Author: Rajasree Variyar
Pages: 336
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days
Read On: Kindle
Plot Summary: Madurai, 1992. A young mother in a poor family, Janani is told she is useless if she can’t produce a son—or worse, if she bears daughters. They let her keep her first baby girl, but the rest are taken away as soon as they are born, and murdered. But Janani can’t forget the daughters she was never allowed to love . . .
Sydney, 2019. Nila has a secret; one she’s been keeping from her parents for too long. Before she can say anything, her grandfather in India falls ill, so she agrees to join her parents on a trip to Madurai. Nila knows little about where her family came from or who they left behind. What she’s about to learn will change her forever.
While The Daughters of Madurai explores the harrowing issue of female infanticide, it’s also a universal story about the bond between mothers and daughters, the strength of women, the power of love in overcoming all obstacles—and the secrets we must keep to protect the ones we hold dear.
Review: This was first read for this year's Femme March, a month long reading spree focussed on women and women writers. A way to celebrate and honour Women's History Month. And boy oh boy, did I pick the perfect book to kick off this month or what?
This book was a perfect read for this month, where I hope apart from just reading women, we read issues that plague women, both at home and away. This book with its heart breaking and, all too real, issues of female infanticide is what we need to read, learn and talk about. It's a reality, even today all over our country and even the subcontinent. A dastardly crime, an unspeakable violence against little girls that is done in the name of what? Family honour? Tradition? Legacy? UGH! When will be stop? When will our girls be safe in the womb and in their homes? When will family stop committing these atrocious crimes against its girls?
I hope I live long enough to see female foeticide and infanticide become a thing of the past. Something we acknowledge and mourn and something we never, ever, ever do again.
Things I Loved:
1. This book did something I didn't expect it to do- it changed some of my biases I didn't even know I had. See, I, very naively, thought that the South of India was so much more evolved when it came to certain things. Female infanticide, I thought, was clearly a North and rest of India problem. This obviously didn't happen in the South, surely not! Well, I was so wrong. So so wrong. Turns out we are all equally and horribly similar when it comes to this particular crime and injustice. I did a little reading and turns out there were rampant instances of female infanticide in the South up until the 1990s. Then steps were taken to curb these crimes and several orphanages and homes were set up, where parents could leave their unwanted children, mostly girls safely. This book made me learn something and unlearn some biases I held on to and opened my eyes.
2. The writing is decent and the author does a great of job making both our timelines come alive.
3. I love books split in two time periods. Here we spend time in 2019 and in 1992/93 and I liked the back and forth and I also really liked that we spend more time in 1993 where more critical things are happening in our story. I really appreciate that we aren't pulled into 2019 just for the heck of it and we spend more time with the people and situation in 1993.
4. Everything that happens here feels so incredibly real and not dramatic or cinematic, whether it's the abuse and torture in a marital home, whether it's an upper class/caste home and it's problems and struggles or the lives of women living in poverty and trying to do their best for themselves and their children. Nothing is over dramatised. Even the love story (which is a small portion of the narrative) is so so real and entirely believable.
5. At the heart of this book are two women.
Janani and Nila. Mother and Daughter.
Both have their journeys and mountains to climb and each of these women are brought to life in these pages.
Janani was my favourite. She is someone you'll find yourself rooting for from the get go. Her life and the things she's had to overcome and life with and make peace are incredible and to see her do her best and put one foot in front of the other is quietly inspirational. You wish her well, your heart rages and breaks for her. To see her find her voice, to find her strength and become the woman she eventually becomes was a treat to read.
Nila has her own issues she struggles with, her quest for her past and a big secret she's keeping from those she loves and her chaffing against the hold her mother and her approval has on her life. I liked her and her need for answers and her coming to terms with her truth.
6. This book is full of incredible characters, apart from our main characters, the supporting cast characters is ones you love and grow to care about. Subha, Janani's close friend and confidante, Nila's cousins in India and Sanjay- wonderful and kind and generous Sanjay, father to Nila and husband and support system to Janani.
I love books filled with good people and acts of kindness and this book had so many people who you want to reach in and hug.
7. I loved that this book shows us how the people who did these horrible things, you took baby girls from their mother's arms and killed them within hours of being born were people, just people you know and not always monsters. Are they evil? God, yes! But are they also just people moulded by their circumstances and society at large, mothers-in-law who've been through the same hell in turn do the same thing to their daughters-in-law and the cycle continues. But we see their pain, the hell they've been through and how something as unimaginably cruel as killed babies gets normalised. This very act of the victim becoming a perpetrator is called 'Patriarchal Bargain', where women, who are victims of the patriarchy become its enforcer in return for getting more power, respect or autonomy. So, while these women can't be forgiven or their actions condoned, but it is worth remembering that they are victims (of a kind) too.
Things I Didn't Like:
I liked this book for most part, I just have two minor issues.
1. Janani marries Sanjay in 1993. They are childhood friends turned partners. I really liked how these two people realise the depths of their feelings for each other and come together. But...now this is a small spoiler, but not a major thing- Janani is Sanjay's family's long time cleaner and domestic help. Her mother served the family before her and then she took over her duties. The fact that Sanjay marries her and his family, while upset, eventually come around and accept her...eventually. See, here's the thing- an Indian family, an upper caste, upper class family would never be this chill about it. I just don't see how they'd, even in a couple of years, let this go and treat Janani with any kindness or accept her into the fold. Can you imagine the aunties in a family like this ever, ever treat a woman like this with an iota of kindness or let her forget where she came from? I think not. This aspect of the book felt a little bit unreal to me.
2. There is this big secret Nila has which was
a) Obvious as hell.
b) I am not sure how I felt about {Spoiler Alert} someone being queer being used a 'mystery' 'big reveal' plot point.
3. The end of the 1993 portion was a bit rushed in my opinion. We don't see Sanjay and Janani come together and the shit storm that must have raised back then, it was glossed over and done away with very quickly. I would have liked to see a little bit more this.
Rating: 4/5
I really liked this book and I am so glad, I almost randomly found my way to it.
Highly recommend.
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