Sign-In
Cart
Pankaja
Paperback
ISBN13: 9789354473944
Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books
Published: Dec 1 2022
Pages: 216
Weight: 0.47
Height: 0.49 Width: 5.06 Depth: 7.81
Language: English
DeScriPtion
When well-known women's rights activist Vasanth Kannabiran was growing
up in the 1950s, grandmothers and aunts shared many real-life stories
about 'wives, widows and whores' with her. These seemingly disconnected
anecdotes haunted Kannabiran, eventually revealing the pattern of women's
lived realities in the early twentieth century and inspiring her to write Pankaja,
her debut novel.
In Pankaja, Kannabiran paints a vivid portrait of what it meant to be an
upper-caste Hindu woman in India at the time. Pankaja's life and the lives of
her women friends and family members are all shaped by the institution of
marriage; limited by the norm of wifely duty. Pankaja's mother Rajamma faces
undue criticism from society after she is widowed. Pankaja's sister Pattamma,
who is widowed at a young age is branded a bad omen and shunned at social
occasions. When Kannamma, who belongs to a Brahmin family, ends her
unhappy marriage and goes to live with a low-caste mridangam player, her
family disowns her and the entire community condemns her. The individual
stories of these women converge and diverge as they claim the right to their
own lives.
Pankaja places family life under the microscope, presenting us with a vision
of unflinching honesty. Laced with insights about marriage, widowhood and
sexuality, it peels back history to reveal the inner workings of a casteist,
patriarchal society. Wise and emotionally astute, this novel is an engrossing
and moving read.
Also from
Kannabiran, Vasanth
Also in
General Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
Anniversaries, Volume 2: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl, April 1968-August 1968
Johnson, Uwe
Paperback
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose, and Diary Excerpts
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback
Selected Writings: Robert Musil: Young Torless, Three Women, the Perfecting of a Love, and Other Writings
Musil, Robert
Agee, Joel
Paperback
Before Gatsby: The First Twenty-Six Stories
Baughman, Judith
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Bruccoli, Matthew J.
Paperback