The Matchbox

Author: Ashapoorna Devi
Translator(s): Monabi Mitra
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 147
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8129104490

Description

The Sheer variety and scope of Ashapurna Debi’s stories tends to defy any critical evaluation of them. But the common thread stringing them together into a multifaceted whole is the delineation of the emotions of the middle classes, living lives outwardly devoid of sensational events, but in actuality containing a psychological and emotional terrain almost terrifying in its complexity. Her forte is the domestic life, what she described as the four walls of the home-walls which contain a variety of unique experiences within them.

The stories in this collection bear this out-each story is not just an exploration but also a working out of an inner complexity, Usually revealed in a dichotomy between the characters outer façade and their inner world.

MONABI MITRA teaches English at Scottish church college, Kolkata.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

Forgive me

Beloved

The Descent

Heartless

The Homemaker

The Butcher

Suicide

The Match Box

Glossary