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lettersinthemargins's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Patriarchy seeps through chinks in womanhood. The need to have a child, protect your daughters, above all - satisfy your mother. It is curiously, the inheritance of an upper class/caste woman - to safeguard appearances is to protect patriarchy at the cost of your sanity. Anxieties become compulsive (dis)orders and rules shouted to maintain social hierarchies, and the honour of your daughters, which is also your own - because it was your mother's before it came down to you with their birth. When the men are incapable, that mantle falls on the woman, of course.
So, the hilsa pulao, duck curry, fresh hot chapatis or luchi, even the creamy milk tea - everything is seeped in caste and patriarchy. The language slips and slides against the sanity dictated by locked rooms, loud orders, an efficient woman who manages the money of the house, her pregnancy and two old daughters with the efficiency of a firm samosa. Only the crows bring bad luck.
So, the hilsa pulao, duck curry, fresh hot chapatis or luchi, even the creamy milk tea - everything is seeped in caste and patriarchy. The language slips and slides against the sanity dictated by locked rooms, loud orders, an efficient woman who manages the money of the house, her pregnancy and two old daughters with the efficiency of a firm samosa. Only the crows bring bad luck.
Read how this matriarch - Our Farida Khanum is the patriarch of Lovely and Beauty. How secrets will always be hidden. How daughters learn to rebel from their confines or their fondness for knives and voices. How caste and class restrictions are religiously followed. And How everything, in a Mrs Dalloway kind of way (one day, an unfurling walk, mostly women and some men), but far more absurd, disturbing, terrifyingly unfurls in one walk outside the house, and others within the Moniponipara house.
The translation is brilliant. The food, even better if that's possible. You will learn some cooking and serving tips if you know what a good girl should be. Don't play games, but be careful when you read this Hellfire - if you're dealing with Internalised Patriarchy to the Power of Infinity, around you, Stay the Fuck Away. It's triggering.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Mental illness, Confinement, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship
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