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A review by bookishwithb
Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chughtai by Ismat Chughtai
3.0
while I appreciate and wholeheartedly applaud the manner in which Chungtai wrote feminism politics and sexuality, I severely lowered my star rating because of my own discomfort with the position of the child in these stories.
I noticed in this book, just as I have in most adult targeted postcolonial literature, that the child is more often than not abused and traumatized before the eyes of the adult western reader. there is a reason "The Quilt" is the most popular of her short stories, and its the exact same reason [IMO] books like beasts of no nation, song for night and The Smell of Apples are so successful - the exploitation of the child for the emotional reaction of the occidental reader.
personally not a fan of reading children's trauma from their perspective for the sake of a story however meaningful it is. other than that, the other stories and the political and feminist points Chungtai made throughout the stories were 10/10 and her writing style is beautiful.
I noticed in this book, just as I have in most adult targeted postcolonial literature, that the child is more often than not abused and traumatized before the eyes of the adult western reader. there is a reason "The Quilt" is the most popular of her short stories, and its the exact same reason [IMO] books like beasts of no nation, song for night and The Smell of Apples are so successful - the exploitation of the child for the emotional reaction of the occidental reader.
personally not a fan of reading children's trauma from their perspective for the sake of a story however meaningful it is. other than that, the other stories and the political and feminist points Chungtai made throughout the stories were 10/10 and her writing style is beautiful.