Does anyone remember that Great British Bake Off where (spoiler alert) Frances won but all throughout the series Paul Hollywood kept telling her that her bakes looked amazing but were lacking substance? Well Mohanaswamy had the opposite problem - the substance was all there but the style was not. I’d still recommend it overall because the content was insightful and brave, but just be forewarned that there are issues with the translation. Obviously I’m in no position to judge because I speak no Kannada, but over half of the awkward parts were purely grammatical English errors, so a good editor should have spotted those and it would have made for a much cleaner text, as it seemed rushed.
.
But ANYWAY, I will turn off my translator/proofreader brain and get back to the fact that for Vasudhendra, this book was his coming out and was the first book featuring homosexual love and relationships in a positive light to be written in Kannada. The translation, lacklustre it may be, gives the English speaking world a rare insight into what life is like for gays in small villages in India.
.
The book actually ended up coming out on the same day that a piece of legislation in the Indian penal code criminalising homosexuality was upheld, in a very twisted coincidence, and I found Vasudhendra’s interview with his translator at the back of the book a very moving read, as he talked about his fear of being punished for the book but also relief at not having to lead a ‘pseudo-life’ anymore.
.
I found the order of some of the stories a bit random - they jumped back and forth in the timeline of Mohanaswamy’s life - but they explore everything from lust and love to the prejudices that are deeply ingrained in the lives of those in small villages, often with horrific consequences for those just trying to live their lives as who they are.