patriarchy - Comfortably Numb

Book review: Kim Jiyoun, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, ScribnerUK Books. 2018 release. We meet Jiyoung just as she turns 33 and starts to have the most startling behavioural aberrations, startling her caring husband and antoganising her in-laws. Apparently, Jiyoung is a Korean version of Jane Doe and this Jane Doe has been stifled under all the…

Guest column: Patriarchy in the land of matriarchy

Patriarchy in the land of matriarchy Even as Kerala tops the list on the human development, literacy, low infant mortality, high life expectancy indices, it remains at par if not worse than other states in one respect: the disrespect of women. The empowerment of Malayali women has been slowly eroding over the years, and this…

Book review: The Anger of Saintly Men by Anubha Yadav

THE ANGER OF SAINTLY MEN by Anubha Yadav, Bee Books. These boys` lives. Anubha Yadav`s first work of fiction is a raw coming- of- age tale of three brothers, Saurabh (Sonu), Anurag (Anu) and Vikram (Vicky) Singh. It contains all the pleasures and the not inconsiderable pain of adolescence, leavened with a vein of…

Book review: Jasoda by Kiran Nagarkar

Jasoda by Kiran Nagarkar. HarperCollins. We meet Jasoda the eponymous hero/heroine/protagonist of Kiran Nagarkar`s novel as she takes a quick break from working the family`s barren field to deliver a child. The moment she sees it’s a girl, she quickly puts it between her thighs and squeezes till the little girl is still. Because Jasoda…