer held a round-table discussion of Bhanu Kapi's work over the course of three days, featuring writers like Kate Zambreno and Sofia Samara.

Kapil's work can be difficult to classify, occupying a space between poetry and fiction. 2009's Humanimal: A Project for Future Children took its inspiration from the nonfiction account of Amala and Kamala, two girls found "living with wolves in colonial Bengal." Douglas A. Martin has described Incubation: A Space For Monsters as "a feminist, post-colonial On the Road." Kapil also contributed the introduction to Amina Cain's short story collection I Go To Some Hollow. Kapil's creative work also encompasses performance art. Her poetry appeared in a collection edited by Brian Droitcour that was produced as part of part of the New Museum's 2015 Triennial.

Incubation: A Space for Monsters was a Small Press Distribution best-seller. Ban en Banlieue was named as one of Time Out New York's most anticipated books of early 2015.



Other Links


• Author's website/blog: http://jackkerouacispunjabi.blogspot.ca

• Follow on Twitter: @Thisbhanu

• The Believer -- Roundtable Discussion - Reading Bhanu Kapil: http://logger.believermag.com/post/11...

• In Conversation -- BOMB Magazine: http://bombmagazine.org/article/6073/...

• Review -- On the Seawall: http://www.ronslate.com/guest_review_...

Have you read this book yet? Do you plan to for the TOB? Do let us know your thoughts -- we love hearing them!!

I think this one is going to be my "growth experience" for this year's TOB. Y'know, like "Ivyland" which I didn't hate. Not sure I can really claim to have finished that since my new rescue dog ate the last page. Honestly, I don't think that made a bit of difference.

I do think BEB will benefit from being read in one sitting, if possible, or multiple long sittings rather than many short ones. I'm reading Oreo right now and think that's a similar kind of read but now I'm straying into another thread ...

I do plan to read this, once it arrives from Powell's. I never thought of it as fiction, though -- I thought it was something more like a cross between essay and poetry. But I haven't read much about it, that was just an impression. I like going into books as "blind" as possible, to form my own impressions.

I'm planning on reading this one. I was able to get a copy through interlibrary loan that should arrive in a few days. I feel like this is one of those books I'll want to discuss with others even if I don't like it, so I'm glad to see it in the ToB. At first glance, it seems to be the most unique, so I'm intrigued to see what it will be paired against.

I bought a copy at the local bookstore RJ Julia and the store called me and said the publisher is out of stock? So she is going to check on that.

AmberBug wrote: "I bought a copy at the local bookstore RJ Julia and the store called me and said the publisher is out of stock? So she is going to check on that."

I got mine in the mail today from Powell's. Let's see what it's like!

urg! I guess I need to bug Powell's again... I'm supposed to be called when they get copies in! I wonder if TOB is going to prompt another printing due to the difficulty in locating copies at this point!

yay, Google Translate has helped me over the first big hurdle--"Ban en Banlieue" means "Ban in the Suburbs" ... Not that I know what "Ban in the Suburbs" might mean, but I am on page 1, so maybe that will become clear too.

I have started to get the feeling, maybe, that the author is, during the time she is writing, also participating in performance art something like Yoko Ono's still-disturbing Cut Piece. Or maybe the person doing the performance art is the narrator in the story, not the author. Or maybe I'm making it all up in my head. I have a strong desire to look up and research online what the heck it is I'm reading, to have someone explain it to me, but I'm trying first to read on my own.

poingu wrote: "I have started to get the feeling, maybe, that the author is, during the time she is writing, also participating in performance art something like Yoko Ono's still-disturbing Cut Piece. Or maybe ..."

Starting this tonight and cannot wait to weigh in:-)

we had a good discussion in alt.tob about The Story of My Teeth and how to some people it felt more like an art project than a novel.

Story of My Teeth was in the "novel" category for me, personally, because it has a definable narrative. However unusual, it exhibits faith in story-telling, and in syntax. It tells a story.

Ban En Banlieue though doesn't qualify as a "novel" to me. It feels like preliminary notes for a novel. Indeed there is a distinct message of anti-narrative, where the author seems to be trying to prove that some things can't be described by narrative. She seems to be saying that trying to shape things into a "story" can get in the way of the truth, because some subjects just can't be explained that way.

