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sneh777's review against another edition
5.0
Read over a breezy Saturday evening, and a lazy Sunday afternoon, Women Who Misbehave is brimming with characters who are ripe with volition and ideas. Each main character is so, in her own right, whether it's a woman who is coming to terms with her manipulative prowess, or a little girl fumbling through the darkness to find purpose and love, or a passionate lover who is ready to risk everything for the one. The writing places you bang in the middle of the story making you witness these women as they dodge circumstantial waves and pulls to write their own destiny. The consequences of their actions; good, bad, or ordinary, is maybe upto you to judge, but you surely can't tell them what to do.
manoran's review
3.0
Explicit violence and discrimination against women are abundant in discourses about Patriarchy. But a sly way in which Patriarchy subdues women is by burdening them with expectations to be pure, gentle, forgiving, docile, and non-violent. This is often louder in progressive spaces - "Don't you have a mother and sisters at home?" is a common insult pointed at someone who misbehaves with women (Women deserve respect *because* they are someone's mother or sister). Many of the Women's day wishes singularly praise the role of women as mothers - caring, gentle, nursing, warm, lovely.
In Sayantani's stories, it is refreshing to see women who don't give a flying f about the burden of expectations to be *good*. They don't conform. They hurt and get hurt. They step out of line, not always to stand up to injustice, sometimes because they are selfish. Women who are willing to screw their friend's life out of jealousy, women who are capable of killing their family in cold blood, and even a woman who was a literal Nazi. These are women who were put on a pedestal, and expected to behave like angels, reclaiming their humanity.
Lovely images - like little Binu at her in-law's place, fighting loneliness through books at the enormous library that she is asked to stay away from - and unsettling ones - like Shaaji in her mother's peach print Saree watching her entire family die after poisoning them - will remain with me for some time.
In Sayantani's stories, it is refreshing to see women who don't give a flying f about the burden of expectations to be *good*. They don't conform. They hurt and get hurt. They step out of line, not always to stand up to injustice, sometimes because they are selfish. Women who are willing to screw their friend's life out of jealousy, women who are capable of killing their family in cold blood, and even a woman who was a literal Nazi. These are women who were put on a pedestal, and expected to behave like angels, reclaiming their humanity.
Lovely images - like little Binu at her in-law's place, fighting loneliness through books at the enormous library that she is asked to stay away from - and unsettling ones - like Shaaji in her mother's peach print Saree watching her entire family die after poisoning them - will remain with me for some time.
tristan_prather32's review
4.0
I was very captivated by Dasgupta's prose. Her ability to seed tension into her characters translates into a dull and persistent ache. Each character holds within themselves a sense of longing that functions as the catalyst for the tension to build. The tension is only relieved when everything comes to a head and the tension is released in a few short lines, leaving the reader desperate to know what happens after the bomb has been dropped. I liked that Dasgupta played with using first, second, and third-person narration and that there was variety in these styles. Food was another theme that was enjoyable to follow in each story and certainly played a part in each; whether food was representative of a character's homesickness or their sense of duty to provide for their family, it was used as more than just a sensory device. There is great variety in these stories, from charming retellings of "Beauty and the Beast" to dinner party drama, there is something in here for everyone.
True to the title, "Women Who Misbehave" demonstrates a consistent challenge to the expectations imposed on women based on their gender and the rebellion against patriarchal influences is often subtle, but anything but absent or docile.
True to the title, "Women Who Misbehave" demonstrates a consistent challenge to the expectations imposed on women based on their gender and the rebellion against patriarchal influences is often subtle, but anything but absent or docile.
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