Introduction
Foodie Verdict
·
ISBN –
978-0924047817
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Genre: Fiction
·
Publishers:
Random House Publishing
·
Price:
Rs. 209/- (I got this book from the publisher for a review)
Translated
from the French by Jean Anderson, INDIAN TANGO, published in French in 2007, is
set in Delhi in 2004, against a background of monsoon rains and the general election
that would see Sonia Gandhi briefly head a coalition government.
A visiting
writer becomes obsessed by Subhadra, a woman glimpsed on the street, and as
this unconventional relationship develops, the cost of pursuing passion and
desire in a vibrant but deeply conservative society comes into sharp focus. A
sometimes bitter, always moving meditation on the limitations placed on women's
(and others') lives by convention builds inexorably to a powerful and stunning
conclusion.
Behind
The book
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| Source: Google Images |
Although
it "speaks of sideroads, of secret encounters, of nights spent dying in
surrender to your dreams, the better to live again through other impulses and
other surrenders," the tango in Ananda Devi's novel takes place firmly in
Delhi. Subhadra and an unnamed woman narrator are the dancers; their vivid
imaginings are the turns and twists in the dance.
INDIAN
TANGO is full of flesh and moisture, reincarnation and metamorphosis. The
narrator has burrowed into a dream world where the difference between real and
imagined becomes negligible. She gorges herself upon the world around her and
regurgitates it later as fantasies, forcing them to fruition in order to unlock
her writer's block.
Subhadra
becomes the focus of the narrator's fantasies. A housewife who has buried her
personality under the weight of family responsibilities, she refers to herself
as "a robot, prepared for every emergency." Yet she feels on the edge
of some great discovery of self-knowledge, some metamorphosis. Her family
senses the approaching change as well, and begins to force Subhadra into what
they thing she should become: a post-menopausal woman, safely de-sexed and
de-gendered; what is left is now to be given to the gods. Subhadra's
mother-in-law puts increasing pressure on Subhadra to accompany her on pilgrimage,
the only active life an old woman in their culture can acceptably experience.
One
day Subhadra hears a neighbor playing tango music and finds it acting upon her,
forcing her to a new comprehension of her changing self. She has had little
time for imagination but now she finds the sensation of moist flesh intruding
into every mundane moment: washing her body, kneading chapatii dough, sweating
at night. She finds herself drifting to a shop window to gaze at a sitar, which
she played before her family arranged her marriage.
Unlike
Subhadra, the narrator feels that her "flow has dried up." The
narrator's fantasy life has reached a point where every sight that enters her
vision, every thought that crosses her mind, is milked and caressed into a
forced bloom that never quite satisfies her. In order to force a change in her
own stagnant life, she begins to stalk Subhadra, to dance a duel with her as
she engineers their meetings in front of the shop window. "I know that I
need to see her to set us free, both of us, so we can perfect what remains
incomplete within us...to turn the writer into a human being and the extinct
woman into a burning core."
Devi
enjoys playing with the language and imagery of the dance and the hunt. INDIAN
TANGO leaves the reader with a torrent of poetic imagery, visions that convey
Subhadra's new self and the results of the duel between the two women. --Rain
Taxi Review of Books, Summer 2011
About
the author
Ananda Devi
was born in Mauritius in 1957. The multicultural and multilingual aspects of
her birthplace are echoed in many of her works, which explore with lyrical and
probing language and imagery the depths of conflicted identities, with a
particular focus on women and the consequences of nonconformity. One of the
Indian Ocean's leading and most prolific writers, she has published poetry,
three volumes of short stories and ten novels. Ève de ses décombres (2006) was
awarded the Prix des Cinq Continents de la francophonie and the Prix RFO.
Me
thinks
An out and out master
piece to complete the year is how I would like to call this book. The beauty of
this book lies in its narration. Human emotions so beautifully brought out that
you are bound to get tangled in them and lost somewhere seeking yours in
theirs. A haunting experience altogether
is what the author leaves you with – undoubtedly it deserved all the accolades
it has got internationally till now! A highly recommended book for a reading
experience which is beyond words.
This book kept reminding me of Delhi time and again and hence it is like Cholley Tikki the one thing of Delhi which I simply cannot forget!
Source: Google Images