Thread by @MeghanaYerabati

Flash book review: A pleasant kind of heavy by Aranyani (4/5)

I picked up this book when I read this line in a book review: "So often erotica is restricted to the briefest moments in the bedroom when in fact, it is everywhere where there is life" <1/n>

This book held the promise of pushing the boundaries of erotica as a genre and how! It manages to cut across gender, class and sexuality by relaying erotic stories of Tamil housewives and maids in 'Stolen', sexually frustrated Tamil woman in 'A nice polite girl', and so on. <2/n>

The language is exquisite: "Parvathi, squat,generous-hipped, sweaty, is scraping seeds from the flesh of a papaya. She is working slowly, attentively, her brow furrowed in concentration, as she strokes and probes with her curled brown fingers, her hands tracing... <3/n >

...slow ellipses to pull the glittering seeds from their sticky embrace with the sometimes red, sometimes orange flesh, At its wet centre, the fruit is exactly the colour of her santra-red sari and blouse." The writing is, at once, lyrical and familiar.<4/n>

At a time when sexual empowerment of women and other genders is front and centre, this book manages to impress both mature and casual readers. Despite its potential, I believe, that not all short stories in this book can be put on the pedestal of fine literature. <5/n>

How to classify a piece of work as 'literature' is culturally relative and, perhaps, best left to posterity. But, I believe that, although this book brings oft-ignored narratives to the forefront, it does not do complete justice to them. <6/n>

The fact that I am reading about a housewife indulging in a sexual act with her maid is resistance enough because it breaks the norms of class, gender, sexuality, body image... But they will never be real to me as I am left wondering what drives the characters. <7/n>

Of course, there are a few exceptions within the stories such as 'Triptych' which delves deeply into the relationship between grief and eroticism. The writing is powerful, borders on surreal. In this story, sex is survival. And for a gem such as this, I give the book a 4/5 <n/n>

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