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A review by solachi
When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasamy
4.0
"In his rule book - sworn by patriarchy, watered by feudalism, manured by a selective interpretation of Communism - a woman should not moan. That is how history steals her voice."
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A young woman marries a dashing University professor, moves to Mangalore, a place, so alien to her, but with her hopes high and colorful, nothing appeared to be unfeasible. Four days into marriage, facebook and e-mail passwords extorted; four weeks in, enduring the interminable verbal abuse, persuaded to forget her passion for writing, incessantly called "petit - bourgeois woman"; domestic abuse after a month & marital rape after two months. The story is unfaltering, and raw.
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TW: The language is unprocessed. You will be forced to read about domestic violence, spousal rape & suicidal tendencies in detail, which produces intense, fervent emotions.
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The characters are unnamed. This feature is to make the readers slip into the skin of an Indian, a Tamil woman who wants to soar high but ends plummeting with wings clipped.
The book is extremely pessimistic. It is not for weak willed readers. Every chapter has an epigraph from poems, and novels. One of my favourite epigraph is from chapter Xii - Zora Neale Hurston's "Their eyes were watching God"
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The intertextuality makes this book so much better with Hélène Cixous, Marx, Woolf, Maoists, communists, and whatnot. Apart from the dry, repetitive patterns in every chapter, this depicts reality as it is, no more, no less.
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Will I recommend it? Yes, but to a specific group of audience who are willing to be traumatized. Did it distress me? Absolutely.
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Rating: 4/5 ✨
(GR - 16/24)
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A young woman marries a dashing University professor, moves to Mangalore, a place, so alien to her, but with her hopes high and colorful, nothing appeared to be unfeasible. Four days into marriage, facebook and e-mail passwords extorted; four weeks in, enduring the interminable verbal abuse, persuaded to forget her passion for writing, incessantly called "petit - bourgeois woman"; domestic abuse after a month & marital rape after two months. The story is unfaltering, and raw.
.
TW: The language is unprocessed. You will be forced to read about domestic violence, spousal rape & suicidal tendencies in detail, which produces intense, fervent emotions.
.
The characters are unnamed. This feature is to make the readers slip into the skin of an Indian, a Tamil woman who wants to soar high but ends plummeting with wings clipped.
The book is extremely pessimistic. It is not for weak willed readers. Every chapter has an epigraph from poems, and novels. One of my favourite epigraph is from chapter Xii - Zora Neale Hurston's "Their eyes were watching God"
.
The intertextuality makes this book so much better with Hélène Cixous, Marx, Woolf, Maoists, communists, and whatnot. Apart from the dry, repetitive patterns in every chapter, this depicts reality as it is, no more, no less.
.
Will I recommend it? Yes, but to a specific group of audience who are willing to be traumatized. Did it distress me? Absolutely.
.
Rating: 4/5 ✨
(GR - 16/24)