Women Who Misbehave

by Sayantani Dasgupta

'Sayantani Dasgupta's short stories are witty, well-crafted, and
wondrous. Compulsively readable, Dasgupta's stories announce an
exciting new talent in Indian fiction.'

Genres: Short Stories, Anthologies

208 pages, Hardcover

Published August 1, 2021

About the author

An alumna of St. Stephen’s College and JNU, Sayantani Dasgupta received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Idaho. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She is the author of Women Who Misbehave (Penguin Random House); Fire Girl: Essays on India, America, & the In-Between—a Finalist for the Foreword Indies Awards for Creative Nonfiction—and the chapbook The House of Nails: Memories of a New Delhi Childhood. Her writing has appeared in over 50 literary journals and magazines, including, The Hindu, The Rumpus, Scroll, Economic & Political Weekly, IIC Quarterly, Chicago Quarterly Review, and others. She has been awarded a Centrum Foundation Fellowship, and a Pushcart Prize Special Mention. Besides the US, she has taught creative writing in India, Italy, and Mexico. Sayantani is also the winner of Season 3 of Write India, adjudged by the novelist Kavita Kane, and organized by the books division of The Times of India.

Reviews

[Avani ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Women Who Misbehave by Sayantani Dasgupta is a collection of short stories about women who have not only made decisions in society on their own but also made sure to put themselves first in the society.

Both of these are quirky reads, but much needed in today's time. With both these books I can see a new wave of writing coming to Indian literature. Both the covers are super gorgeous and depicts the perfectness of the book.

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean wow. Read this collection when you are older as a woman. The world we live in can be either beautiful or terrifying. We can’t live in both. We can live in both hiding one or the other. The stories accurately reflect this. I love all the stories. The characters are surviving drowning in their solitude and seemingly perfect but messy lives.

[Midge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful collection of stories, filled with engaging, complex, and memorable characters as well as prose that stopped me mid-paragraph time after time because I had to re-read so many eloquent sentences. These stories are also witty and so much fun ... WOMEN WHO MISBEHAVE is a perfect gift for the dynamic women (and men!) in your life.

[Priyanka Kedia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal collection of short stories spread over a course of centuries. I love the way women have been written in this short story collection; just as individuals trying to live and negotiate with their specific circumstances.

[Trinanjana · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a woman, the first task is to follow the things-not-to-do list.


Don’t talk loudly, don’t eat too much, don’t have your opinion, don’t talk to men and the list goes on and on. Then comes the list of what’s expected from us. Be a good girl, learn to cook, learn to keep quiet, keep your eyes low…. And if by any chance you violate it, all hell will break loose and you will be ostracized. Such is the society, where it’s a woman’s fault if a man rapes you, or a husband justifies killing his wife because of their “audacity” to do a job rather than taking care of babies and home. Women who don’t obey their fathers are bad, women with viewpoints are the devil's weapons.


How many of you remember the movie “main hoon na” where Amrita Rao wasn’t feminine or undeserving of love until she wore salwar kameez! Or the fact that a movie won’t be a MOVIE unless there’s a sexual provocation dance number! The systematic feeding of the notion where women ARE second-class citizens is shamefully very strong even to date. Or let’s rephrase it if you don’t identify yourself as a man then you don’t matter. What we often forget is how powerful the media is in pushing certain kinds of narrative, no wonder that there are men who think “na mein hi haan hai”, that stalking is love.


The stories by Sayantani Dasgupta are powerful enough to make one feel surprised, get angry, confused, and above all force one to think. If only wearing simple saari means the woman doesn’t hold enough cruelty within herself to murder her entire family for the sake of love, or otherwise a charming writer who falls in love and marries an accountant won’t be able to pen down her thoughts without getting emotionally bruised. My heart goes to Binu who disobeyed all the rules and kept on reading and standing on her ground without thinking about the repercussions. Swift yet the very delicate manner of world-building and character developing in such a short space the author amazed me. These women are being pushed and cornered by society, friends, and family that once in a while they erupt in a surprising way as if a volcano got awakened after a hundred years of sleep. These women are unconventional, desperate and with an ambition to prove their worth.

It's not about being well behaved or not, it's more about the tiny injustices done every moment against a gender layered under the “we want nothing but your good” notion. The writing style is so beautiful, so seamless that it achieved near perfection. I can imagine myself reading this book, picking up stories randomly, making annotations on a lazy weekend afternoon.

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I loved the women in it, not just because they misbehaved, but also because sometimes their circumstances led them into complicated spaces where they didn’t always make the decision you thought they would. This was a pleasure to read.

[Mila · Rating 5 out of 5]

The single most powerful collection of stories I have EVER read. Most haunting, some horrifying, all astounding in their imagery and characters. Go read now!

[Tristan Prather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very captivated by Dasgupta's prose. Her ability to seed tension into her characters translates into a dull and persistent ache. Each character holds within themselves a sense of longing that functions as the catalyst for the tension to build. The tension is only relieved when everything comes to a head and the tension is released in a few short lines, leaving the reader desperate to know what happens after the bomb has been dropped. I liked that Dasgupta played with using first, second, and third-person narration and that there was variety in these styles. Food was another theme that was enjoyable to follow in each story and certainly played a part in each; whether food was representative of a character's homesickness or their sense of duty to provide for their family, it was used as more than just a sensory device. There is great variety in these stories, from charming retellings of "Beauty and the Beast" to dinner party drama, there is something in here for everyone.

