#6// step wolves, hand taste, experimental novels

Weird stories, Lock down poetry

Dear Reader,
How are you? A wrong question to ask, I agree. But hope you are holding up alright? This week’s newsletter is packed with links. It might be a good idea to open them in a new window if you are in the middle of work. Read on for secret life of a personal assistant to America's most eligible man, sheet masks, death horoscopes and witty books by women.
 

These short stories

I love stories like Julia Armfield’s My step sister is a wolf named Helen (Electric Lit), that throw surprises at you, very quietly as if it is the most natural thing. You’ll wonder what thrilled you the most, whether the outfits of the wolf ("pinafores, Tenniel bibs and dresses, piecrust collars, yellow hats, and lacy cotton boots"’) or twin dresses, or howling at full moons or bat offerings. This story makes me want to pick up salt, slow, a book that I’ve postponed reading for so long, immediately.

This new story in The New Yorker by Haruki Murakami, Confessions of a Shinawaga Monkey, translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel  is an excellent read to complement Julia Armfield’s story. Here the monkey is dressed in grey sweatpants, and “I♥NY” shirt. The narrator drinks beer, eats dried, seasoned squid and rice cracker with peanuts with the monkey who… uh…steals names of women he fancies.
 

Read

Here’s a rather cheeky review of The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Wish I’d read it sooner. What a book! I haven’t written anything new since the last newsletter. For your summer/monsoon reading this list of 40 books by women authors published in 2020 will be handy. Add them to Goodreads for later or read them now.

This book list I compiled on 18 Fun Asian Books to Binge is becoming popular. Check it out for some fantastic books if you haven’t already.
PS : To the new subscribers, here’s the link to where I recommend six favourite books by black authors.

Steal Deals

This week the #publishingpaidme hashtag on Twitter has been gaining eye rolls. A news that stood out to me—the renowned Meena Kandasamy (excellent writer, poet + Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlistee) received only 500 pounds as advance for her latest book, Exquisite Cadavers! Check the hashtag for the real money talk in publishing for black and POC authors. Yeah, you'll find $800K advances floating around too. Eye roll.

Exquisite Cadavers, Kandasamy’s new novel, is a mere Rs. 49 (India) for a Kindle copy. I really enjoyed the book, written in an experimental format. So you have the main story of a couple in London, and then on the margins you have the backstory—the author's musings on how the scenes were written. When I read the book again, I found myself flitting between the main story, the margins and also the margins-of-the-margins where I had generously added my own notes. If you haven’t read the book, consider buying an e-copy (or physical book, whatever suits you). Or order from a bookstore near you.
I also came across other steal deals (under Rs. 100 except last two), all that I loved:

- Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup (A geographical and emotional debut steeped in nature featuring clairvoyants, yetis, geologist and Andaman islands)
- Poonachi by Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by N Kalyan Raman (A satire on politics through life of a goat)
- Circe by Madeline Miller (Banished to an island, Circe becomes the most powerful witch and turns men to pigs; Greek myth retelling)
- Paper Moon by Rehana Munir (A timely read with bookshops being in danger everywhere; A Brandra woman opens a bookstore).
- Chats with the Dead by Shehan Karunatilaka (A favourite this year; a ghost trying to solve his murder + Sri Lanka politics + queer protagonist. )
- Moustache by S. Haressh, translated from the Malayalam by Jayashree Kalathil (Dalit man sports a moustache which makes upper caste men angry)
 

Incredible lockdown poems

Kate Clanchy, a poet and teacher, shared on Twitter the poems written by her students, mostly teens, in lockdown poetry workshops. They are viral and they are incredible! I particularly  loved this one titled Note by Linnet at KateClanchy1/Twitter

Other favourites — I can’t breathe by Amineh (about the George Floyd murder “a man slept like silk”) and When all this is over by Mukahang. Read more poems from Clanchy's students here.

Edit : Kate Clanchy was called out for racism in her book
 

Amazing links

This essay on cooking with hands is worth reading two times (Ruby Tandoh, Heated)
“I think of hand taste, son-mat, when I crush canned tomatoes between messy fingers and roll meatballs between my palms. I dress salad using my fingers to turn the leaves, as insisted upon by Samin, and prod rising bread dough tentatively with my thumb. Not everyone will be able to masterfully fill and fold samosas like Indumati Patel once did. Maybe your hands don’t have the dexterity to pop broad beans from their shells, or you can’t bear for your fingers to be covered in sticky dough. But if you can use your hands, you should.”