Well, ok. Probably that's true.

I'm glad Ban en Banlieue is in TOB because everything about this year's selections seems to be about stretching our ideas about what is a novel, and what is a good novel. I'll look forward to what the judges say about it.

poingu wrote: "I'm glad Ban en Banlieue is in TOB because everything about this year's selections seems to be about stretching our ideas about what is a novel, and what is a good novel. I'll look forward to what the judges say about it ..."

[insert gleeful cackling here!] between this and your review I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate it! :) can't wait! as you say, the conversations this will engender should make even the most painful reading worth the struggle to understand!

poingu wrote: "I have started to get the feeling, maybe, that the author is, during the time she is writing, also participating in performance art something like Yoko Ono's still-disturbing Cut Piece. Or maybe ..."

thanks for the link Poingu - I hadn't watched it before and definitely put my own interpretation on the work before trying to hunt down Ono's explanation (which it seems came decades later). I found it powerful pre-explanation and it made me wonder if I truly needed the context after all (as I so adamantly thought I did with Gutshot) to appreciate a work of art.

Amy wrote: " I found it powerful pre-explanation and it made me wonder if I truly needed the context after all (as I so adamantly thought I did with Gutshot) to appreciate a work of art. "

Amy, this is pretty much my definition of good art in any medium--does it speak to me directly without someone needing to explain it to me?

I went to The Whitney Museum last fall. Some contemporary works spoke to me right away. I frequently got more layers of appreciation for a given work after reading the placard next to it, but reading the placard wasn't necessary for the initial communion I had with the piece. Other works meant nothing at all until I read an explanation of what I was looking at. To me that is failed art.

Cut Piece is interesting because it's possible that its meaning has changed as times changed. It feels like a feminist representation of incredible power now whereas it seems like it was seen as a voyeuristic stunt at the time.

Another thing about the Whitney is they were exhibiting a huge work made of African American hair clippings a la A Little Life. "Untitled" by David Hammons. If you go to the link in the last sentence, you need to imagine that it's about 5 feet high and 10 feet across. I suppose many people got the reference to this work when they read A Little Life, and knew of the artist, but I had never heard of this piece, and so I had a very weird intersection of real life and art when I saw it in the Whitney.

poingu wrote: " I suppose many people got the reference to this work when they read A Little Life, and knew of the artist, but I had never heard of this piece, and so I had a very weird intersection of real life and art when I saw it in the Whitney..."

I would not have recognized piece nor artist. I had a similar experience reading Welcome to Braggsville as I had just recently read Between the World and Me which included a lot of time reflecting on Coate's experience at Howard University which he called 'the Mecca'. There was a sole short chapter from Charlie's POV that I didn't figure out was him until he mentioned not attending Howard. Would have gone right over my head 4 months earlier.

Just finished this one. I'm not entirely sure what I think, but here are early thoughts.
1. I agree with Poingu--I wouldn't classify it as a novel.
2. I liked it more than The Story of My Teeth, and I really hope they face off in the ToB.
3. It's a writer's book, and what I most enjoyed were its insights into the writing process.
4. This book could either go far in the ToB or be out first. I can see writers as judges going crazy for it, but I can also see a lot of "what was that?" and confusion.

All in all, very curious to see how this one does in the ToB.

Just got my copy from Amazon today.

started in on this yesterday... this seems a strange choice to publish... it almost feels like the crib notes to something like some performance piece or a work of art in a gallery... but the piece of art is missing at the heart of it. I don't think describing 'Ban' as something that can only be discussed 'around' the topic instead of directly really justifies this end product. Though there are occasional photographs provided, they are only indirectly related to the work of the book and I think I would forgive a host of sins if given an occasional picture of the performance, lectures or art pieces created during the years (8!?) Ban was worked on.

also, thanks to Poingu for passing along her copy. I'll finish this in a day or so and would like to return the favor to the group... any takers?

I'm in the middle of this now, and I'm not sure what I think. I think I'm liking it? I definitely like how she plays around with genre -- it's not a novel but it sort of is a novel. I like how the pieces of the story (story?) repeat, circle around, connect with each other. At around p. 60, the reading is getting a little less challenging. I like challenging reading (if I'm not looking at hundreds of pages of it -- this book definitely needs to be short!). I guess I'm not sure yet whether there's ultimately a big enough payoff, whether it's in terms of ideas or interesting language or formal experimentation. We'll see.

