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May 20, 2022
Ravi Mangla's Playlist for His Novel "The Observant"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Ravi Mangla's The Observant is a smartly told and surprising literary thriller.
Rion Amilcar Scott wrote of the book:
"Short and powerful, Ravi Mangla’s The Observant begs to be read in one sitting, but I read it slowly, piece-by-piece, marvelling at the book’s layered and emotional turns. It really is a masterful work."
In his own words, here is Ravi Mangla's Book Notes music playlist for his novel The Observant:
Music, while rarely on when writing, fills the interstitial spaces between expression fits. It’s hard to imagine my creative process (or life for that matter) without music as an emotional rebalancing. For this list, I tried to think of songs that gelled with the text thematically. But not only are the themes of the book—like authoritarianism—not your standard musical fare, I have a terrible ear for lyrics. I can listen to a song a hundred times without having any clue what it’s about. (I probably read similarly, focusing more on the musicality of sentences than what they actually mean.) So the following playlist is me guessing what songs are about based on literal interpretations of their titles:
Mutual Benefit - Advanced Falconry
Falconry factors into The Observant (see: cover) and makes up one of my favorite parts of the book. I assume this Mutual Benefit song is about the intricacies of falconry.
Emily King - Believer
The blind allegiance fostered by authoritarianism factors into this book, hence “Believer.”
HONNE, BEKA - Location Unknown
The story takes place in a composite autocratic country. So “Location Unknown” is the most apt description of the book’s setting.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Don’t You Forget About Me
Vasant, the main character in the book, ends up kidnapped in a foreign country and doesn’t want people to “forget about” him.
King Garbage - Busy on a Saturday Night
Vasant is “busy on a Saturday night,” because he’s been kidnapped.
Bahamas - Own Alone
While none of this book takes place in the Bahamas, Vasant does spend a fair amount of time on his “own”... “alone.”
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
This is just a great song. Maybe the greatest song of the past forty years. No real connection to the book.
Lucy Lu - Insomniac
Vasant periodically suffers from insomnia throughout the novel. I’d like to believe the song “Insomniac” is about being diagnosed with a sleep disorder.
Lady Wray - Joy & Pain
The characters in the book feel “joy and pain” in different moments. (God, I really have to start paying attention to lyrics…)
Cannons - Bad Dream
For Vasant, much of what takes place feels like a “bad dream.” He’s fallen into a terrible situation and questions whether he’ll make it out alive.
Ravi Mangla lives in Fairport, NY. His work has appeared in Mid-American Review, American Short Fiction, Tin House Online, The Rumpus, Mental Floss, The Oyster Review and McSweeney's Internet Tendency, among other publications. He keeps a website at ravimangla.com
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