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    One Part Woman
    One Part Woman
    One Part Woman
    Audiobook6 hours

    One Part Woman

    Written by Perumal Murugan

    Narrated by Deepa Samuel

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Translated Literature

    Selling over 100,000 copies in India, where it was published first in the original Tamil and then in a celebrated translation by Penguin India, Perumal Murugan’s One Part Woman has become a cult phenomenon in the subcontinent, captivating Indian readers and jump-starting conversations about caste and female empowerment. Set in South India during the British colonial period but with powerful resonance to the present day, One Part Woman tells the story of a couple, Kali and Ponna, who are unable to conceive, much to the concern of their families—and the crowing amusement of Kali’s male friends. Kali and Ponna try anything to have a child, including making offerings at different temples, atoning for past misdeeds of dead family members, and even circumambulating a mountain supposed to cure barren women, but all to no avail.

    A more radical plan is required, and the annual chariot festival, a celebration of the god Maadhorubaagan, who is one part woman, one part man, may provide the answer. On the eighteenth night of the festival, the festivities culminate in a carnival, and on that night the rules of marriage are suspended, and consensual sex between any man and woman is permitted. The festival may be the solution to Kali and Ponna’s problem, but it soon threatens to drive the couple apart as much as to bring them together. Wryly amusing, fable-like, and deeply poignant, One Part Woman is a powerful exploration of a loving marriage strained by the expectations of others, and an attack on the rigid rules of caste and tradition that continue to constrict opportunity and happiness today.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    TranslatorAniruddhan Vasudevan
    Release dateMar 12, 2019
    ISBN9781721336883
    Author

    Perumal Murugan

    Perumal Murugan is the star of contemporary Tamil literature. He has written six novels and four collections each of short stories and poetry. His best-known novel One Part Woman won the prestigious ILF Samanvay Bhasha Samman for writing in Indian languages and, for this translation, the Translation Prize from India’s National Academy of Letters.

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    Reviews for One Part Woman

