#desi lit

[papenathys]

Hello, me again. I was wondering if i could have some book recommendations for indian feminist literature?

Also have u read "Caste as woman" by vrinda nabar? I started reading that and so far it seems good, i would love to know what u think if u have read it!

hello ♥️♥️. no I didn't read that book, but I'll look it up. full disclaimer, I don't read much non fiction, so this will mainly be me recommending feminist fiction, and then some writers who can be considered Indian feminist icons.

fiction

the palace of illusions, chitra bannerjee divakaruni: the maharabharat is narrated from draupadi's pov in this lush and richly evocative mythological retelling of the epic, a great study of feminine rage in a world peopled by the destinies of male "heroes".

breast stories, mahasweta devi: as the title suggests, this short collection centres around the breast- as a symbol of violation, of revolt and of agency. in general, I really recommend mahasweta if you're looking to get into indian feminist writing especially now, when her stories are being deliberately excluded in many ~esteemed~ university syllabi.

when i hit you, meena kandasamy: a harrowing account of the domestic abuse inflicted upon the narrator by her ex revolutionary husband, this novel provides great commentary about how a person's seemingly radical political beliefs can mask his misogyny and the various ways an Indian woman is alienated in her house and in society.

kari, amruta patil: beautiful graphic novel about a butch lesbian coping in the aftermath of a tumultuous relationship and a botched suicide attempt. provides an intimate portrait of navigating sexuality, gender dysphoria, urban loneliness and mortality as queer women. a favourite of mine.

the quilt and other stories, ismat chugtai: yes yes we all know chugtai's sardonic and wittily erotic sapphic story lihaaf (the inspired behind deepa mehta's fire) but this collection also includes her other works, mainly centred on sexuality of women and the ways we are not often allowed ownership of even our own bodies.

non fiction

essays and poems, savitribai phule: she wrote several poems, including the collections kavya phule and bavan kashi subodh ratnakar. if you can read marathi you can read her original works, or like me, read translations of selected poems. most of her poems deal with casteism and rebelling against caste-based traditions/identities.

daughters of the sun, ira mukhoty: a historical biography of the many beautiful, fierce and brilliant women of the mughal empire, who often played a crucial role in shaping the politics and culture of the dynasty. from formidable matriarchs to wilful empress consorts to female saints and darogas and poetesses, this book is full of accounts of remarkable women.

the weave of my life, urmila pawar: memoir of a mahar dalit author who moved away from the konkan coast to mumbai (against severe opposition) and went on to embark on a lifelong mission for the emancipation of dalit women. it's ultimately a book of hope.

novels by easterine kire: kire writes incredibly poignant novels about the experiences of naga women; while a terrible matriarchy is her account of naga rituals and lifestyle, and how matriarchy doesn't necessarily equate a feminist society, don't run, my love deals with how the fragile peace between a mother and daughter is severed by the arrival of a male hunter at their doorstep.

hope you find something to your liking from this (very short) list. there are tons of great indian feminist writers!

[badbookopinions]

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri

5/5

Newlyweds Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli are leaving their home in Calcutta to move to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their son, nicknamed Gogol after the Russian writer, will grow up never fully belonging to either world.

I mostly read sci-fi, and I’ve got a childish bias against literary fiction: something about how characters are rarely perfectly happy at the end, how it’s a mundane sort of unhappiness that could happen to anyone, has always bothered me a little bit. This book has the same sort of ending: not so much bittersweet as it is mundane. Gogol and Ashima live ordinary lives, which we follow, and then we don’t anymore.

Regardless of this, I did love this book. It’s half because of Lahiri’s careful, specific prose, and half from the depth of character she gives her mains, extraordinary in so short a book.

My mother loves her South Asian immigrant stories, so I’ve read several and I’ll probably read several more. This one doesn’t leave the formula much, but it’s one of the finest examples of it I’ve ever read.

Plot: winding. Like life, Lahiri doesn’t bother much with foreshadowing or three-act structure: it progresses steadily and the twists are unexpected in the same way they are in life. The only thing tying it together is that theme of Nikolai Gogol, whose works changed Ashoke’s life and whose name haunts Gogol his whole life. I loved seeing that theme weave its way in and out of the story, to come full circle at the end.