I love the way Tandoh writes. Each sentence gleams on its own. I also spent time looking at Jiwon Woo’s project (mentioned in the article) about how hands can affect the taste of the food cooked. This also reminds me of the word ‘kaipunyam’ (merit of hand/talent of hand), a word in Malayalam that relates to being a good cook.
 

Inside Kylie Jenner’s Web of Lies. And why she is no longer a billionaire (Chase Peterson Withorn & Madeline Berg, Forbes)
"Of course, white lies, omissions and outright fabrications are to be expected from the family that perfected—then monetized—the concept of “famous for being famous.” But, similar to Donald Trump’s decades long obsession with his net worth, the unusual lengths to which the Jenners have been willing to go—including inviting Forbes into their mansions and CPA’s offices, and even creating tax returns that were likely forged—reveals just how desperate some of the ultra-rich are to look even richer."

This profile of Abhay Deol who aced Indie before Indie became mainstream (Ankur Pathak, Huffpost)
“After a bunch of conversations, I realised that they wanted to mould me in an image they saw of me. And here I was, trying to break any kind of image. I could never be put in a box because that’s exactly what I wanted to run away from.”

Being the brother of Asia’s richest man is harder than you think. A fascinating read on the sibling rivalry between Anil and Mukesh Ambani (Ary Altstedter and P. R. Sanjai, Bloomberg)

This romanticized essay makes me want to buy a sheet mask asap (Nicole Flattery, Believer mag)
“I use sheet masks the most when I’m at my lowest. I believe everything in my life can improve if my skin is fully hydrated… The woman washing her face alone in her bathroom is now a spectacle, a private act turned into a performance.”

Trauma is the thing we inherit (Zoë Ruiz, The Millions)
“I do not know the answers to these questions, and I likely never will. What I do know is that my father’s past is also my past. (In Grabriel Garcia’ Marquez’s short story Innocent Eréndira) the grandmother’s past is also Eréndira’s past. This is how trauma works. It gets passed down. This is what we inherit.”

Tibetan Death Horoscopes, Mothers and Daughters, and Legacy-Breaking (Ann Tashi Slater, Catapult)
“Five lamas sat by the body night and day so my grandmother was never alone on her journey, reading out prayers and instructions from The Tibetan Book of the Dead—an eighth-century guide to traveling through the after-death bardo—and playing horns, drums, bells, and cymbals.”

My Secret Life as a Personal Assistant to “America’s Most Eligible Man” (Joanna Greenberg, Narratively)
“I was a self-described militant feminist dyke, and I was about to spend the next two months of my life sorting through the metaphoric and literal dirty laundry of the city’s most famous bachelor. He was the former star of an uber-popular reality dating show. I was a feminist lesbian 19-year-old — a.k.a. the least likely person on Earth to become his coach in life and love.”

Style and the city; politics and fashion — about Bombay girls, Delhi girls, Kolkata aristocrats and JNU girls (Supriya Nair and Meher Varma, Himal South Asian)
 
4 Mumbaikars share how they spent 75 days away from human company (Jane Borges, Mid-day)
 
Books to educate ourselves on racism in America as it relates to farming, cooking, grocery shopping, and beyond (Epicurious)

Good news for WITTY WOMEN CLUB! I might be late to this wagon but did you know about a Comedy Women in Print prize for books published in UK and Ireland? Find the 2020 shortlist for novels, graphic novels and unpublished graphic novels. We really need light hearted and witty books deserving more attention, so I am glad this prize founded in 2018 exists.
 
If you’ve always wanted to write a book, here’s how. The usual tips but a useful reminder (NPR)

Photoessay
- A bicycle that lasted four generations in a Kerala family (Cris, The News Minute)
“Except for the headlights that once got stolen and the tyres that were replaced, the SUN bicycle remains the same, 70 years after it came to the family.”
- A photo essay on masks (Gideon Mendel, The Guardian)

And thus we come to an end. Hope you have a good week ahead.
 
Until next time,
Resh x

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