Patriarchy in the Labyrinth

Subversive Whispers is a small collection of stories by Manasi, a widely-read and prize-winning writer in Malayalam, rendered acceptably into English.

- Latha Anantharaman

These stories, of the kind usually published in women’s journals, represent an earlier feminist literature, more problematic, more stomach-churning. Young readers of those journals especially, back in the day, may have hoped that there was an easier path through the labyrinths of patriarchy (as translator J. Devika puts it). Perhaps it would all work out in the end, they might have thought, hurrying on to the film news and recipe pages. The stories were written to challenge, not to reassure with pat conclusions and comforting outcomes. And certainly not to entertain.

Today, they have a documentary, sometimes medicinal quality. They are an object of study. But they offer us raw honesty, a far cry from the ultra-processed text that is curated and packaged for today’s well-heeled feminist book buyer. Necessarily this collection is uneven in tone, ranging over many years in the writer’s career and having been written for varying publications and audiences. In her translator’s note, Devika provides cultural and social context and points out the contradictions and dilemmas of the writer as well as the readers who first encountered her work. Commendably, she does not lapse into facile summaries.