Characters: excellent. They’re carefully realized people, flawed and loveable. Lahiri’s narrators are charismatic, and even when I didn’t like them I wanted to hear more about them. She’s got a gift for specific little gestures and turns of phrase that bring people to life, and I love how we see characters though various eyes and perspectives.

Setting: beautiful and detailed. So much of this book is summary: paragraphs of the ordinary parts of living, of journeys and schoolwork and the places we live. Lahiri pays more attention to them than perhaps any other author I’ve read, until Cambridge and Calcutta and their house in the suburbs are as much members of the story as Gogol’s love interests.

Prose: specific and unique. There’s an interesting narrative voice going on here: it’s removed a certain amount from the characters, and doubles back on itself to explain some things, never addressing the audience directly but sort of halfway-aware of them anyways. Here’s an example from page 2: “When she calls out to Ashoke, she doesn’t say his name. Ashima never thinks of her husband’s name when she things of her husband, even though she knows perfectly well what it is. She has adopted his surname but refuses, for propriety’s sake, to utter his first. It’s not the type of thing that Bengali wives do. Like a kiss or caress in a Hindi movie, a husband’s name is something intimate and therefore unspoken, cleverly patched over. And so, instead of saying Ashoke’s name she utters the interrogative that has come to replace it, which translates roughly as, “Are you listening to me?”” I read this and was hooked - my grandmother does the exact same thing, down to the ‘me kya ji’ Ashima uses instead. 

Diversity rating: most prominent characters are Bengali. Well-written women. 

[papenathys]

Hello, hope you had a great week! I have been amazed by your reading skills and I am eager to read more as my exams are almost over. I plan to start with author like Ruskin Bond. Could you give me suggestions on his books, as it would be the first time I'll be facing his literary style (excluding the fact that I had his short story in my Eng book). Thanks a lot! Love your blog <3

Hello dear, here I have made a list of Ruskin Bond's works to help you ease into his style.

Ruskin Bond's Children's Omnibus

Undoubtedly the best book to start with Bond's writing, here you will find some of his most famous works like The Blue Umbrella, The Angry River (a personal favourite) and Grandfather's Private Zoo. This omnibus, as you can tell from the title, is geared towards younger readers and has a Studio Ghibli type feel to its charm, starring teen protagonists. It's also a great way to be introduced to Bond's grandparents.

Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra

A collection of short stories that will give you an understanding of Bond's life in North India from early childhood to adulthood. Several of the stories focus on his father, who is of great significance in his writing. I think it's good to read this book to get context for his novels.

Room on the Roof + Vagrants in the Valley (Rusty series #1 and #2)

Room on the Roof was Ruskin Bond's first novel, and it is semi autobiographical in nature. It's about a young Anglo Indian boy who escapes the oppressive clutches of his English godfather and goes to live with a bunch of Indian boys at the bazaar. It's endearing, youthful and quite poignant. After that read its sequel Vagrants in the Valley, which provides closure to the aftermath of Room and sets the stage for the other Rusty novels, which you can read at your leisure.

A Handful of Nuts

This is an autobiographical novella about Bond's life in Dehra in the early twenties, while he was writing Room on The Roof. Features a cast of feral chaotic characters like a sleazy Maharani, an intrusive washerman and a runaway circus tiger. I had stitches laughing because this was a hilarious read (although the humour is quite adult).

The Best of Ruskin Bond

As the title says, this anthology compiles some of the best short works + 2 novellas of Bond. Honestly every section of this book is a gem. You have Love and Friendship: Short Stories which showcases some of Bond's more famous writing, there's From a Little Room: Essays and Vignettes full of his trademark whimsical musings, and my favourite On The Road: Travel Writings which describe his travels in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. There is also a section featuring his love poetry.

A Flight of Pigeons

Now that you have been well acquainted with his style, it's time to read one of his most experimental works. This is a historical novel set in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 and the protagonist is a young girl named Ruth, who is given shelter by a Muslim rebel family. An excellent story from the usually restrained, nature-loving pen of Bond.

Delhi is Not Far

Famously centred around a bisexual protagonist in a polyamorous relationship, this novella is also a semi-autobiographical text, this time featuring an unnamed man struggling to flourish in a writing career. His life is changed when he meets an epileptic, handsome street peddler named Suraj and a charming prostitute called Kamla. This is one of Bond's more mature, sombre works.

