Book Review | That Long Silence | Sashi Deshpande | Feminist Literature | Indian English Literature

Описание: Sashi Deshpande’s Sahitya Akademi winner ‘That Long Silence’ (1989) is not for beginners. Set in the 1980s, the story is about Jaya Kulkarni, an urban, middle-class Indian woman whose struggle for individuality is in constant conflict with the society’s stereotypical roles of a wife and mother. All she needs is someone to confide in her and she tries to find that someone in her husband, Mohan. But soon she figures out that he, too, is a victim of patriarchy somewhere and she unconsciously becomes mechanical and silent about her feelings. An adversity follows that tends to switch the couple’s roles and encourages Jaya to break the long silence between her and Mohan by finally communicating.

Jaya narrates the story and once you start reading, you don’t feel like stopping – not by choice, but by the author’s smooth transitions from describing Jaya’s present situation to her flashbacks and vice versa. If you don’t pay heed, the line between her present and past gets blurry because the digressions keep peeling off like a cabbage. There are some recurring motifs that trigger multiple interpretations, making the narrative interesting like the references to the crow-sparrow story, Mohan’s obsession with cleanliness and my favourite – Jaya’s deliberate allusions to stories from the Indian mythology. The appropriateness of the title gets duly justified not only through Jaya’s story but also through the stories of Kusum, Nayana, Mohan’s mother, Vimala, Mukta and Rahul.

Nilima’s character, according to me, is the perfect antithesis to “that long silence” that other women characters bear. She’s savagely and unapologetically herself and I loved her conversations. Kamat is another appreciable character and his conversations with Jaya (in her flashbacks) sound like the conversations between Jordan and Khatana bhai. Fanfics can be written on her complicated feelings towards Kamat but for me, I think he’s the best friend every woman needs. And as for Jaya, somebody needs to hug her and it better be Mohan, I swear to god.


follow me on instagram:

  / memoirsofaugust  

hi! i’m garima. i’m 21 and currently pursuing my Master’s in English literature. i have always had a passion for the art of writing and my first poem (which i discarded as silly) was at 14. i’ve been writing on the last page of so many notebooks ever since but never thought about it enough. needless to say, literature made its way to me—and studying English from an icse convent school favoured my interest like no other. i was a pcm kid till i graduated from school but during my 12th grade, in the midst of the pandemic and unending online classes, I had a lot of time to consider my interests seriously. but here i am, happier than i thought I would be and choosing to study literature while being the first woman in my bloodline to pursue master’s has been an intimidatingly amazing ride. and I love to document my poems, reflections and reveries on this page with a side of almost anything that my other personalities like to perform! would you like to join me? (you’re welcome either way)

see you!

#feminism #criticalthinking #literature #philosophy #fypシ #feministliterature #sahityaakademi

••

[intellectuals of instagram, students, study material, philosophy, literature, literary, syllabus, ugc net english, jnu, Jawaharlal Nehru University, central university, small creators, literature majors, disability studies, Cultural studies, 2025 wrapped, 10 essays, reads, academics, english majors, nerds of instagram, feminist literature, feminism, intersectionality]