My Story: The Compelling Autobiography of the Most Contreversial Indian Writer [Paperback]

Kamala Das (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1977 | ISBN-10: 0865781990 | ISBN-13: 978-0865781993

An outspoken and controversial autobiography of Kamala Das.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In her preface, Kamala Das tells us that she began writing her autobiography while seriously ill, that the serialized version in an Indian journal brought much embarrassment to her family, and that she derived great pleasure from emptying her soul. Born in Calcutta in 1934, Kamala Das often attended British schools where she was always a minority: a brown-skinned girl among caucasians, a Hindu among Christians. She affectionatly remembers time spent with her grandmother at the ancestral home, knows her marriage to a distant relative at age fifteen is everything but a union of love, and struggles to understand this silent man whose bed she shares. In her constant search for love, Kamala Das often falls in love, as a child with students and teachers, as an adult with men who take the time to know her. It is her sons and her poetry that give meaning to her life. Enveloped by loneliness and sadness that last through years of nervous breakdowns and heart problems, she expresses her feelings through poetry that she sends to journals: "My grief fell like drops of honey on the white sheets on my desk. My sorrow floated over the pages of magazines darkly as heavy monsoon clouds do in the sky..." Eventually Kamala Das gains recognition as a poet, despite her unorthodox approach to the role of women and her frank commentary on sexuality. Her autobiography is filled with honest, painful, and thought-provoking insight. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Born in 1934 in Kerala, Kamala Das was the author of several novels, collections of poetry and short stories in English as well as Malayalam in which she wrote as Madhavikutty. Nominated in 1984 for the Nobel Prize for literature and winner of several literary prizes in India, she drew admirers and critics in equal measure, especially when it came to the way in which she chose to live her life, with a fearless disregard for mindless convention and sheer courage of conviction. When she died in May 2009, she left behind a body of writing that will continue to inspire and move generations of readers in the future. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ind-Us (June 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865781990
• ISBN-13: 978-0865781993
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,230,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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