I was assigned Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's book Dictee in a grad class, which is a book Kapil references early on in Ban, and I'd kind of like to reread that one. But I remember it being very challenging too. Again, we'll see.

Rebecca wrote: "I'm in the middle of this now, and I'm not sure what I think. I think I'm liking it? I definitely like how she plays around with genre -- it's not a novel but it sort of is a novel. I like how the ..."

Rebecca, I like how open you are to this 'novel,' and the way you're just letting it be itself without judgment. Also that you actually could make an intellectual connection with one of the references. I wish I could have read it with that level of open listening in my approach. I disengaged pretty quickly.

poingu wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "I'm in the middle of this now, and I'm not sure what I think. I think I'm liking it? I definitely like how she plays around with genre -- it's not a novel but it sort of is a novel...."

Thank you, Poingu. I tell my students all the time, don't worry if you can't understand something 100%! It's okay! Just get what you can from it! So I'm trying not to be hypocritical here :)

I think it helps, too, that there's at least one writer I admire who loves this book (Kate Zambreno), so I'm coming to it wanting to like it. That makes a huge difference. If I came to it with a skeptical mindset, I might have had a different reaction.

I have to second @Poingu with being impressed at @Rebecca's open-mindedness and fortitude! I feel that every page is a slog right now as if I'm reading someone's late night tweets about how hard the process is or how well (or not) the latest performance went but without ever seeing a performance or a final work to appreciate. I am afraid I'm not bought in on the decision to publish this collection of "not-[fill-in-the-blank]" All the things it is not do not seem to be actually making something.

Amy wrote: "I have to second @Poingu with being impressed at @Rebecca's open-mindedness and fortitude! I feel that every page is a slog right now as if I'm reading someone's late night tweets about how hard th..."

Thanks Amy! I might end up agreeing with your last sentence: "All the things it is not do not seem to be actually making something." I'm not sure there's a "something" I'm going to be satisfied by when I finish. I do have an affinity for books that undermine themselves in some way, though, and this is certainly a work that focuses on all the things literature CAN'T do, instead of what it can. There's also something haunting about the work, a sense of mourning, loss, and anger, that is sticking with me.

Rebecca wrote: "There's also something haunting about the work, a sense of mourning, loss, and anger, that is sticking with me..."

yes. Given a real sit-down with the material, such a sense of loss and rage and powerlessness seeps through. There are a lot of topics that could be plumbed here that are barely touched (e.g. incidence of schizophrenia in emigrants caused by cultural dissonance). Meanwhile I feel as if I'm reading the 'book' in reverse. Often I come across a story that suddenly illuminates a sketch from several sections earlier.

It's funny because I just started, and it reminds me SO MUCH of Lyn Hejinian's MY LIFE. But I couldn't figure out if that was bullshit or not---the thing about it that made me feel that way was the really interesting things that Hejinian was doing with sentences in My Life.

But then the author name-checked Hejinian on page 23, and I thought, "A-HA!"

I love this kind of thing, but not really for the Tournament of Books.

Just "finished" it, if you count skimming through and then going back 100 times to see if trying to read every word of any passage clarifies it in any way as "finishing".

I have to say, reading all the comments here makes me respectful of all of you for taking this seriously, but, seriously? For me, the emperor has no clothes. I have no idea what this is or what it's supposed to be. Admittedly, I'm a for-the-plot reader generally, but I have a brain. I know I have a brain. I'm pretty sure I have a brain. And this was just....nonsense to me, pretentious, self-aggrandizing nonsense. What am I missing? It's interesting that someone mentioned Yoko Ono in connection with it, since any time I've come in contact with anything of hers, I've had the same annoyed, frustrated reaction.

I'm not going to make the error of getting pissed off because it's in the ToB wasting my time when surely there are much more interesting and worthy books to be read (*cough*Fifteen Dogs*cough), because that's the point of the ToB, to stretch the borders a little. And also, at least it's ridiculously short, so I only wasted a couple of hours on it.

