July 09, 2015

Book Review: Her Resurrection by Soumyadeep Koley

HER resurrection
Author: Soumyadeep Koley
Publisher: Gargi Publishers
Rating: 3.5/5



About the Author
Soumyadeep Koley is a writer, poet, women’s rights activist and a photographer. He holds Honors degree in Chemistry, from the reputed Scottish Church College (Kolkata). He has worked with Jason Jayology Jeremias, the Founder and Artistic Director of Price of Silence, which employs performing arts to bring the global struggle for women’s rights to life. The author can be reached at:


Summary
“Her Resurrection” is a book dedicated to all the women who fall weak in the knees when life knocks them down. It revolves around the strong and determined character “Maya”, whose life becomes ball and chain- with too many obstacles preventing her from achieving what she aims for. The theme of the book is prostitution, which is going to hell in a handicraft. The animosity, the exclusion and the negative outlook of the society towards the women who are forced to enter this phase of life, is beyond redemption. The story highlights the prevalence of several issues like undesirability of having a girl child, virginity being the sole substantial thing for any woman, over dominance of males, domestic violence and biased education. The story begins with Maya’s horrendous childhood, with an alcoholic and belligerent father and a submissive but loving mother. Following the series of eerie and tenacious events (like the death of her father,  the imprisonment of her mother and herself being gang raped), life turns sour for Maya. The book reveals the harsh reality of the world, where nobody can be trusted, nothing can be predicted, only the silver lining can be seen and aimed for!
Welcome to the perilous world, where everyone is a beast, wearing a cloak of kindness and empathy. Grab this book to face the real truth about the society and get inspired to snatch success even from the jaws of death.


My opinion
“Sometimes the road of the life takes an unexpected turn and you have no choice but to follow it to end up in the place you are supposed to be.” The saying fits best with the plot of this story. The characters are strong, the emotions are lucid. The cover of the book is mesmerizing (Credit to Ammol Karambe). The title is self explanatory. But the plot is about something we have heard and read before (that too several times). The events are sequential and have been narrated perfectly. The plot has necessary twists and turns.
The author has successfully highlighted the issues that hamper the growth and survival of women. We know that women go through the wars but is ‘ending one’s life’, the only option left to surpass the pain and hatred towards oneself? The novella has something more to say on this. ‘Suicide is permanent’ but problems are temporary. Indeed, yes! All it takes, is a strong soul and will power to fight and stand for oneself, fight against all odds and bring the house down.
Good effort by the author. Best wishes!


Drawbacks:
The plot of the story is predictable to a large extent. There is nothing refreshing because prostitution has always been the topic of choice for many. There is lack of proofreading and time and again grammatical errors can be spotted. The descriptions of people/things/surroundings is overly done, which breaks the flow of reading the story.


Buy this book at:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            


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