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A review by readbyrum
Abandon by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay
3.0
Abandon follows an artist and a mother, one woman divided into 2 by her desire to live freely and her duty to serve others. Our self-reflective protagonist, Ishwari, defies the conventions of South Asian womanhood by choosing self over community.
Ishwari serves as a physical and emotional anchor for surrounding male characters who depend on her for stability. There is an urgent sense of claustrophobia throughout where her impulse to abandon creeps in over her maternal disposition. She is by no means perfect, but I loved her complexity and commitment to autonomy which we never see in orthodox depictions of Asian women.
The prose are mainly punchy and straight-forward, although at times a little overwrought and jarringly hyperbolic when slipping into Ishwari’s artistic persona. Overall, it was enjoyable and thematically important, but a little slow-moving.
Ishwari serves as a physical and emotional anchor for surrounding male characters who depend on her for stability. There is an urgent sense of claustrophobia throughout where her impulse to abandon creeps in over her maternal disposition. She is by no means perfect, but I loved her complexity and commitment to autonomy which we never see in orthodox depictions of Asian women.
The prose are mainly punchy and straight-forward, although at times a little overwrought and jarringly hyperbolic when slipping into Ishwari’s artistic persona. Overall, it was enjoyable and thematically important, but a little slow-moving.