Skip to main content

Misogyny, corruption and family ties: You Beneath Your Skin, Damyanti Biswas

In her tautly-written debut, author Damyanti Biswas explores the misogyny, corruption and social inequalities that exist in Delhi’s seamy underbelly. Dark and atmospheric, the book sits within the Indian noir genre that has inspired Hindi movies such as Mardaani and Talaash. It follows psychotherapist Dr Anjali Morgan as she juggles her work at a women’s project in inner-city Delhi, with her complicated personal life: her fraught relationship with her teenage son Nikhil, who has autism; her friendship with Maya who runs a small detective agency, and her on-off affair with Maya’s brother, Special Crime Commissioner Jatin Bhatt. When the three of them begin to work on a case solving a spate of grotesque murders in which slum women are raped and killed, their faces disfigured with acid, it exposes old scars and creates new ones in the personal lives of the main characters.



With her brooding writing style and the narrative split between multiple viewpoints, Biswas skilfully lays bare the hypocrisy infecting families and institutions; the toxic masculinity that enables some men, even from a young age, to feel so entitled that they can carry out hideously violent atrocities on women, and the privilege that allows certain classes to exploit others with impunity. She also explores society’s (and perhaps Indian society’s in particular) obsession with perfect appearances – whether that’s physical appearances or one’s status and standing in the eyes of their peers and community. 

The title therefore works on two levels; it refers to the characters who find that other people’s perceptions of them and their outward appearances do not add up to who they really are. But also as a wider comment on the veneer over the worst aspects of society; the tension between morality and materialism eventually gives way, ripping apart the thin veil cast over society’s flaws, and exposing the ugliness beneath.

There are plot twists aplenty, although they are set up for discerning readers to be able to unravel them before the characters do. But this did not detract at all from what was, for me, still a dark and gripping read. It compels the reader to confront the worst of what human nature is capable of, but also offers optimism in showing that we can still redefine ourselves on our own terms.

Not only is this a hard-hitting but thoughtful read in its own right, I was also impressed to learn that author proceeds from this book go to two Delhi-based charities dedicated to educating street children, and helping survivors of acid attacks.

Brown Brontë rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

You Beneath Your Skin is published by Simon & Schuster India and is available for UK readers on Amazon.

Comments

  1. I found your blog on Google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. You can also visit Detective Services In Delhi for more Veteran Investigation Services (VIS) related information and knowledge, Keep up the great work Look forward to reading more from you in the future.


    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mahmood Mattan, Fortune Man: review

  I remember one time when my daughter, aged 10, came home from school, shocked that some countries still have the death penalty. ‘You mean they actually execute people?’ She asked. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But it’s the 21 st century!’ she said. ‘It’s cruel!’ ‘I know,’ I said. ‘We might think it shouldn’t happen, but it does.’ I was reminded of that conversation recently while reading Nadifa Mohamed’s The Fortune Men , alongside listening to Danielle Fahiya’s excellent BBC podcast Mattan: Injustice of a Hanged Man . Both the novel and the podcast tell of the wrongful conviction and hanging of Mahmood Mattan, a Somali Muslim seaman living in Cardiff’s Tiger Bay, in 1952. Mattan was accused of having brutally murdered a local shopkeeper, Lily Volpert (her name is changed in the book to Violet Volacki). Mattan maintained his innocence right to the end, but his appeals were unsuccessful, and he was hanged in Cardiff prison on 3 rd September 1952. His body was interred in the prison grou

Why Helen Graham is the Best Brontë Heroine

This month was Anne Bront ë ’s 200 th birthday, so I couldn’t let it go without writing a post in honour of it.  Anne Bronte, Project Gutenberg I don't think I'm alone in thinking that Anne was the boldest of her sisters. Her novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall certainly is the bravest in rebelling against social expectations of women, and Helen Graham is by far my favourite heroine. Here’s why: 1.  She’s an adult, independent woman who has lived a full(er) life in society. Rather than living in the margins of society, in a state of arrested development, like Jane, Lucy, Agnes or even Cathy who never wanted to leave the moors, Helen’s previous life means she seems more like a well-rounded person. This might have made her story all the more shocking to Victorian audiences, as Helen’s social standing combined with her radical ideas would have been more likely to influence other people than those of a governess. She can’t be dismissed as just a naïve or unrelia

Sultana’s Dream: A Bengali Feminist Sci-Fi Utopia

Sultana’s Dream is a science fiction short story by the Bengali writer and activist Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain , which was first published in the Indian Ladies’ Magazine, Madras, in 1905.  It imagines the journey of a woman – Sultana - to a fantastical place called Ladyland, “free from sin and harm, where Virtue reigns supreme”. Here, the powers and spheres of men and women are reversed so that women are active in public life, and men are restricted to domestic duties.  The result is a utopia where there is no crime, violence or corruption. Their main diet is fruit; they use technology to carry out manual labour and grow crops, and flying cars to travel. Work is carried out more efficiently as women do not waste time smoking and talking, and they come up with innovative, non-violent ways of defending themselves against enemies. At a time when India was under British colonial rule and women’s emancipation had not yet become a reality even in Britain, Hossain satirised the patri