BOOK TITLE: Sita's
Curse : The Language of Desire
ISBN: 9789350097809
AUTHOR: Sreemoyee
Piu Kundu
GENRE: Fiction
NUMBER OF PAGES: 344
FORMAT: Paperback
SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: This
review is a part of Readers’ Cosmos review program.
SUMMARY:
Somewhere,
behind closed doors, in her solitary world; somewhere, under the sheets with an
indifferent lover; Somewhere, is a woman who will not be denied. Trapped for
fifteen years in the stranglehold of a dead marriage and soulless household
domesticity, the beautiful, full-bodied and passionate Meera Patel depends on
her memories and her flights of fancy to soothe the aches that wrack her body;
to quieten an unquenchable need. Until one cataclysmic day in Mumbai, when she
finally breaks free... Bold, brazen and defiant, Sitas Curse looks at the
hypocrisy of Indian society and tells the compelling story of a middle-class Indian
housewife’s urgent need for love, respect, acceptance and sexual fulfillment
REVIEW:
We got this book as a part of
Readers Cosmos review program. The title sounded enticing and somehow connected
to mythology. But the book is actually erotic fiction, based on real people.
Much as we would like to remind ourselves that we don’t do erotica reviews,
this one slipped by the gauntlet due to its title and celebrated author.
Up front, the book is a first person
narrative of Meera Patel, who is a lonely woman. Married at 17 to a man
previously unknown (Arranged Marriage) she imagines her life to be one of fulfilment
and marital bliss. Learning to enhance her sensuality from the tender age of
puberty, Meera is a really expectant, imaginative girl /woman.
But harsh realities strike in and she
finds that life is not always about pleasure and therefore turns to other
avenues, looking for satisfaction. An absent, uncaring husband, in laws
eliciting various emotions from her, makes Meera go in search of something,
anything, to satisfy her life. She goes in search of a swamiji, only to realise
that he is a pervert. In search of herself, Meera tries to find outlets for all
her frustration, sinking to the level of logging into escort sites that provide
her with yousuf, an enigmatic man who changes her life.
Meera’s trajectory follows the
notorious Mumbai floods, which changes the life of many, irrevocably, Meera’s
turmoil lost in the millions. Giving away any more details would be to give
away the plot, so the story review ends here. But though the plot’s uniqueness is
laudable, the story does leave a bad after taste of explicit scenes. Understood
that the erotica genre has to have certain scenes in detail, but there is a
fine line between exciting and nauseating (I am a fan of neither. Certain
things are best left unsaid. This comment is only for allowing the features of
the genre the book claims to belong to).
The plot revolves around a lonely
woman searching for an outlet for her frustration. The scene description and
writing (though the author’s flair for language is pretty good) makes the
reader squirm, evoking nothing positive in the minds of the reader. The author
claims that this is based on a real life woman who affected her and to some
extent, this is believable. But the book makes the reader flip certain pages to
graze over the ‘detailed description’ parts.
The author, while trying to portray
the struggles of a quintessential Indian housewife, has overdone the bits and
pieces. The book, though touted as a self discovery journey, should have had
other well defined characters than the lead alone. The book is, in one word,
the journey of a woman as she tries to find love in sex. It is bold, it chides
the hypocrisy, it portrays the struggles of a frustrated woman. But it is far
from reality.
WHAT I LIKED: The
language, the construct.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER: No
more comments to be said on the detailed description part of the book. And then
there is the inclusion of vernacular words. A few words for nativity are okay. But
whole chapters named in regional languages is a definite no.
VERDICT: If
you like erotica, and if you want to read to get an insight into the bedroom
struggles of a woman who might be your next door neighbour, go for this!
RATING: 2.5/5
(there is no other story except Meera and her frustration. This is the reason
for the medium rating).
EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Paperback.
PRICE: Rs.
265 for paperback
This review is part of Readers' cosmos review program.
Good review. But I'm not fond of erotica. Is there any deeper longing in the female protagonist? A longing for self-fulfilment that takes her eventually beyond sensualism?
ReplyDeleteThank you :-) we aren't fond of erotica either. As far as that feeling of a deep longing why don't you read the book! It's a matter of perspective!
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