Lone Fox Dancing

Bond's memoir, full of photographs and memorabilia, as the author reminisces on a life well lived. Since his writing is so deeply personal, it's fitting to read his own narrative and how he came to be the beloved author we know today.

Landour Diaries

Playful, serene, nostalgic diary entries detailing flora, fauna and the eccentric lives of the dwellers of Mussoorie where Bond lives now. Very light and easy to read, and comes with pretty illustrations. Also pretty funny at times.

Hopefully this list will give you some help. Happy reading!

[ kofi: papenathys ]

[papenathys]

"Why should we feel we have to whitewash our heroines? Every human being is a mix of strength and weakness. We must accept and admire our women protagonists just the way they are and not place an unfair burden of perfection on them."

- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

[papenathys]

Yasmin Tambiah, as quoted by Giti Thadani, Sakhiyani: Lesbian Desire in Ancient and Modern India, 1996

[papenathys]

As I prepare to leave she walks with me, half deaf and blind, into the garden (...) so that her eyes swim out into the dark green and unfocused purple. There is very little now that separates the house from the garden. Rain and vines and chickens move into the building. Before I leave, she points to a group photograph of a fancy dress party that shows herself and my grandmother Lalla in the crowd. She has looked at it for years and has in this way memorized everyone's place in the picture. She reels off names and laughs at the expressions she can no longer see. It has moved, tangible, palpable, into her brain, the way memory invades the present in those who are old, the way gardens invade houses here, the way her tiny body steps into mine as intimate as anything I have witnessed and I have to force myself to be gentle with this frailty in the midst of my embrace.

- michael ondaatje, 'aunts', running in the family, 1982

[badbookopinions]

The Devourers - Indra Das

B: good book, but it disturbed me, so I wouldn’t want to read it again. 

Alok, a college professor in Kolkata, is asked by a man who calls himself a ‘half-werewolf’ to transcribe a story. As he becomes friends with the stranger and finds more about the story, written by Cyrah, a sex worker in Shah Jahan’s India, trying to confront her rapist, he gets drawn further into this monstrous story.

I spent this entire book whispering ‘gross gross gross’ under my breath. Das doesn’t shy away from the gore: someone is always bleeding or vomiting or peeing or committing acts of violence/cannibalism. 

The whole book is so monstrous - people seeing and doing terrible things. But if you’ve ever talked a big game about monsterfucking or wanting to be a cryptid, I’d recommend it, because Das doesn’t write it as good or bad, but as bigger than anything people can describe - terrible and glorious. It freaked me out. It might not freak you out.

I loved the story-within-a-story aspect, and how we discovered things slowly - there are some legitimate twists.

I got this from the library as an ebook and the formatting was a MESS. I hope it’s better in a printed copy, because I often had no idea who was talking or where we were and lots of it had weird indents that made it hard to read.

Plot: love a story in a story. I had a great time with how stories wove together and combined: especially at the beginning, when we see this monstrous man through his own eyes where he saw nothing wrong with his actions, and then when Alok takes narration over again he’s disgusted at him.

Characters: completely unrelatable and unlikeable, but interesting. That’s a bit of an exaggeration: I did enjoy Alok and Cyrah, even if I don’t think I’d like them in real life.

Setting: beautiful and disgusting in turns. Das did an excellent job with Kolkata and with Mughal India in the description: especially in Kolkata, where he mentions specific restaurants and grounds things as a wonderful contrast to the stories the half-werewolf tells. He also develops the culture of the monsters, which was profoundly disturbing and freaked me the hell out.

Prose: gross. Every time a werewolf is on the page he does something that makes me say gross under my breath. And Das makes sure I don’t forget how gross it is. Thanks for that, Mr. Das.

Diversity report: a queer Bengali narrator (Alok), a Muslim West Asian main character (Cyrah), and several other South Asians.

[badbookopinions]

City of Red Midnight - Usman T. Malik

You can find this on the Tor website at https://www.tor.com/2020/10/21/city-of-red-midnight-a-hikayat-usman-t-malik/#more-615043. It does the story-within-a-story thing so well, and I really loved the different layers happening at once, how you dip into stories and out of them again (I need to read more fiction like this because it's such a good trope). I also loved how Malik keeps the rhythm of it going, if that makes sense - you can hear how it's meant to be spoken aloud, and it was great of the storyteller Baba Kahani to speak directly to the listeners of the story and to us. Also, some A+ magical and horror elements.