When I Hit You - Background and General (No Spoilers) (July 2018)

[Hugh]

This is the general thread for the discussion of When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasamy. This powerful account of an abusive marriage first came to my attention when it was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018. At this stage it would be useful to know if you are joining the discussion and what you know about the author and the background.

Note that the title has been abbreviated in some editions such as the UK (Atlantic) mass market paperback edition. The original was clearly a jokey reference to James Joyce, but the short version is snappier.

A few reviews (these may contain spoilers):

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo...
https://www.ft.com/content/d34732ee-3...

[Neil]

I have just reserved a copy at my local library so will read it soon. I am coming at it cold - I know very little about author or background.

[Marc]

Plan to start and finish this one next week. I know zilch about book and author (other than knowing about prize nominations and the general subject-matter). Thanks for kicking things off, Hugh!

[Beverly]

I will be joining this discussion.

I had heard of the book and was waiting for a US publication date.
Then it made the Women's Prize short list and thought I would be hearing about a US publication date.
This book does not seem to easily available in the US yet.

I received my book last week from Book Depository.
It was the paperback edition with the shorter title.

[Hugh]

Sorry to hear it is not yet freely available in the US Beverly - that makes me a little surprised that it won the poll.

[LindaJ^]

Like Beverly I got this from the UK Book Depository for a very reasonable price. I enjoyed it, although perhaps "enjoyed" is the wrong way to put it! Thanks Hugh for the links to the reviews, although must say that the reviews by my GR friends were as interesting and as thought provoking.

[LindaJ^]

I read Ben Montgomery's -- Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail -- a couple of years ago (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...) but this obituary in the NY Times reminded me of it again -- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/ob.... I had forgotten how abusive her husband had been and how she got arrested for throwing a bag of flour at him to stop one beating.