Anjana Appachana

Appachana was born and raised in India and came to the U.S. for postgraduate study; she has lived and taught in the U.S. ever since This collection of stories all take place in India in the 1980s and (with two exceptions) focus on women, each in very different circumstances, who are damaged or destroyed by the patriarchal system then so prevalent and powerful. Appachana has a great talent for creating exceptionally believable characters and placing them in impossible circumstances, each story highlighting a different way in which women were powerless and, worse, victimized by a system that could not be altered. Among the most powerful stories were "Bahu," the recounting of the life of a woman whose identity has been reduced to “daughter-in-law” as her in-laws and even her husband make painfully clear that she has no other purpose in life than to serve. The compelling title story tells about a woman raped by her brother-in-law on the eve of her wedding and then regularly after that. What makes the story so enormously powerful is that it is told through the eyes of her 12-year-old sister…and its effect on her. Finally, in “Her Mother,” a daughter goes abroad to study. Most of the story takes for form of her mother’s internal dialogue as she struggles to write her daughter, simultaneously setting out her hopes and dreams even as she gives largely unwanted advice. What makes the story so poignant is that the advice is not only well-intentioned but precisely right while the reader knows that it will fall on deaf ears. It is a heart-breaking tale because both the daughter’s and the mother’s views are set out sympathetically and with enormous understanding.… (meer)