jennderqueer's review
3.0
This is a short story collection - and those are usually up and down in terms of quality anyway - from a culture wildly different to my own. Some of the stories were very good and some I couldn't even begin to wrap my head around.
deepan2486's review
5.0
Bengali stories typically deal with peculiar feelings of mundane characters. I’ve always felt that instead of being subtle and metaphorical, stories by Bengali writers are crude on their backdrops, and they portray the construct of the story in quite an uncensored way.
Much like the wonderful interaction that Bengal has with its flourishing flora and fauna, with the blood red hibiscus and milk white shiuli, the majestic striped tigress and turquoise-necked kingfishers, the stories that come from this land are starkly natural and deeply impacting. When I say Bengal, I don’t mean the partitioned disparity between West Bengal and Bangladesh, I legitimately mean Bengal’s soil as a whole: soil that can’t be marked by some lines that define geographical boundaries. Bangladesh strives everyday to bring Bengali culture to new light, the writers who’ve born there and been brought up there work tirelessly let the world know what really lies at the heart of Bengal.
‘The Demoness’ will be able to entrap you within the folds of its essence right from the first story by Kazi Nazrul Islam ‘The Demoness’, where you will see feminism, injustice and helplessness crawl around. Starting from there, you will see again and again characters who’ve been wronged, characters who want to break out of socio-political stigma and Bengali people who just want to let their voice be heard. The most moving aspect of this collection remains to be the assortment of backdrops, mostly they talk about issues which can be labelled as a taboo by most conservative mindsets. But the writers of Bangladesh, like always, have set off on a venture where they will let their literature transmit the heat of the blood that is boiling within them, they will let their dissatisfaction, melancholy, discord take the sounds of a booming trumpet. One word to describe the stories: ‘fearless’. In particular, what is fear when you have razor-sharp dialect whose usage is only the worship of free speech? What is cowardice when you have a voice that teaches and tutors the ostracized not to bow down, but to retaliate? Essentially, Bengali literature aims to dissolve linguistic barriers, and emerge as a tongue that echoes the lives of populations.
Niaz Zaman’s selection of the stories craft a fine harmony with the people and the fabric of their lives, where they can think and feel freely. She has probably striven to shake the prison bars of orthodox literature by such far-willed, visionary stories that touch right at your sore spot. Pages in the book ‘The Demoness’ will probably not let you smile to yourself, perhaps it will also not make you feel warm and satisfied. These stories are meant to stir those emotions you’ve tried to tame, they are meant to let you stand up.
Thanks Aleph Book Company for the copy.
Much like the wonderful interaction that Bengal has with its flourishing flora and fauna, with the blood red hibiscus and milk white shiuli, the majestic striped tigress and turquoise-necked kingfishers, the stories that come from this land are starkly natural and deeply impacting. When I say Bengal, I don’t mean the partitioned disparity between West Bengal and Bangladesh, I legitimately mean Bengal’s soil as a whole: soil that can’t be marked by some lines that define geographical boundaries. Bangladesh strives everyday to bring Bengali culture to new light, the writers who’ve born there and been brought up there work tirelessly let the world know what really lies at the heart of Bengal.
‘The Demoness’ will be able to entrap you within the folds of its essence right from the first story by Kazi Nazrul Islam ‘The Demoness’, where you will see feminism, injustice and helplessness crawl around. Starting from there, you will see again and again characters who’ve been wronged, characters who want to break out of socio-political stigma and Bengali people who just want to let their voice be heard. The most moving aspect of this collection remains to be the assortment of backdrops, mostly they talk about issues which can be labelled as a taboo by most conservative mindsets. But the writers of Bangladesh, like always, have set off on a venture where they will let their literature transmit the heat of the blood that is boiling within them, they will let their dissatisfaction, melancholy, discord take the sounds of a booming trumpet. One word to describe the stories: ‘fearless’. In particular, what is fear when you have razor-sharp dialect whose usage is only the worship of free speech? What is cowardice when you have a voice that teaches and tutors the ostracized not to bow down, but to retaliate? Essentially, Bengali literature aims to dissolve linguistic barriers, and emerge as a tongue that echoes the lives of populations.
Niaz Zaman’s selection of the stories craft a fine harmony with the people and the fabric of their lives, where they can think and feel freely. She has probably striven to shake the prison bars of orthodox literature by such far-willed, visionary stories that touch right at your sore spot. Pages in the book ‘The Demoness’ will probably not let you smile to yourself, perhaps it will also not make you feel warm and satisfied. These stories are meant to stir those emotions you’ve tried to tame, they are meant to let you stand up.
Thanks Aleph Book Company for the copy.
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