A review by maketeaa
Three Women by Arunava Sinha, Rabindranath Tagore

challenging emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.75

this book solidified something about tagore's works that have always interested me -- the importance he gives to women in reflecting a social context. i'm not sure how much, as of yet, i agree with the translator in claiming he was a feminist before his time, but i do find it striking how the women of his stories, while still playing traditional social roles, are analysed, examined, those traditional social acting as a mirror to something bigger, that make readers ask, why? three women, as a collection of short stories, is a fantastic, on-the-point example of this, a weaving together of the three stories of three women and their struggles with forbidden loves -- in some cases their own, such as that of charu, but in others witnessing it between another and their husband, such as sharmila and neeraja. in either case, what tagore makes clear is that love is often not just love for a woman of such a society. because with the dependence on the male figures of her life, imposed on her by a patriarchal bengali social structure, love sustaining between herself and her husband often means sustaining her own life, her own existence, so, as neeraja fears so deeply at the entrance of sarala into her life, she may not be left to disappear.