Confessions of an Indian Woman Eater

by Sasthi Brata

Confessions of An Indian Woman Eater

Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[S.Ach · Rating 3 out of 5]

In an interview, Sasthi Brata said about his book, "[it] was regarded as salacious. In fact, I have written somewhere else that people who were looking for porn wouldn’t find it and people who were looking for enlightenment wouldn’t find it. It was a straight-forward confessions, a young man trying to make sense of his life."

Well, he was right. The book was neither an erotica nor a philosophical journey.
What I expected from it was to find further observations of the revolutionary young man of "My God died young". But, found an arrogant, prurient, callous young man's obsession with sex instead, and his stupid experimentations with life." Too sad if it was autobiographical.
However, I read the book cover to cover for the sake of sheer reading pleasure.

P.S. In the same interview the author mentions, "Confessions of an Indian Woman Eater was a pun on Thomas De Quincey’s 1821 Confessions of an English Opium Eater. Nobody got that joke. Nobody! Not in England, not in America, not in India"

[Kshitiz Goliya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confessions of an Indian woman eater shows that overwhelming objectivity that Sasthi Brata displayed in his earlier book. He is so sure about what he is talking that reader is not given the luxury to judge or form a viewpoint. However, the positive things is that Sashti has the ability to justify his statements by linking them with candour and hard reality. Travelling far and wide and sleeping with different women, one can see the protagonist, Amit Ray, grow into a confident man. Sometimes one feels he is just too lucky for a degreeless Indian leaving his home for Delhi and then the Europe of 60s. May be thats what we can learn from the writer; that the world then was far more easy going than today where we have all kind of pretensions in the name of qualifications and immigration laws.
The book explores that complex entity called women, mostly through writer' s sexual encounters (which he had many). While it also shows the growth of an aspiring writer, the crux lies more in his disenchantments with the world and how easliy he moves on.
In the end you realize that finally writing is a journey in which you consistently move on for new pastures and leave for reader a your broken past, diffused hopes and an exciting anticipation that he/she could relate to.
This book is not a literary marvel but it addresses the world so directly that you began to wander whether there is anything new here and still you don't stop still the last page. These are indeed unrepentant confessions and thats what makes it worth reading.

[Gourang Ambulkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written memoirs of an immigrant.

[Ather Sheheryar]

waste of time and money

[Manu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amit Ray, the protagonist, starts off by leaving home and his hometown - Calcutta. In his own words, "a gesture, like goodbye notes from failed suicides". Narrated in first person, this beginning, sets the tone of the book - a certain abruptness that pops up every now and them amidst the otherwise leisurely pace of the book.
The book is actually more a lifestream, and is quite possibly autobiographical to a considerable extent. Justifying the title, the book chronicles his encounter with women of various kinds, across geographic locations, across relationship statuses, across situations ranging from tender to bizarre, and across time. All of this as he moves from one trade to another - shoeshine boy, reporter, lavatory attendant, engineer, and through most of this - writer.
There is a certain study of humankind that happens throughout the novel - not just of the principal characters, but even the ones that provide the backdrop. At some points, I was reminded of Pankaj Mishra's 'The Romantics', if only for the curious mix of fatalism and romanticism.
The ending, much in character, is also abrupt, but it worked for me.