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A review by _askthebookbug
Outcaste: A Novel by Matamp Kunnukuttan
4.0
Outcaste.
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"Paptikutty's inner eye opened. The purpose of her birth was revealed to her in that moment. Her weariness and inertia vanished. The concept of Illusion reared its head. The primal figure of the Mother Goddess in a graveyard, wearing a garland of skills, gleefully sucking the blood trickling from the decapitated demon's head, appeared in her mind's eye." - Matampu Kunhukuttan.
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Originally written in Malayalam by Matampu and later translated into English by Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan, Outcaste is a fierce novel about everything that's wrong with the patriarchal society. I've come to enjoy translated books lately for the fact that it is poetic in it's writing while narrating the events that are most often related to our history. Outcaste is based on the 1905 trial of a Namboodiri woman for adultery. This book is about revenge that a woman seeked while bringing down the entire Namboodiri community.
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Paptikutty was a vision of beauty and grace but when she gets exploited by her husband and brother-in-law on the night of her wedding, she steels her heart and decides to take revenge on all the men. She seeks out 64 men from the most powerful families and lures them in with her seductive beauty. While on trail, she even lists down their names and intimate physical descriptions that they shared. The above quote refers to Paptikutty being an reincarnation of Goddess Kaali while purifying the patriarchal society. First half of the book describes the historic Kerala where the author explains about how the Namboodiri community used to work. I learnt about resident husbands, the era of prostitution being considered as high class amongst other things.
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This book is tough to read at one go for the translation is very difficult to comprehend. There are meanings of most of the words that we aren't aware of but I'm afraid many readers will choose to abandon this due to the level of difficulty. If you're interested in learning about the ancient culture of Kerala, then I assure you that you'll love the book. I, for one, enjoyed the book for I decided to give it time.
~
Thank you @alephbookco for sending this gorgeous book :)
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Rating - 4/5.
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"Paptikutty's inner eye opened. The purpose of her birth was revealed to her in that moment. Her weariness and inertia vanished. The concept of Illusion reared its head. The primal figure of the Mother Goddess in a graveyard, wearing a garland of skills, gleefully sucking the blood trickling from the decapitated demon's head, appeared in her mind's eye." - Matampu Kunhukuttan.
~
Originally written in Malayalam by Matampu and later translated into English by Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan, Outcaste is a fierce novel about everything that's wrong with the patriarchal society. I've come to enjoy translated books lately for the fact that it is poetic in it's writing while narrating the events that are most often related to our history. Outcaste is based on the 1905 trial of a Namboodiri woman for adultery. This book is about revenge that a woman seeked while bringing down the entire Namboodiri community.
~
Paptikutty was a vision of beauty and grace but when she gets exploited by her husband and brother-in-law on the night of her wedding, she steels her heart and decides to take revenge on all the men. She seeks out 64 men from the most powerful families and lures them in with her seductive beauty. While on trail, she even lists down their names and intimate physical descriptions that they shared. The above quote refers to Paptikutty being an reincarnation of Goddess Kaali while purifying the patriarchal society. First half of the book describes the historic Kerala where the author explains about how the Namboodiri community used to work. I learnt about resident husbands, the era of prostitution being considered as high class amongst other things.
~
This book is tough to read at one go for the translation is very difficult to comprehend. There are meanings of most of the words that we aren't aware of but I'm afraid many readers will choose to abandon this due to the level of difficulty. If you're interested in learning about the ancient culture of Kerala, then I assure you that you'll love the book. I, for one, enjoyed the book for I decided to give it time.
~
Thank you @alephbookco for sending this gorgeous book :)
~
Rating - 4/5.