by: Gauri Deshpande Publisher: EastWest Books (Madras) Pvt. Ltd. , Price: Rs.135 Reviewed by: Ashish Khosla - (ashish@acm.org) One may ask, what is there about yet another book of fiction ( this time short stories) about India, or from an Indian writer? I feel that there is, about this one: The Lackadaisical Sweeper, by Gauri Deshpande. As the author explains in "Rose Jam", this is not about other people's India, it is about our India, and especially about our women; the middle-class, urban variety of them and their hard lives. It is not "constructed" to reinforce preconceptions; it is indeed about us as we are, as we feel, as we live, as we laugh, cry and grind our teeth. There are Indian women in a variety of situations, both in India and abroad; and their reactions - naive, sophisticated, alarmed, confident ( but eventually falling on their faces); they are all there. Written in a misleadingly simple style, one has often to read a story twice, which sometimes even makes the reader fall on her face. The women are very "identifiable-with", however different their characters and situations from yourselves - even the men. I recommend this highly - especially to those jaded with cleverness and tourist-appeal. Though this is her first short-story collection in English, Gauri Deshpande is no stranger to the reading public. An accomplished and eminent writer in Marathi, she has many novels, essays, short stories, poems and translations to her credit. This collection will no doubt add to the numbers of readers who appreciate her controversial and quirky writing. |