It’s that time of the year when we look back at the past year, gloat over all that we achieved, and kick ourselves for carrying most of our new year resolutions into yet another year. Fine, I’ll speak for myself. In addition to being unsuccessful at achieving my fitness goals in 2024, I also failed at one of my other goals: to read more books. I read a lot of online content – blogs, newsletters, poems, news articles, opinion pieces, social media content, you name it… but not many books. I hope to change that this year. I want to spend more time reading books and less time on my phone consuming short-form content. What I’m happy about though is that a majority of the books I read last year were fabulous and will stay with me for a while. I wrote about five of them in a previous post. Here are short reviews and musings about five more.
1. Knife
‘Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder’ by Salman Rushdie is an autobiographical account of the attempted assassination of Rushdie in 2022 in New York. Ironically, he was attacked just as he was about to give a talk about the United States being a safe haven for exiled writers. He was stabbed 15 times even as several people rushed to his side, suffering multiple injuries in his abdomen, neck, eye, chest, and thigh. He lost sight in one eye.
Rushdie has faced death threats since 1989 when the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his assassination because of his novel ‘The Satanic Verses’. For years, he had been in hiding with strict security measures that were relaxed over time. I thought his latest book, ‘Knife,’ would be about the terror of attempted murder, the brutality of the attack, the events that led to it, the long and painful recovery that followed, the power of the written word to inspire and provoke, and the need to defend it. The book is indeed all that. But it is equally, like all matters related to death and near-death experiences, about love.
Rushdie writes in detail, for the first time, about his wife Eliza and her critical role in his healing and recovery. His friends, doctors, family, and community of readers worldwide who kept him alive when he thought he wouldn’t survive. And his meditations on the motive of the attack, the attacker, the weapon - a knife - and how language is his metaphorical knife to strike back.
“Language, too, was a knife. I could cut open the world and reveal its meaning, its inner workings, its secrets, its truths. It could cut through from one reality to another. It could call bullshit, open people’s eyes, create beauty. Language was my knife. If I had unexpectedly been caught in an unwanted knife fight, maybe this was the knife I could use to fight back.”
While the book is personal, it speaks to the larger context of our times where religious fundamentalism is on the rise and the freedom of speech and expression is under threat. Whether you have read Rushdie before or not, this is a book worth reading, and reiterates that writing is a right worth defending.
2. No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies
“The writers I love most are almost always on a mission. To save the world one sentence at a time. To redeem us and rescue back our righteous minds. These writers risk not only the criticism of their peers (as earnestness is said to ruin art) but also the possibility that their words will be mangled and misunderstood. Still they offer up their gifts, hoping, as the brilliant black feminist Audrey Lorde had hoped, that their words can close some of the gap between blindness and our better selves. In other words, these writers do language, but they also do battle. And the battle is on.”
‘No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies’ by Julian Aguon is part-memoir and part-manifesto – a collection of tender, personal, and evocative prose and poetry about growing up in Guam, the impact of the climate crisis, and the need to listen to indigenous voices and trust their wisdom.
“There have been periods in my own life when my grief felt more real to me than my hope, moments when my rage, sitting up, threatened to swallow my softness forever. It is here, in these moments, in these fields where older versions of myself come to die, that I am forced again to clarify what exactly it is that I believe.”
The moving, lyrical essays on collective power, resistance, and resilience are inspiring, eye-opening, and a voice that needs to be read and heard. I loved this book and hope you will read it too!
3. The Many Lives of Syeda X
“Delhi, the national capital, has forever been explored through the eyes of its rulers - either via the charms of the Mughals or the power corridors of New Delhi - but hardly through the eyes of the roughly 35,000 poor migrants who come to the city every day, never to return.”
When Neha Dixit, the author of ‘The Many Lives of Syeda X’ told me about her book over a cup of coffee, I was intrigued. About Syeda and her family, but also Neha’s ten-year journey creating this book.
In ‘The Many Lives of Syeda X,’ Neha traces the life of an ordinary Muslim woman who migrates from Banaras to Delhi in search of work. She gives us a glimpse into some of the fifty-odd jobs Syeda picks up for meagre wages to make ends meet. We learn how jeans are made and dyed, how almonds are extracted, how sweatshops and pre-natal sex determination clinics work, how factories employ (and exploit) home-based workers (mostly women), how Hindutva brews in neighbourhoods, how young people are pulled into its fold, and so much more. We also learn about each of her family members, their desires, and how their lives are appended by national and global events.
Neha’s meticulous documentation brings alive an entire mohalla, and through it, the city and country. The book is heartbreaking, insightful, and important, and makes visible what we refuse to see and acknowledge as we go about our daily lives.
4. Lessons in Chemistry
“Sometimes I think," she said slowly, "that if a man were to spend a day being a woman in America, he wouldn't make it past noon.”
‘Lessons in Chemistry’ by Bonnie Garmus is a delightful book full of humour and wisdom. It is light yet full of depth. Fiercely feminist… and fun!
[On religion] "I think it lets us off the hook. I think it teaches us that nothing is really our fault; that something or someone else is pulling the strings; that ultimately, we're not to blame for the way things are; that to improve things, we should pray. But the truth is, we are very much responsible for the badness in the world. And we have the power to fix it.”
If you’re looking for something to read to kick start the year, this book is perfect. It will move you, entertain you, and make you feel seen (as a woman). I’m in awe of Gamus’ ability to pack in a punch while making me giggle all along!
5. Mating in Captivity
If you’re as perplexed as I am about relationships today - be it your own or what you see around you - ‘Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence’ by Esther Perel might offer some clarity and insights. I picked it up out of curiosity and believe everyone can benefit from it in some way, especially at a time when infidelity, emotional unavailability, avoidance, alternate lifestyles and relationship choices, and dwindling sexual desire in long-term relationships are common.
“When we love we always risk the possibility of loss—by criticism, rejection, separation, and ultimately death—regardless of how hard we try to defend against it. Introducing uncertainty sometimes requires nothing more than letting go of the illusion of certitude. In this shift of perception, we recognize the inherent mystery of our partner.”
I particularly liked the parts that unpacked how our relationship with our primary caregivers and our childhood experiences directly impact our adult relationships, choices, needs, and desires. There is much to learn and understand about the different facets of our inner world and identity - all the more in the context of taboo topics like female sexuality and desire.
“The body often contains emotional truths that words can too easily gloss over. The very dynamics that are a source of conflict in a relationship—particularly those pertaining to power, control, dependency, and vulnerability—often become desirable when experienced through the body and eroticized.”
“Acting liberated doesn’t necessarily mean being liberated.”
The book is filled with anecdotes and examples from Esther’s own practice as a psychotherapist which adds a lot of depth and nuance to everything she writes about. It gives much food for thought and I think everyone can benefit from it in some way.
I’m starting 2025 with ‘Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto’ by Tricia Hersey. It’s been on my reading list forever and is the perfect antidote to the ongoing productivity and 70-90 hour work week debates of the corporate world in India. It gifts the reader alternate ways of thinking about work and rest in a world that glorifies grind culture.
“You were not just born to center your entire existence on work and labor. You were born to heal, to grow, to be of service to yourself and community, to practice, to experiment, to create, to have space, to dream, and to connect.”
I hope you will rest today. Perhaps read some books… write about them too?
Beautiful line up Ila. You were convincing in forcing me to pickup anything written by Rushdie. I gave up on his writing after going through Midnight Children.
I’m now eager to walk down to my bookstore, Ila. Love this curation. So thank you- on both counts.