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_askthebookbug's review against another edition
5.0
An Unrestored Woman - #bookrecommendation
•
"My wife comes into the room, shutting out the sun as she closes the door, and lays the wad of bills on the table in front of me. I can't look at her. I want to feel shame but I only feel a thin pleasure, like a fine layer of skin, puckered and white and soulless, floating on cooling milk." - Shobha Rao.
•
Set during the time of partition, this book of twelve short stories strikes a chord that seems deeply personal. As the title suggests, the protagonists are mostly women. Women of all kinds and ages. Apart from being a very intense read, it stirs up feelings that we often tend to forget about. There's helplessness, strength, courage, despair and many other emotions that did take a toll on me. The stories are not too difficult to comprehend but there's an underlying sense of pain that follows every word. It is often said and known that it was women who were much more adversely affected during the partition for they were abducted, raped and even killed. This book gives us a glimpse of what they might have gone through.
•
There were few chapters that made me cringe like women being trapped in loveless marriages. Two women who meet at a refugee camp bond over few days and build a relationship which is beyond love. They are separated and the aftereffects of it kills one as the other woman goes on to become a rich woman. The Merchant's Mistress and An Unrestored Woman, the first two chapters set the pace for rest of the book. The most beautiful thing about the book is how they're interlinked, be it the characters or the stories. It's narrated stunningly and is extremely vivid. Women who sell their bodies to support their husbands, women who are raped for days and how Muslims and Hindus slaughtered each other like animals. It's a thought-provoking read.
•
I would definitely recommend this to those who enjoy a powerful book. Something that'd make your blood run cold as you take in the lives of people who were born during that period.
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Rating - 5/5.
•
"My wife comes into the room, shutting out the sun as she closes the door, and lays the wad of bills on the table in front of me. I can't look at her. I want to feel shame but I only feel a thin pleasure, like a fine layer of skin, puckered and white and soulless, floating on cooling milk." - Shobha Rao.
•
Set during the time of partition, this book of twelve short stories strikes a chord that seems deeply personal. As the title suggests, the protagonists are mostly women. Women of all kinds and ages. Apart from being a very intense read, it stirs up feelings that we often tend to forget about. There's helplessness, strength, courage, despair and many other emotions that did take a toll on me. The stories are not too difficult to comprehend but there's an underlying sense of pain that follows every word. It is often said and known that it was women who were much more adversely affected during the partition for they were abducted, raped and even killed. This book gives us a glimpse of what they might have gone through.
•
There were few chapters that made me cringe like women being trapped in loveless marriages. Two women who meet at a refugee camp bond over few days and build a relationship which is beyond love. They are separated and the aftereffects of it kills one as the other woman goes on to become a rich woman. The Merchant's Mistress and An Unrestored Woman, the first two chapters set the pace for rest of the book. The most beautiful thing about the book is how they're interlinked, be it the characters or the stories. It's narrated stunningly and is extremely vivid. Women who sell their bodies to support their husbands, women who are raped for days and how Muslims and Hindus slaughtered each other like animals. It's a thought-provoking read.
•
I would definitely recommend this to those who enjoy a powerful book. Something that'd make your blood run cold as you take in the lives of people who were born during that period.
•
Rating - 5/5.
readingwithhippos's review against another edition
5.0
Usually I'm all in favor of not reading too much about books before starting them. In this case, though, I wish I'd noted ahead of time that these are paired short stories. Each story overlaps just enough with its partner to cast a skewed light, ever so slightly warping and twisting what you thought you knew about the characters or their situation.
Sadly, I was slow to catch on to this pattern. Having never encountered a paired short story collection, I assumed all the stories in the book were linked, and thus wasted a fair amount of energy looking for repeating characters throughout the book. I should have recognized Rao had adopted a straightforward, rigid structure for the collection, because the stories themselves are so well-organized and perfectly contained. That's probably not a sexy way to describe a short story, but it appeals immensely to my concrete-sequential brain. Rao also wisely limits herself thematically by focusing the entire collection on one historical event: Partition—when, in 1947, India and Pakistan were divided by a line on a map into two distinct countries.
I couldn't help but compare Rao's collection with another I read recently, [b:What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours|25810500|What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours|Helen Oyeyemi|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1447463920s/25810500.jpg|45666508] by Helen Oyeyemi. If Oyeyemi's stories are like overgrown gardens that require a reader to bushwhack her way out (beautiful but oh-so-thorny!), Rao's stories are like perfectly smooth glass paperweights, plenty hefty but complete in themselves. I loved both collections, but upon reflection, they really could not be more different.
