The Areca Nut Tree and Other Stories - Edited by Ranjita Biswas

Editor-Translator: Ranjita Biswas

Authors: Various.

Genre: Anthology, Indian Cultural Fiction.

Rating: 2.75 stars.

A collection of fourteen stories from Assamese women writers. Each of these stories was written in the 1990s.

There were many reasons for me to opt for this book:

1. The North-East factor is the topmost reason. I have not read much from the North-Eastern region of our country and this seemed like a great option.

2. All stories are by female writers.

3. The stories are contemporary and not historical. It would have provided a great opportunity at reading modern regional literature.

4. The blurb made it sound very intriguing.

Unfortunately for me, this didn’t turn out to be as per my expectations. As the writers are from Assam, I was hoping to find something quintessentially Assamese in the stories. After all, that's the biggest purpose of reading regional writers, isn't it? That they can show us a glimpse of the local flavour that is denied us in mainstream media and art. But that doesn't happen with most of the stories here. The setting is such that they could have taken place anywhere and it wouldn't have made a difference to the final outcome.

The stories are by female writers but most of the stories don’t have that emotional diversity or depth that is usually present in women’s writing. They are also not much feministic, though of course, this was my mistake; the book made no such promises.

The stories have been translated to English and I am very sorry to say this but the translation isn’t very good. There are abrupt perspective changes and random jumps in the writing flow. Some words are used repetitively. There is no authenticity or original flavour maintained. (For instance, in one story, a character is supposed to be talking in broken English but her dialogues have translated to flawless spoken English.) While there were no evident grammatical errors, the language use didn’t satisfy me at all.

Of the fourteen stories, I loved “The Areca Nut Tree” by Manika Devee, “Dunoi” by Kavyashree Mahanta (My favourite of the book – what brilliant writing!) and “Reflection” by Leena Sarma. These were the only three tales that reached/crossed 4.5 stars. The rest were mostly disappointing.

2.75 stars, based on the average of my ratings for all the stories.

My thanks to the Himalayan Book Club for a complimentary copy of “The Areca Nut Tree and Other Stories”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.