I wrote a blog post with a few brief thoughts about Ban En Banlieue and thought I'd share it here: https://ofbooksandbikes.wordpress.com...

I can't wait to see what happens with this one in the tournament!

Ellen wrote: "I have to say, reading all the comments here makes me respectful of all of you for taking this seriously, but, seriously? For me, the emperor has no clothes. "

That was my feeling too Ellen, but somehow, when I enter a conversation about a book here in a more public context on GR, and where it's not just me and the book in a papasan chair, I find myself trying to like something more than I do--as in: "maybe it's good because other people enjoyed it."

After a while that amount of equivocation just leads to less enjoyment in reading, though. Last year I read way too many books that weren't enjoyable to me just because a reviewer loved them and I still have a tough time not feeling guilty or stupid when I don't like something that is "critically acclaimed" or wins awards.

I feel exactly the same way, poingu -- like, what's wrong with me if everyone thinks this book (or play, or whatever) is the greatest thing ever? I usually read through to the end thinking it will somehow all be revealed, and then the whole process makes me feel like I'm missing something.

Ellen wrote: " I usually read through to the end thinking it will somehow all be revealed, and then the whole process makes me feel like I'm missing something. ."

This morning I felt myself get a little bit free of this feeling, that I need to love what other people say is good, when I listened to a "Three Percent" podcast and one of the hosts said "Fates and Furies just sounds stupid to me, I'm not going to read it," and the other one said: "Tsar of Love and Techno, that's such a stupid title, no way I'm going to read that." If people who are in the book biz are going to be that arbitrary in their reading judgments then I guess I can lighten up a little bit and allow myself not to like something!

I hereby grant you all permission to read what you like without feeling inferior because some critic somewhere told you it was good!

I was surprised I liked this at all. It sounded like the kind of thing I usually hate and reminded me of Yoko Ono's work which I generally hate. It was difficult to get through but because I read it in one sitting, I ended up with more of an aura swirling around me than any kind of story that I tried to make sense of. I am baffled that anyone thought this was any kind of completed book much less a novel. This baby will be going right back to Powells when I'm in PDX in March.

Ellen wrote: "I feel exactly the same way, poingu -- like, what's wrong with me if everyone thinks this book (or play, or whatever) is the greatest thing ever? ..."

Scanning the star ratings in this thread, I think you're in good company (as many 1&2's as 4 stars).

Drew wrote: "I hereby grant you all permission to read what you like without feeling inferior because some critic somewhere told you it was good!"

Usually though I assume it's good to be influenced by others positively, and to have a reason to question any first feeling I have to dislike a book.

More generally Ellen's Emperor's Clothes comment made me realize how much being active on GR has changed my reading experience. I never would have heard of Ban en Banlieue if not for this group, and I wouldn't be following TOB, and I definitely wouldn't be making myself write reviews/think about what I had just read to the level of detail I have for the past year or so, ever since I posted my first comment in a GR group. GR makes participatory what used to be a solitary act of reading and it has all kinds of effects on the reading experience to be talking about it all the time here.

As an experiment, I tried writing my review in the style of the book. It was very difficult at first, but I quickly came to realize it is EXTREMELY seductive to be able to write whatever free-association nonsense comes into your head and put it down without caring one fig for coherence or narrative.

Yes, seductive. Even fun, after a minute. Scarily, though, it turned out to be hard to stop. I tried to write a normal review afterward and I had to keep going back and rewriting sentences to make them more coherent.

All of which is to say, I ended up going from 2 stars to 1 star after writing the review, because I came away convinced that the book's lack of coherence was due to a lazy, self-indulgent refusal to care about communicating her point, thinly disguised as poetic creativity.

My review, if you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

That review is the bomb. Thank you for that.

I second Amberbug! Laughed and nodded along to your experimentalist review!

Amy wrote: "I second Amberbug! Laughed and nodded along to your experimentalist review!"

Ha! Yay! So glad you guys enjoyed it. :-)

Mainon wrote: "As an experiment, I tried writing my review in the style of the book. It was very difficult at first, but I quickly came to realize it is EXTREMELY seductive to be able to write whatever free-assoc..."

Mainon, you are the wind beneath my wings.