Reviews

The Binding Vine by Shashi Deshpande

sidharthvardhan's review against another edition

4.0

what were use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here?

The quote from Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights appear at the begining of the book and is probably best describes the story.

The narrator Urmilla or Urmi is a sharp tongued woman with a very strong sense of justice. It shows mostly in form of her musings on gender injustice, because well that is where most of injustice is to be found. She has just lost an infant daughter. Although she has dealt with that well enough.

I make the chappaties and we start on our meal. And suddenly I remember Anu, her little sparrow mouth open to receive the spoon, banging her own spoon on the table, turning her head to follow Kartik as he dances about the room to amuse her, the spoon sccrapping her cheek...

Her sense of feminist values is so strong that,for example, she wont use the money her husband sends him but must earn her own. She even walks out on her husband (a gentle man) on the day of their marriage to show her independence -only to come back next day, having made her statemnet. She even came as far as to question whether women were brainwashed into the motherhood thing (by making it all that emotional and mysterious) when one of her friend, another working woman, tells her that her children think that she do not pay enough attention to them. Same thing that doesn't make them angry on their father. This reminnded me of what Pepsico's CEO Indira Nooyi had once
said about working women.

The Poet trapped in Women's body

She comes to discover Meera's poetry. Meera is her long dead mother-in-law, the two never met. Latter didn't want to marry and probably was raped by her husband after her marriage:

But tell me, friend, did Laxmi too,
twist brocade tassels round her fingers
and tremble, fearing the coming
of the dark-clouded, engulfing night?

Meera felt trapped, alone in her new family. she has no metaphorical 'rooom of her own' (both Woolf and her essay are mentioned in passing), she must steal moments late in night when everybody is asleep to write. Although there is a physical room which she has all to herself for three full days of month so that she may no pollute others.

"I rememeber the day the astrologer came home, He read all our horoscopes, told us our futures and we listened as if they were stories about other people. Only my mother's horoscope was not read. "Don't you want to know your future?" I asked her. And she replied this - 'Whats there in my life apart from all of you? If I know all of you are well and happy, I'm happy too.' Did she really mean that? Will I become that way too, indifferent to my own life, thinking it nothing? I don't want to. I won't. I think so now, but maybe my mother thought like when she ws my age. It frightens me. No, it doesn't, I'll never think my life, myself nothing, never."

Beaten by life, Meera taunts her mother in her poems :

"To make myself in your image
was never the goal I sought.

No, Meera couldn't help it. Her mother thought she was acting in her best interest in marrying her:

"Green sari draped about me
green bangles encircle my wrists,
fill your eyes with the sight, mother,
look at me, fruitful and green.

Silver toe rings twinkle on my toes
silver anklets tinkle as I walk
but, oh mother, I stumble, I fall
my arms sink heavily by my sides.

Meera only found happiness again during her second pregnancy:

Tiny fish swiming in the ocean of my womb
my body thrills to you
.
.
Bridging the two worlds, you awaken in me
a desire for life

Ironically, she would die during child birth, perhaps willlingly:

Smiling and joyful, Karna tore off his armour,
his boody trailed blood.
Will that coruage be mine when, denuded,
I stand naked and bare?

Moreover:

I feel the quickening in my womb,
he moves - why do I call the child he?


No, she has no gender preferences. She just doesn't want the child to suffer similar fate.

Woman must know fear.

The statement comes from mother of a rape victim who comes to be in the touch with Urmi. The mother complains that her daughter invited the rape by decorating herself. Urmi protests knowing it to be a case of victim blaming. The daughter shouldn't ideally have anything to fear; she argues and yet, but Urmi believes she was probably afraid:

I know how fearfully I look back, my heart thudding in panic, when I hear footsteps behind me on a dark desserted street.

The victim-blaming isn't limited to the mother. Outsiders think that her behavior was 'objectionable' or that she was prostitute (because that would justify the rape!). Police registers it as a case of an accident because a rape case is too much trouble for everybody - police, doctors, family, victim etc. The mother herself doen't want the case registered, because it will make lives of other children troublesome too. Media does get involved later and there is all that drama - politicians, pseudo-sociologists etc. which most Indians can imagine from their recent memories. No, the book was written way back in 1993. What must have author have felt when Delhi rape case happened!

Dharma, Dharma, Dharma, Dharma, the Mahabharta endlessly, tirelessly repeats. Yet at the end, the poet cries out in despair, I raise my arms and I shout, but no one listens.'

isitfiction's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

4.0

areaderhere's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

fantasticfiction's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I understand why these texts are brilliant and essential, but as Brecht and many other authors and thinkers hold: art must also delight, and this book fails to achieve that. I read primarily for pleasure. I'm not suggesting that all books must incorporate—better yet, force—pop culture themes in order to appeal to readers, but the writing style itself can be enjoyable. The narration in the book falls flat, while the short poems were enjoyable to read. I wished that the author could incorporate some poetic diction in the overall work.

thebookishepicure's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

akansha's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

em_beddedinbooks's review against another edition

4.0

This is my second book by Shashi Deshpande and loved this one too. She is a scintillating author - dark, reflective, female oriented. All her characters are strong, but with flaws. I love the way she depicts people in varying shades fo gray. No one is perfect (as in real life) and though some of the incidents are dramatized I feel keen sympathy and empathy towards most characters. This was a dark book dealing with the life of a woman after the death of her one year old daughter.