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A review by mahima123
The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal
3.0
Honestly it just didn’t live up to the standard of the first book by this author. I think the story and the character development was really neat and I really enjoyed how we got three different perspectives throughout the book. What I didn’t like was how long the story took to pick up and the naive way in which India is depicted.
I am not a misogyny-denier and I can recount first hand experiences of the male gaze that can be found in India, but it was disheartening how much the book focuses on the negative aspects of India without ever taking a moment to appreciate a greater beauty. I think it’s important to highlight these issues and the author does so by exploring a multitude of different issues: female feticide, rape culture, women’s movements, laws founded in patriarchy, etc. At the same time however it comes off as a immigrant’s better-than-thou attitude rather than a “how can we fix this problem and what work has been going into it already?” point of view.
I don’t know if that’s a jaded take on this book…or how I would’ve written it differently but it did leave me feeling a little frustrated at times.
I am not a misogyny-denier and I can recount first hand experiences of the male gaze that can be found in India, but it was disheartening how much the book focuses on the negative aspects of India without ever taking a moment to appreciate a greater beauty. I think it’s important to highlight these issues and the author does so by exploring a multitude of different issues: female feticide, rape culture, women’s movements, laws founded in patriarchy, etc. At the same time however it comes off as a immigrant’s better-than-thou attitude rather than a “how can we fix this problem and what work has been going into it already?” point of view.
I don’t know if that’s a jaded take on this book…or how I would’ve written it differently but it did leave me feeling a little frustrated at times.