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The Gypsy Goddess
The Gypsy Goddess | Meena Kandasamy
5 posts | 2 read | 4 to read
Village landlords force peasants to break their backs in the paddy fields or suffer beatings as punishment. In the midst of this daily misery it is little wonder that the communist Party begins to gain traction, a small spark of defiance spreading from villager to villager. As communities across the region begin to take a stand against the landlords, the landlords vow to break them: party organizers suffer grisly deaths and the flow of marketplace food dries up. But intimidation only serves to make the villagers' resistance burn more fiercely. Finally, the landlords descend on one village to set an example to the others... Brilliantly original, ferociously angry and, at times, laugh-outloud funny, The Gypsy Goddess is both a novel about a true-life massacre and a novel about the impossibility of writing a novel about a true-life massacre. Treading the line between powerful fiction and fearsome critique, Meena Kandasamy leads us through a rapidly modernizing India and, along the way, points out injustices of privilege, hypocrisies of authority and the unforgiveable politics of turning a blind eye.
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charl08
The Gypsy Goddess | Meena Kandasamy
post image

Just ticking another book off my read my own shelf challenge. Still plenty to go...

LiteraryinPA You‘re doing awesome! 4y
charl08 @LiteraryinLititz all support gratefully received! 4y
54 likes2 comments
quote
charl08
The Gypsy Goddess | Meena Kandasamy
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This novel is messing with the "normal" idea of a novel. And then messing with the bits that mess with the idea...

charl08 Photo by Charlotte Harrison via Unsplash. 4y
45 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
charl08
The Gypsy Goddess | Meena Kandasamy
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I really like the posts where people tick the picture of the book in the stack. So here is a stack of my books that I want to read by March. Check out the lovely house bookend that my mum made me 😍

TheBookAddict Wow, that‘s quite the stack and that bookend is lovely! 😍 5y
Sace I covet almost everything in this picture. The shelves and bookend are very nice. 5y
readordierachel That *is* lovely! 5y
See All 8 Comments
mrp27 Very nice! 5y
charl08 @TheBookAddict I am going to try reading my own shelves for a bit, as I clearly have Far Too Much right now. 5y
charl08 @Sace Thanks! I treated myself last year to the new shelf. It's already overloaded. I should have got two. 5y
erzascarletbookgasm Lovely. And I really like the bookshelf. 5y
62 likes8 comments
quote
Naj
The Gypsy Goddess | Meena Kandasamy

"Just because this is a novel set in rural India, do not expect a herd of buffalo to walk across every page for the sake of authenticity. Eager mothers who hold salt and dried red chillies and circle their hands over your head before asking you to spit into their palms three times to trick spirits of the evil eye into abandoning you have been held back at my behest because I do not want to lose you to nostalgia or exotica."

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charl08
The Gypsy Goddess | Meena Kandasamy
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Hoping she wins the fiction prize today!

42 likes1 comment