tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post4004972381099166689..comments2024-03-05T15:22:45.423+05:30Comments on The Summing Up: Book Review: The Anger Of AuberginesSandhya Iyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447589463166718231noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-21295889458369778492009-07-30T22:15:21.284+05:302009-07-30T22:15:21.284+05:30Wonderful review this. Thanks for giving me an opp...Wonderful review this. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to explore this little gem of a book. Apart from Moonfish By Moonlight, I don’t think any other story disappointed me at all. Every story had something in it. My favourite of course is A Taste For Humble Pie which is just heartbreakingly poignant. But yes, the titular story and Dead Man’s Feast are also right up there in terms of literary merit.<br /><br />Coming to Train Fare, I believe that ‘food’ here is a metaphor for the sexual identity of Indian women, and the ‘liberation’ that you mention is a sexual one. To the man of this story, a clumsy insecure patriarch, and the three women in his life- his mother, wife and daughter –are a source of constant anxiety, because he believes he has to constantly protect them, as told by his father to him. He is the quintessential Indian male, to whom the thought that women have a sexual existence is alien. Hence, food here literally becomes a stand-in for their sexual identity, liberating them in a way that he cannot quite object to, but is yet baffled by. His wife’s social intercourse with a stranger chaiwallah, or the anecdotes that his mother and her friend share about their young days (they could be talking dirty secrets or about food…it is never quite clear!), and the fact that young men constantly eye his daughter as she bends over from the top berth to reach for food…all these women break taboos in a manner that by their apparent nature is something that the man cannot control and/or object.Abhishek Bandekarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13151879458630532655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-75010574154379568152009-07-14T15:31:07.607+05:302009-07-14T15:31:07.607+05:30But as abzee mentions, the beauty of the book is a...But as abzee mentions, the beauty of the book is also that each of the stories contradict one another. Where food is just habit in one story, it is a passion in some others.sandhyanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-5788106919349283332009-07-14T15:03:18.839+05:302009-07-14T15:03:18.839+05:30Renu: thanks for reading. I have to agree with you...Renu: thanks for reading. I have to agree with you. I think 'food' and the need/craving for it is somewhat like good sex. Beyond a point, it's just a pure physical act that satiates you. Food likewise is too basic, too essential and too desirable by itself.sandhyanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-89802915648045122922009-07-14T13:49:08.946+05:302009-07-14T13:49:08.946+05:30nice review sandhya, shows how much you liked the ...nice review sandhya, shows how much you liked the book. just one observation. in the eponymous story, i think food doesn't really stand for the only 'connection' between them. it is sheer habit, i think. not a connection, bcos tht word has a certain degree of fondness attached to it. wht makes me think so is the end, wer he lays awake with an upset stomach, feeling glad for the divorce. so, it;s nuthing more, nuthing less. not even a sharing. it has the emptiness, mundane-ness, short-lived happiness of habit. no lingering quality that 'connection' probably implies. and it's as dead and unstoppable as an old habit. and that's wht makes the story poignantrenuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09840309818164530955noreply@blogger.com