Night in Delhi - Ranbir Sidhu

Fiction

Verdict: Read it!

This is the first novel I've read by Ranbir Sidhu, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Honestly, I was expecting something a bit more campy, but that was proved false. 

I don't remember what the main character's name is, as it's written in first person, but this novel is about the protagonist, his on-again, off-again, maybe pimp boyfried, and their piece of crap roommate. They go through a few vignets that feature a Delhi with alternate sexual realities. 

I very much enjoyed this novel for a few reasons. I'm pretty open about Delhi being one of the worst places in India to be (and of all the places I've been in my life), and the author has done an absolutely brilliant job of describing the fuck all, dirty attitude that Delhi fosters. The characters were well done and not complex - another noticeable trait one can pick up in Delhi (yes, yes, other places too, don't come for me Delhiites, it's a preference). Some people don't have depth or redeeming characteristics; they're just pieces of shit. Some people have talents and depth that even their families and lovers don't know about. 

What I found especially touching was the simplicity and acceptance of different varieties of love. Temporary loves, long term longing loves, unrequitted loves, the main character manages to cover a lot of bases without judgement.

In a country to fetishizes the traditional hetero normative journey of dating the opposite sex and getting married to have kids, this was a refreshing, normalizing read about letting people love who they want, when and how they want, without shoving it in the reader's face or being preachy about it. Very well done. I'd love to read more from Ranbir Sidhu if the quality is like this.

~Becky~

The Scent of God - Saikat Majumdar

 Fiction

Verdict: Read it!

This is the first novel by Saikat Majumdar I'm ready. Again with the very pretty cover art that caught my attention.

The author takes us through a very specific period of a young monk apprentice's life. Mostly his relationship with a fellow student and some mentorship relationships are explored. I must say, there was a very Tarun Tejpal energy going on here - the kind that makes the reader deeply uncomfortable. 

This is also one of the few books I've read that acknowleges male homosexual relationships at all, not to mention in the neutral observational tone this book takes. It does wander into uncomfortable territory at how the main character's mentors may have engineered that relationship and encouraged it, but overall just has a boy discovering his sexuality in the way that most teenagers do. There's no judgement at all around the many flavors of masculinity that float through the book and I felt that most of them were not negative except for the very angry incarnation that surfaced briefly. I felt almost like an intruder into this bastion of testosterone, but not an unwelcome one. 

This novel left me contemplating masculinity, sexuality, relationships, and life choices at the end. It's rare for a novel to incorporate so many heavy themes in a positive, natural way. You may not agree with the main character's choices or how he comes into his relationship and sexuality, but you must appreciate how skillfully the author wove together his experiences.

Read it!

~Becky~

Against Our Will - Men, Women, and Rape - Susan Brownmiller

As I've mentioned in my other blogs, I live in India. India has a rape problem - a big, ugly one. Understandably, assaulted females have been on my mind as of late, which is why I picked up this book.

I found it to be a very interesting read. Susan Brownmiller brought up many historical contexts and proposed rationale for rape (both in U.S. culture and other countries) and how man's historical, archaic superiority complex and property ownership has led to a current culture of rape. I cautiously agree with some of her precepts and found myself often stopping to consider things I hadn't thought of before. This is the mark of a good book for me, whether I find myself agreeing in the end or not. I found the identified motivation for rape to be refreshingly accurate in a world where the motivation is still thought to be sexual.

Susan Brownmiller is the archetypal old school feminist in my mind. This should not surprise anyone, and if you are of the younger generation and not well versed in the previous generations feminists, you need to read up on that. The old schools are the reason women live a reasonable free and equal existence in the western world. Of course it's not perfect, but it's not terrible compared to some places in the world, like India where I live.

With this outlook in mind, I find myself wondering as to Brownmiller's assumptions and assertions that men are responsible for all of women's misery, which definitely makes an appearance in historical examples. The man who commits a rape is definitely to blame for that rape, but men in general are not necessarily to blame for societal constructs, especially when it sounds like women are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

I also found Susan Brownmiller's belittling of men's fear of being falsely accused of rape a bit much. I would never advocate ignoring/guilting a woman who says she has been raped, but Pottiphar's wife cannot possibly be the first/only/last woman who has ever claimed something falsely. Police, courts, and justice are not infallible and for a man who was truly innocent, the prospect of being thrown in jail for something he didn't do, have his reputation trashed, and have restrictions placed on him even after prison would be enough to make him fight back.

Brownmiller comes from a generation when anger and blame was effective for feminism. New age feminists no longer look at men with anger and blame, even if current ideas (both recognized and subliminal) are not acceptable. This makes it hard for me to swallow the feminist agenda that shines through loud and strong in this 400 page treatise on bodily invasion.

I was also puzzled by Brownmiller's angry ending tirade against pornography. Any pornography at all is seen as a "chic" diversionary enjoyment that people are now tolerant of but is actually a huge debasement to women both acting in porn or who are watching it. Sorry, no. Being aroused by seeing sexuality and sexual acts is as old as time and has never been confined to men. Nor is the act of sex ever degrading to women in a consensual relationship. This is where I start to have huge problems with old school feminism. By blaming men, some women actually participate in placing additional/unnecessary limits on women. It was an ineffective and puzzling end to an otherwise insightful book on the motivations and act of rape.

New school feminism focuses (or should, in my humble opinion) on a woman doing what she wants to, regardless of what men or other women think of her. This is where real freedom and equality lies.

Verdict: Every woman should read books of this sort. Even though I couldn't put it down in a morbidly curious way (which I'm actually ashamed of for some reason), feminism and the subject of rape are something every woman, no matter how young or old, should spend time contemplating. After all, it's when you don't have your own opinions that others step in for you and give you opinions to have, which is unhealthy. I think it would be beneficial in general for men to read. If the problem of entitlement comes out into the open, perhaps we can reduce it, if not end it. Read it.