Book Review: You Beneath Your Skin by Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas writes a compelling and complex exploration of an urban experience in India. The story follows several view points, including single mom Anjali whose devotion to her autistic son and her psychology career is pivotal. Because of earlier family trauma, many of Anjali’s adult relationships suffer. This novel touches on atrocious acid attacks against women, where literal acid is thrown on women, painfully scarring them as a sort of punishment. Violence against women is the central theme, with disfigured and murdered women stuffed into garbage bags and unceremoniously dumped. Poverty, prostitution and child brides, civil corruption, and moral imperatives all layer to provide a glimpse at a deeprooted problem. Damyanti Biswas presents the story using precisely chosen words to convey a heartbreaking realism. Within this novel lies a mystery, a social exploration, and a whole lot of heart. 

Book Review: The Female of the Species by Joyce Carol Oates

Book Review: The Female of the Species by Joyce Carol Oates

 

In recent history, women have been held as alternately paragons of virtue or emotional, fragile beings incapable of defending themselves. 

Joyce Carol Oates turns that notion on its ear with this collection of short stories, The Female of the Species. 

Men have often exploited women, preyed upon their vulnerabilities. Certainly, that happens in many of these short stories. In fact, the first story in the collection proved difficult (almost impossible) for me to read. However, read it I did, and I am glad. 

Oates explores femininity, liberation (sexual, emotional, and financial), parenthood, and individuality in her own unique style. I recognized some of the stories from other sources (Such as “Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine”), but it was interesting to revisit them. Certainly, they were thought-provoking and boundary-pushing. Fans of crime fiction should enjoy these nine stories by a modern master.

https://www.amazon.com/Female-Species-1st-Printing/dp/B003RKCWJW/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?keywords=female+of+the+species+joyce+carol+oates&qid=1579322004&s=digital-text&sr=8-2-fkmr2