An astonishing adventure into the heart of one of India's most controversial writers.
Kamala Das (1934-2009) is one of India's most beloved and controversial literary figures. She was hailed and reviled as the first Indian woman to write an autobiographical cult classic about love and desire. Admirers dubbed her, "The First Feminist Emotional Revolutionary of Our Time." The tabloid press called her "The Love Queen of Malabar."
Merrily Weisbord found Das's work so compelling that she flew to South India to meet her. The Love Queen of Malabar is the story of their decade-long friendship, an experiment in mutual revelation. Recounting the development of their relationship, Weisbord relates the dramatic events of Das's life, including her transition from celibacy to sexual awakening at age sixty-seven when, provoking the greatest scandal of her notorious life, she converted to Islam for love and renewal.
Both observer and direct participant, Weisbord elegantly presents new biographical insights and cultural details about Kerala and India without exoticisation or stereotyping. The Love Queen of Malabar is an evocative and beautifully crafted work, as seamless as the finest novel, and will captivate readers across the globe.
Details
288 Pages, 6 x 9
2 drawings, 30 b&w illustrations
ISBN 9780773537910
September 2010
Formats: Cloth, eBook
"The Love Queen of Malabar is something of a thriller about censorship and transgression; an homage to a woman who is so powerful she wraps herself around your heart." roverarts.com
"As if to test Mark Twain's pronouncement "truth is stranger than fiction,' two women - the award-winning journalist Merrily Weisbord from Canada, and the internationally acclaimed Indian writer Kamala Das - engage in an experiment of revealing to each other their experiences of men, motherhood, and writing. The intimate truths revealed here will stun the literary world and intrigue readers everywhere. This literary biography is a tour de force that reads like a well-crafted novel." Katherine K. Young, James McGill Professor, McGill University
"The Love Queen of Malabar is a portrait of Kamala Das, a remarkable poet, memoirist and public figure who dared to challenge many of India's taboos around sexuality. It is also the chronicle of an evolving friendship - wonderfully evocative in its use of language and dialogue - and it is a sensitive discussion of issues relevant to the lives of women and writers. Highly engaging and honest, it is a model of writing across cultures and continents." Sherry Simon, author of Translating Montreal: Episodes in the Life of a Divided City.
"If she was less original or less determined, Weisbord could always have written a novel. But few novelists exploring similar exotic cultures these days produce work of such high literary quality as The Love Queen of Malabar." John Barber, Globe and Mail
"The Love Queen of Malabar is an evocative and beautifully crafted work, as seamless as the finest novel, and will captivate readers across the globe." South Asian Post
"The Love Queen of Malabar is fascinating conversation between two strong-minded women, a narrative set in two countries and many cultures. It proves that none of us fit under one label or one identity, but are complex and contradictory and simply stuck with the messiness of our lives." The Globe and Mail
"This is literary biography that is meditative and sexy." Daily News & Analysis
"Provocative in content and evocative in its style, The Love Queen of Malabar effectively captures the spirit of perhaps India's most controversial writer. Das's words flow through this book like gentle wind passing through a hollow bamboo. (...) [Weisbord] is the perfect instrument, encapsulating in lyrical prose the many moods of this brilliant, yet much misunderstood writer." Arali Koppar, JustBooks Connect
"This fascinating memoir of her 10-year friendship with South Indian poet-essayist-short-story writer Kamala Das is a terrific read: informative, intimate, full of surprises and a triumph of friendship, trust and humanity." Irwin Block, The Senior Times
"The Love Queen of Malabar foregrounds the life of a woman widely acknowledged as one of India’s pre-eminent poets, but it also illuminates the simultaneous journeys of both author and subject toward a more inclusive view of humanity " Stella Algoo-Baksh, Canadian Literature
"Weisbord's prose is clear and her insistence on emotional honesty is commendable and unusual, even in this confessional era. Ultimately this is a story about freedom, love and female identity, and the details of Kamala's life are less important than the story she tells." Kris Rothstein, Herizons
Merrily Weisbord is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and broadcaster.
1. Cochin, Munnar, Kovalam, South India, 1995
The Stranger and I • 3
An Introduction • 10
Love in Another Country • 17
Esoteric Exotica • 26
Lines Addressed to a Devadesi • 42
2. Montreal, Laurentian Mountains, New York, 1995
Maple Leaves Red as Drying Blood • 51
I Shall Carry You with Me • 61
Child Bride • 75
Riding a Tiger • 88
3. Delhi, Cochin, Kovalam, 1997
Orbits of Friendship • 107
Life Is but a Dream • 120
The Husband Who Neither Loved nor Used Her but Was a Ruthless Watcher • 126
4. Cochin, Calicut, Malabar, 2000
Bliss in the Scent of His Perspiration • 141
Beyond the Outskirts of the City • 155
The Fear of the Year • 168
A Pale Green Pond • 177
5. The Laurentians, Montreal, 2000
Gift of a Man • 189
The Depth of Sequestered Pools • 202
6. Cochin, 2003
A Touch of Moonlight • 209
You Embrace Me • 218
7. Cochin, 2004
Exhalations • 229
A Cloudburst of Intense Fantasy • 237
8. Cochin, Punnayurkulam, 2005
That Close to Me • 247
The Place of Quiet Happiness • 257
Epilogue • 267
Acknowledgments • 269
Bibliography • 273
Finalist
Writer's Trust of Canada
(2010)
Non-Fiction Prize
Finalist
Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction
(Quebec Writers' Federation Book Awards) (2011)
Finalist
Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction
(2011)