So Many Precious Books, So Little Time: Brittle by Latha Viswanathan

Monday, May 14, 2012

Brittle by Latha Viswanathan

I recently received the short story collection Lingering Tide and Other Stories by Latha Viswanathan for review. This is my review for the second story in the collection, Brittle.

A fourteen year old girl is the un-named narrator of the story. She is good friends with Ammini, the "old woman" across the street from her grandmother's house. They use to play house and other games as well as cook together but this year Ammini is tired most of the time. Her husband, who the narrator calls "Dragon" for his meanness, keeps asking the girl to leave saying that Ammini is tired and needs her rest.

One day the grandmother told her 14 year old granddaughter, Ammini's story:

"Married at nine, she came to the dragon’s house in the village with festive pomp and fanfare. She chattered and laughed with abandon, played pranks on her doting father-in-law. They played hide and seek in the garden, the old man gasping for breath as he ran. “In a year’s time, the old man died. With the father-in-law gone, the elders in the house unleashed their pent-up anger. They snatched her toys; they took away all privileges. They drummed wifely sense through a routine of penance. No more sweets. A Hindu wife learns to shed attachments from her past. She learns to please, prepares to be a mother."

Ammini was treated even more poorly by her mother-in-law, as the years went by because she couldn't get pregnant. She wasn't even getting enough to eat as punishment so the grandmother use to sneak food to her.

The writing of this story is beautiful and so descriptive and the characters are well drawn out. I started to care for them in a very short time. I really didn't want this story to end. Highly recommended! I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the stories.

Short Story Monday is hosted by John at The Book Mine Set.