Good Girls - Leesa Gazi - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Leesa Gazi

TRANSLATOR: Shabnam Nadiya

GENRE: Literary Fiction.

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: An impactful novella about some “good girls” who, guess what, might not be so good, after all. Hardhitting and honest. A bit wacky at times. Wanted more at the end.

Story Synopsis:

Lovely and her younger-by-three-years sister Beauty have never been allowed by their mother to leave their home by themselves. Be it their education or their friends or their life choices, everything has been monitored by their mother Farida.

On Lovely’s 40th birthday, no one is more surprised than Farida herself when she permits her daughter to visit Gausia market alone, with the only instruction being to return by lunchtime. Stunned by this unexpected bonanza, Lovely is determined to make the best of the day, but where should she begin? The voice in her head gives her some interesting suggestions, some bordering on rebellion.

How far will Lovely go? How will Beauty react when she hears that her elder sister was allowed to go out alone? What was in Farida’s mind that morning? Read and find out.

The story comes to us in the third person perspectives of the above three characters.

This novella was originally published as “Rourob” in Bengali in 2020. It was first translated to English in the same year and published in India under the title “Hellfire”. This American edition has again undergone a name change, and comes out on 5th December 2023. I think this title suits the book the best.

Bookish Yays:

😍 A short read at just 190 pages, and yet I didn’t feel like zooming through it. The entire plot is set on a single day – Lovely’s 40th birthday, but we get enough of the backstory through well-written flashbacks and reminiscences.

😍 Great development of the main three characters. Farida’s overprotectiveness, Lovely’s dutifulness as an elder daughter, and Beauty’s rebelliousness as the younger daughter – all come out well. I loved seeing how the initial impressions made by the trio change over the course of the day.

😍 A few of the secondary characters are also impactful, particularly the girls’ father and the servant boy.

😍 The story is set in Dhaka, Bangladesh. As Bangladesh and India were the same nation until a few decades ago, our cultures are quite similar. As such, the description of the Gausia market as well as the regional attitude towards female children, skin colour, marriages, and parental duties – all felt genuine.

😍 The prose is amazingly vivid. Gausia market comes especially alive with the author’s (and translator’s) words.

😍 Despite the relative short length, the book goes deep and wide in its themes, handling dysfunctional families, patriarchy, psychological manipulation, and toxic parenting especially well. The genius of this is that there is nothing R-rated on paper. No sexual abuse, no violence, nothing. All we see is the aftermath; yet, it is disturbing.

😍 I am not sure if Lovely and Beauty come with the same names in the Bangla version, but I loved how apt their English names were for their respective personalities.

😍 Despite the serious themes and situations, there is enough humour in the book. One of the main sources of fun is the man’s voice in Lovely’s head, who seems to be goading her into breaking all of her constraints.

😍 I loved the translation. The prose is crisp enough to feel original, and at the same time, the content retains enough of Bangla to remind us that we are reading something from another culture. The Bangla words are quite easy to guess from context, and wherever they aren’t, meanings are provided without hurdling the flow.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

😐 Lovely’s escapades in Gausia market were quite entertaining at the start, but after a point, they started feeling dragged, and even too bizarre. The initial part of her adventure reminded me of the movie “Baby’s Day Out”, except that the “baby” this time was a forty-year-old woman experiencing her first taste of freedom. But when the proceedings became exaggerated, the realism diminished. Things improve after the narration moves to the other two women.

😐 I did like the ending. A lot. Though I could see the climax coming, it still left me speechless. But I wish it weren’t the ending. There was so much more I would have loved to know. I was reminded of how I felt at the ending of Vivek Shanbag’s ‘Ghachar Ghochar’, though that was open-ended and this one wasn’t. Both books were stunning writing efforts with endings that felt abrupt.

Bookish Nays:

😒 Why the heck is it tagged as a thriller on the cover? Luckily for me, I was already aware of “Hellfire” and it was on my agenda as a literary fiction work. So I didn’t read this edition as a thriller. Anyone who picks it up as one is bound to be disappointed. It’s thrilling, but it is not a thriller.

All in all, I relished this character-driven novella. Its themes and its characters make it a fascinating read. Recommended to literary fiction lovers interested in feminist topics as well as a novel cultural perspective.

My thanks to AmazonCrossing and NetGalley for the DRC of “Good Girls”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

A similar thought-provoking read:

Min Jin Lee’s ‘The Best Girls’. This novella makes me want to reread this short story. I might just do so!