This is already one of my favorite books of the year: hard but redemptive in theme, spare and precise in style. Rao has a mysterious way of making her characters immediately knowable—a few lines in and you're right with her, waiting with wide eyes to see what will happen to them. And I know people say this all the time, but I can't believe this is a debut.
With regards to Flatiron Books and Goodreads for the review copy, which I was lucky enough to win in a recent giveaway. On sale now!
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
Sadly, I was slow to catch on to this pattern. Having never encountered a paired short story collection, I assumed all the stories in the book were linked, and thus wasted a fair amount of energy looking for repeating characters throughout the book. I should have recognized Rao had adopted a straightforward, rigid structure for the collection, because the stories themselves are so well-organized and perfectly contained. That's probably not a sexy way to describe a short story, but it appeals immensely to my concrete-sequential brain. Rao also wisely limits herself thematically by focusing the entire collection on one historical event: Partition—when, in 1947, India and Pakistan were divided by a line on a map into two distinct countries.
I couldn't help but compare Rao's collection with another I read recently, [b:What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours|25810500|What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours|Helen Oyeyemi|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1447463920s/25810500.jpg|45666508] by Helen Oyeyemi. If Oyeyemi's stories are like overgrown gardens that require a reader to bushwhack her way out (beautiful but oh-so-thorny!), Rao's stories are like perfectly smooth glass paperweights, plenty hefty but complete in themselves. I loved both collections, but upon reflection, they really could not be more different.
This is already one of my favorite books of the year: hard but redemptive in theme, spare and precise in style. Rao has a mysterious way of making her characters immediately knowable—a few lines in and you're right with her, waiting with wide eyes to see what will happen to them. And I know people say this all the time, but I can't believe this is a debut.
With regards to Flatiron Books and Goodreads for the review copy, which I was lucky enough to win in a recent giveaway. On sale now!
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
rocio_voncina's review against another edition
4.0
Titulo: Una mujer desposeida
Autor: Shobha Rao
Año publicado: 2016
Motivo de lectura: #MarzoAsiatico
Lectura / Relectura: Lectura
Fisico / Electronico: Electronico
Mi edicion: -
Idioma: Español
Puntuacion: 4/5
Es una antologia realmente muy interesante, que abarca varios temas de la cultura de la India. Como en toda antologia, el nivel de las historias varia, pero sin dudas recomiendo su lectura.
Una mujer desposeida: una historia muy triste pero para nada exagerada y que aborda la realidad del destino de las mujeres viudas en la India. La construccion de los persoonajes y la manera que interactuan es realmente excelente, todo aporta mucho realismo. 5/5.
La amante del mercader: una historia de supervivencia. La protagonista haciendo lo que sea para intentar tener una vida (ni siquiera hablo de una vida de lujos), literalmente hablo de permanecer viva. Adoro a Reenu. 5/5.
La policia imperial: esta clase de historias siempre me rompen el corazon. Cuando la sociedad es tan de mente cerrada y eso lleva a algunas personas a tener que ocultar su verdadero ser como mecanismo de defensa. 5/5.
Andante: como una situacion traumatizante hace mella en la adultez, y como resultado se presenta la disfuncionalidad. 5/5
Con los ojos vendados: que dolor saber que esto no es ficcion, esto es algo que ocurre en la India (y en otros paises tambien). El desenlace de esta historia es absolutamente brillante. 5/5.
La cinta perdida: sin lugar a dudas, la historia mas triste en lo que va de esta antologia. La senti incompleta a la historia, y el final creo que le falto contundencia. 3/5.
Lo contrario de la carnalidad: no se bien como calificar la historia. El protagonista es una basura, pero le ocurrio algo que quizas si no hubiera ocurrido el no seria una basura (?), es muy dificil de calificar. 3/5.
Un rio imponente: comienzo a creer que la antologia esta decayendo. No es que la historia sea mala, pero senti el final abrupto y no resuelto. 3/5.
El camino a Mirpur Khas: el retrato de lo que seria casarse con un inutil. Un hombre absolutamente egoista que habla de su dolor, cuando en realidad es su esposa la que se sacrifica. 2/5.
La memsahib: la obsesion llevada a un nivel irreversible. El protagonista es un ser absolutamente desagradable. 3/5.
Kavitha y Mustafa: sobre la soledad en compañia y la opcion de no conformarse. 4/5.
Toque de queda: la intension de la historia no queda muy clara, quizas la autora juegue con la confusion de afrontar el dolor y vivir un duelo, pero en mi opinion falto un poquito para redondear la idea. 3/5.