    3.5/5

    38 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      So much has been written about this book that I don't really have a great deal of insight to add: only some personal impressions. This review contains important plot points (spoilers) in paras 3 and 4.Murugan’s novel, One Part Woman (in the original Tamil, Mathorupagan) was recently in the news because a group of people from his hometown, Namakkal, allied with political groups to enforce a social ban on the book. They claimed that the book was immoral, represented religious and social practices inaccurately, and consequently, burned copies of the book. India is not known for the strength of its stance on free speech – Murugan, unsurprisingly, has had to move homes, and has made a public statement saying that he will no longer write fiction. He’s withdrawn all his books, including this one. Writers and artists, however, have come out strongly in support, and there’s currently a lawsuit pending against the Namakkal District Administration for organising a ‘peace meeting’ in which they forced Murugan to sign a public letter of apology. The news that this book is attracting is somewhat belated: Murugan received a grant in 2005 to research One Part Woman, after he had penned a series of well-received novels about his native Kongunadu region in the state of Tamil Nadu. That he got the grant is not surprising – Murugan’s day job is Professor of Tamil in Namakkal’s Government college, and he is an acclaimed folklorist and linguist. Mathorupagan was published in 2010 in Tamil. Well-received in Tamil circles, it was translated to English by Aniruddha Vasudevan, a classical dancer enrolled in a post-graduate course in U.S.A., in 2013. It seems odd to me that the outrage came about only a year later: meanwhile, the book has been quietly gathering critical acclaim.The book centres around Ponni, and her husband Kalicharan. Ponni’s brother, Muthu, and Kalicharan, have been friends all their lives. As an adolescent, Kalicharan falls in love with Ponni, and with Muthu’s approval, they are married. Ponni and Kalicharan cannot, however, conceive. They have a fulfilling, even passionate marriage. But their childlessness is the source of social pressure: Ponni is treated as an outcaste for superstitions that attach to barren women, and Kali is subjected to taunts about his masculinity, and his ability to have children. Over years, the pressure mounts, with ostracism, taunts, and familial pressure becoming the norm. Finally, one year, Ponni and Kalicharan’s mothers put their heads together and suggest that Ponni should attend a special ceremony held on the fourteenth of an annual festival. The festival honours the Ardhaneeswara (translating, literally to ‘one part woman’) – the form of the god Shiva when he appears as half-man, half-woman. Their town has a temple devoted to the Ardhanareeswara, and an annual festival in his honour. On the fourteenth night of the festival all social rules are relaxed, and men and women meet anonymously in the dark alleys below the temple to have sex. A child born of such an encounter is said to be a gift of god, with the god appearing to women participating, in the form of men. Kalicharan cannot endure the thought of his wife being with another, but Ponni is in two minds: she doesn’t want sleep with anyone else, and yet, she sees no alternative to ending the constant shame and humiliation she feels. For a year, they remain undecided, their marriage slowly fraying under the pressure of the decision. Ultimately, her brother Muthu engineers her presence at the festival, by deceiving both of them: he distracts Kalicharan the night of the festival, and sends Ponni, convincing her that Kalicharan consented. Naturally, Kalicharan finds out, but by then, it is far too late. One Part Woman is the story of a marriage torn asunder by the people around it. A short, dense novella, it is an intense but quick read. Murugan’s prose (by way of Vasudevan’s translation) is simple and precise – he is artful with images, but restrained with adjectives. Ponni and Kalicharan are farmers: the skill with which he creates their environment is extraordinary – the birds, the farm, the sharp tang of the country liquor that they drink, is all precisely and economically drawn. Murugan’s great gift, in this novel, though, is the deft grace with which he creates characters: Muthu, for instance, is immediately memorable when Murugan describes his incredible ability to create the most artfully hiding places out of seemingly open and even ground, in which he stashes secret supplies of liquor and food. The depiction of Muthu and Kali’s friendship, as it evolves from their youth, to the more formal relationship of brothers by marriage, to how they relax to informal address in privacy, is also beautifully drawn. More than the personal relationships, however, this is an immensely political novel. Every relationship in the book is set against the rules and customs that form the web of caste: from the endless rituals that Kali and Ponni do to attempt to increase fertility, to how food is prepared and eaten, to how the smallest of transactions and the biggest of interactions are carried out. Murugan’s novel is important because it stands in the middle of a debate of free speech, it is relevant because it demonstrates what one reviewer called the “lived reality of specific caste groups,”, and it is a pleasure for Murugan’s precise, spare prose that conveys beautifully his ability to demonstrate empathy without losing the sharpness of his vision.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      It was a bad ending, unresolved in any way. Disappointing.
    • 4/5
      This novel of unresolved tensions due to societal pressures to produce children is an eye-opening look at rural life during the colonial period in Tamil Nadu, southern India. In a culture where the need for a successor generation is so critical that a lack of pregnancy in the first month of marriage is cause for consternation, a loving couple, farmers Kali and Ponna, are on the verge of having their happy marriage torn apart by infertility. Kali’s refusal to take a second wife, and their tenderness and care of each other, are brilliantly portrayed. The climax of the tale is Ponna’s attendance at an annual religious celebration offering the chance for barren women to become pregnant by other men outside of marriage. Although the novel ends before Ponna makes a life-altering decision on the last night of the chariot festival, the bonds of caste and family loyalty are seemingly stretched beyond repair. The lack of access to medical assistance to resolve the issue (not knowing if the technology was even available at the time), and at what might have been an insurmountable financial cost, is surprising and tragic to a modern reader. To ponder also: is the lack of a child still seen as ruination in a rural society where many hands are required for sustenance, or has technology has reduced the hardship? This book, which had been published years earlier, came to the attention of right wing religious circles when the conservative Modi administration came to power. As a result of the descriptions of the licentious actions of men and women in the novel, and the negative view of the half-male, half-female god celebrated at the festival, the author was forced to denounce his own work and stop writing, due to threats of violence by religious extremists. For a time, he became a Salman Rushdie in his own state. Later, courts ruled that Murugan was free to write on whatever topic he chose, and he rejoined the literary world.