Peacocks of Instagram: Stories - Deepa Rajagopalan - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Deepa Rajagopalan

GENRE: Short Story Collection.

PUBLICATION DATE: May 7, 2024

RATING: 3.7 stars.

In a Nutshell: Considering how much I dislike Instagram, I am pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this collection of short stories, each dwelling on a diasporic Indian woman striving to make the best of her situation. The characters and the poignant writing make this collection impactful.

I’ve never been a fan of Instagram for various reasons. If I even see the word “influencer” in a blurb, I don’t go for that novel. Then why this story collection? Many reasons:

1. Indian-origin writer.

2. Indie writer and indie publisher.

3. A women-centric collection.

4. An intriguing title – does “peacocks” stand for the fake showiness of the app? Colour me curious!

5. The wacky mirror reflection in the cover art, taking peacock feather eyes and giving them a human twist.

6. This phrase in the blurb: “a cast of Indian women who are flawed, enterprising, and filled with desire”, none of which are attributes most Indian writers assign to Indian women. (No, we are supposed to be perfect, saintly, and satisfied homemakers. LMAO!)

So how much of the potential was met?

Quite a lot!

This set of fourteen stories dwells on a few Indian immigrant women who are facing the upheavals of life in their own unique fashion. Some rebel, some succumb, some hope… but all give their best to make the best they can of their circumstances. There is no author’s note introducing the collection to us, but the blurb makes it clear that these tales are about “diasporic Indians that deftly question what it means to be safe, to survive, and to call a place home.” Perfectly stated.

The women in each story span multiple ages, from child to senior citizen. While there are many male characters also in the story, the key driver of the plot and/or the narrator is always a woman. This ensures that the stories are high on introspection, self-awareness, and emotions. Many of the tales have a poignant undertone, as the characters reflect on what was lost and what could have been. But the stories also have an equally powerful ray of hope.

The characters are all of Indian origin and settled in Canada. This had initially made me a bit apprehensive because I thought the content might lean heavily on immigrant narratives, struggling to make the best in a new location. On the contrary, most of the stories, even when they are about immigrants, aren’t focussed on the “adjustment” and the discrimination. The stress of the writing is majorly on the characters and their personal lives in respect to their families and their mental well-being. At the same time, there are intelligent remarks over how the “privilege” of the women differs abroad and in their homeland.

Many of the characters jump across the fictional fence of their plot and appear in the other stories. You don’t need to keep the characters in mind for this, because the author offers ample clues about the identity of those making special appearances.

A few of the stories are set in India. The writing in these is genuine and lyrical, though you might escape some of the subtler nuances if you aren’t familiar with the location. The depiction of Kerala and its people is especially realistic. I enjoyed the balanced portrayal of my country, with its strengths and its flaws underlined fairly. However, I was left with uncertainty about one factor. The India that is portrayed in a couple of the stories feels very historical. This is later confirmed when we meet the same characters many years later in another story. However, as the timestamp is never specified, only a keen reader would figure out which stories are based in the past. My worry with this is that many Western readers would take these depictions at face value and assume that this portrayal applies to the whole of contemporary India. (Tip: Nothing, absolutely nothing, applies to the “whole of India.” We are a microcosm of cultures and beliefs and religions and cuisines and languages. So please, stop it with the generalisations!)

Short fiction readers are usually very particular about stories having the right ending. Most of these stories conclude at the right point, though it may not be a sealed ending or a happy one. But a couple of stories in between, all of them coincidentally focussed on one specific character, were a bit too slice-of-life for my liking and very abrupt in their endings. I don’t mind the slice-of-life style, but it is not my favourite, so this could be a ME problem. In most of the stories though, this debut writer controls the plots pretty firmly.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the fourteen stories, eight stories reached or crossed the four-star mark, which is a great performance. The rest of the stories mostly earned midway ratings, except for the above-mentioned overly meandering ones. These were my favourites:

🦚 Peacocks of Instagram - Definitely not as I had expected it to be. A story filled with myriad human emotions. Didn't expect the political angle, but it was pertinent to the story in an unexpected way, so no complaints. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🦚 Cake - The title sounds sweet, but the story isn't. What would you do to get the job of your dreams? What compromise crosses the line? An interesting but bittersweet story. Comes with triggers. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🦚 Whatever Happened, Happened For the Good - Full of the flavours of historical Kerala and the bittersweet emotions one feels in the face of a life-changing diagnosis. The narration being from a child's perspective enhances the sadness and confusion. Would have been a five star had it emphasized on the modernity of Thiruvananthapuram as much as its outdatedness.- ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🦚 Live-in - Enjoyed the clash of the traditional and the modern in this one. It was entertaining without being stereotypical. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🦚 Rahel - Would have been a typical story had it not been for the atypical eponymous lead and the ending. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🦚 Morningside - Loved the realism in this story about a marriage that is breaking up. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🦚 Singing For the Gods - A stunning story of how faith doesn't ensure open-mindedness and how not every religious person must be presumed to have the right opinion. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🦚 Bestsellers - I'll use a line from the story itself to tell you what it's about: "Take the FUCK YOUs of your life and turn them into something beautiful." Don't be turned off by the cuss word because there's an amazing story behind it. Loved this tale of resilience and hope. The perfect way to end the collection. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

All in all, this is a beautiful collection with introspective writing and intriguing characters. Keeping in mind that this is a debut work, I am quite impressed and will certainly look forward to more works by this talented young writer.

Definitely recommended. This collection might work better for those who like to explore the slice-of-life writing as many of these stories don’t follow the traditional start-middle-end format.

3.7 stars, based on the average of my ratings for the individual stories.

My thanks to House of Anansi Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “Peacocks of Instagram”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.