BOOK REVIEW


TITLE: Difficult Daughters
AUTHOR: Manju Kapur
PUBLISHER: Penguin
PRICE: Rs.250
CATEGORY: Fiction


As the title suggests, the story is about ‘difficult’ daughters who want to embark on a new path. It beautifully presents the relationship of a mother and a daughter and shows how the equation between the two changes as the daughter grows up.The book is set around the Partition time (1947) in Lahore and Amritsar.
The beginning of the story is quite riveting, with a daughter trying to understand her mother, after her mother expired. But soon the focus of the novel shifts towards the life of the mother-Virmati, the lead protagonist, who is torn between her family (marrying the ‘ideal’ man of her own ‘samaj’), her desire for education and her love for a married man- the professor. The story is an extraordinary blend of personal and professional aspirations of a woman. The India-Pakistan partition has been very cleverly used to make it look like a plot of the story. The story gains momentum as Virmati gets into a scandalous relationship with her married neighbour, the Professor. Their relationship parallels with India’s battle for freedom. The book offers not just a love story to its readers.
This well researched book comprises of numerous facts about the Partition era, thus making the story more realistic. The lives of a Punjabi family in Amritsar has been described in a very picturesque manner making it more interesting to read.
The Professor’s character is a bit feeble in comparison with Virmati’s character, she had the audacity to defy her family and the society.
Through its different characters the story has also exhibited the evolution of a women’s status in the society.
The author has successfully managed to draw attention towards social issues like education for women, women empowerment and child marriage which were dominant aspects of the society at that time and still prevails.
The author has done a commendable job in conveying the story by using simple yet effective words without compromising on the strong impact of the storyline.
Note: Manju Kapur is an English professor at Miranda House, Delhi University. Difficult Daughters is her first attempt and has received the Commonwealth Award for the Eurasian region. It is partially based on her mother ‘Virmati’ (whose photograph along with her father’s photograph is on the book cover).