Autor: Shobha Rao
Año publicado: 2016
Motivo de lectura: #MarzoAsiatico
Lectura / Relectura: Lectura
Fisico / Electronico: Electronico
Mi edicion: -
Idioma: Español
Puntuacion: 4/5
Todo cuanto necesitas esta dentro de ti. Y ni el hambre, ni la fatiga, ni la falta de dinero o de medios, o ni siquiera el fracaso, pueden disuadir a quienes tienen un proposito de verdad.
Es una antologia realmente muy interesante, que abarca varios temas de la cultura de la India. Como en toda antologia, el nivel de las historias varia, pero sin dudas recomiendo su lectura.
Una mujer desposeida: una historia muy triste pero para nada exagerada y que aborda la realidad del destino de las mujeres viudas en la India. La construccion de los persoonajes y la manera que interactuan es realmente excelente, todo aporta mucho realismo. 5/5.
La amante del mercader: una historia de supervivencia. La protagonista haciendo lo que sea para intentar tener una vida (ni siquiera hablo de una vida de lujos), literalmente hablo de permanecer viva. Adoro a Reenu. 5/5.
La policia imperial: esta clase de historias siempre me rompen el corazon. Cuando la sociedad es tan de mente cerrada y eso lleva a algunas personas a tener que ocultar su verdadero ser como mecanismo de defensa. 5/5.
Andante: como una situacion traumatizante hace mella en la adultez, y como resultado se presenta la disfuncionalidad. 5/5
Con los ojos vendados: que dolor saber que esto no es ficcion, esto es algo que ocurre en la India (y en otros paises tambien). El desenlace de esta historia es absolutamente brillante. 5/5.
La cinta perdida: sin lugar a dudas, la historia mas triste en lo que va de esta antologia. La senti incompleta a la historia, y el final creo que le falto contundencia. 3/5.
Lo contrario de la carnalidad: no se bien como calificar la historia. El protagonista es una basura, pero le ocurrio algo que quizas si no hubiera ocurrido el no seria una basura (?), es muy dificil de calificar. 3/5.
Un rio imponente: comienzo a creer que la antologia esta decayendo. No es que la historia sea mala, pero senti el final abrupto y no resuelto. 3/5.
El camino a Mirpur Khas: el retrato de lo que seria casarse con un inutil. Un hombre absolutamente egoista que habla de su dolor, cuando en realidad es su esposa la que se sacrifica. 2/5.
La memsahib: la obsesion llevada a un nivel irreversible. El protagonista es un ser absolutamente desagradable. 3/5.
Kavitha y Mustafa: sobre la soledad en compañia y la opcion de no conformarse. 4/5.
Toque de queda: la intension de la historia no queda muy clara, quizas la autora juegue con la confusion de afrontar el dolor y vivir un duelo, pero en mi opinion falto un poquito para redondear la idea. 3/5.
albaheso's review against another edition
4.0
Mujeres fuertes, listas, valientes y, ante todo y por desgracia, menospreciada. Así son las mujeres que nos encontramos en los relatos de Shobha Rao.
Ambientadas en 1947 y alrededores en uno de los acontecimientos más ignominiosos (más inmorales, más despreciables) de la historia de su país como dice la propia autora en referencia a la Partición de India, Rao nos cuenta historias llenas de sufrimiento, tristeza, dolor y violencia, que te hacen sentir junto a sus personajes.
Si bien me han gustado la gran mayoría de los relatos y he sufrido con las mujeres de todos ellos, han habido algunos que no me han gustado, que me han aburrido, en parte, e incluso que me han hecho odiar al personaje principal ("curiosamente" en estos los protagonistas son masculinos).
Mi puntuación está dudosa entre un 3'5 y un 4.
Ambientadas en 1947 y alrededores en uno de los acontecimientos más ignominiosos (más inmorales, más despreciables) de la historia de su país como dice la propia autora en referencia a la Partición de India, Rao nos cuenta historias llenas de sufrimiento, tristeza, dolor y violencia, que te hacen sentir junto a sus personajes.
Si bien me han gustado la gran mayoría de los relatos y he sufrido con las mujeres de todos ellos, han habido algunos que no me han gustado, que me han aburrido, en parte, e incluso que me han hecho odiar al personaje principal ("curiosamente" en estos los protagonistas son masculinos).
Mi puntuación está dudosa entre un 3'5 y un 4.
thesubtlelibrarian's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
obsessioncollector's review against another edition
emotional
3.5
"And he felt that some understanding had eluded him; that if life had ever had any nobility it had most certainly, and most perversely, passed him by. "
hopperesque's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
kbecker40's review against another edition
4.0
Beautifully written interconnected stories. Each one displayed a world of experiences and moments that led to hopeful conclusions. Stories about desire, anger, grief, love, and family. Very enjoyable reading experience.