True to the title, "Women Who Misbehave" demonstrates a consistent challenge to the expectations imposed on women based on their gender and the rebellion against patriarchal influences is often subtle, but anything but absent or docile.

[Chris Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

A review on the front cover reads "an exciting new talent" but Sayantani Dasgupta's talent has been well-known to me for some time. I may be biased, but I think she will not care.

Each story found the depth of each character and uncovered the human core. It's a feat for which I applaud Sayantani in accomplishing. It's an inspiration.

She is full of surprises--exciting, dangerous surprises. I was so lucky to snag a copy when I could. I look forward to her future work, words, and of course, more surprises.

[Kavita Jhala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without imposing or without those feminist leanings - Women Who Misbehave is a gentle reminder of women's thought processes and what is to be done or not done is not followed through. Not all stories need to have particular endings. The situations that Sayantani takes up in each of the stories are so regular that you feel a connected-ness with each of the story and yet find it bewildering to your consciousness because of the way women behave in each of them. No psychoanalysis or psychobabble and no moralizing with perfect endings - each story is said and then kept open for readers to think what could be next or perhaps best is to leave them at that. To expect a women-oriented bra-burning feminist stories from this is going to disappoint you for this book is a different take on the ways women behave and comes in the league of Mahashweta Devi's writings on women or Manto's objective projection of women's thoughts.

[Nidhi Kapoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books make you feel as warm from inside like a conversation with an old friend, someone you have grown up with and when the conversation ends, you are left with a warm glow but also a feeling of wanting more! This book was like that for me. From the very first story, the characters felt like my own, like people I had brushed against in a crowd, people in my neighborhood growing up, and people I may have known in another life. There is a strange sort of nostalgia in Sayantani's writing. It makes you want to go back in time to simpler times and simpler lives. We definitely need a sequel of this one. I want to know more about these characters. Like who really was Miss Josephine! Thank you for writing this. I absolutely loved the book.

[Ivy Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay read for me. A little dark and spineless for my taste. The women all "misbehave." The word is chosen well, because they don't rebel or challenge the status quo. One colludes with her lover to murder her entire family and run away with him. She ends up quietly accepting a life of being beaten and brutalized by the man. Another, a child bride, sneaks into the library every afternoon to read, but on discovery fears the shame of being sent back to her family. A waitress spits into every cocktail she serves and helps her pimp identify prospects for his trafficking trade. Almost all the stories are of women beaten down, afraid to stand up to the men or the authorities in their lives. In trying to tell the story of "ordinary" women, there was an overall sense of disempowerment and ignorance. The women came across as lifeless and lacking spark. Even though I couldn't relate to a single character, the stories left me with a vague sense of unrest and despondence.

[Sneha Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read over a breezy Saturday evening, and a lazy Sunday afternoon, Women Who Misbehave is brimming with characters who are ripe with volition and ideas. Each main character is so, in her own right, whether it's a woman who is coming to terms with her manipulative prowess, or a little girl fumbling through the darkness to find purpose and love, or a passionate lover who is ready to risk everything for the one. The writing places you bang in the middle of the story making you witness these women as they dodge circumstantial waves and pulls to write their own destiny. The consequences of their actions; good, bad, or ordinary, is maybe upto you to judge, but you surely can't tell them what to do.

[Jubi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an amazing read, I'm so fucking glad I read this one.

[Amiya · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's great reading about women who misbehave, not just because you can relate to them or root for them but also because they surprise you constantly as they do the unexpected. This was one of those books which made me stop and retrace my steps along sentences I'd just read, only to read them again them more slowly, savour them and appreciate the writer's craft. I just wish the stories were longer!

[Priyanka Dhingra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sayantani weaves a story after the other, for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Delectable in some parts, magical in others, splendid overall. I tucked away some stories to frame my view of the world around, kept some for a discussion over a coffee and few to read again and relish. Brilliant writing.

[Martina Litty · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite story in this wonderful collection is the final one, “Knots.”

[Sachxy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mình mạnh dạn cho 4 sao vì truyện ngắn mà bắt mình đọc được hết cuốn thì cũng là ra gì và này nọ.
1. Cái tên rất gợi. Cái bìa không hay, dễ khiến người ta nghĩ đến chuyện misbehave trong tình dục. khuôn sáo cũ mòn.
2. Các truyện tương đối ngắn, đúng là truyện ngắn, chứ không phải 20-30 trang.
3. The party là truyện mình đã chọn dịch, hi vọng sẽ được đăng báo. Khoảng 7/10 truyện đáng để dịch, cơ mà chưa đủ xuất sắc hoặc vì vượt quá số trang cho báo. Nhưng trong tương lai mình có thể đắn đo chuyện dịch cả cuốn để chào hàng, cái tựa mang tính marketing thế cơ mà.
4. Mình thích truyện The party vì nó khắc hoạ tâm lý rất xuất sắc, một lát cắt đời sống, những dynamic trong một không gian nhỏ hẹp, nó không cần phải kể lể thân phận cả cuộc đời của nhân vật như phần lớn truyện ngắn Việt Nam.
5. The hard kind of love thì hơi phi thực tế, mặc dù chi tiết cuối khiến có chút bất ngờ nhưng sự thiếu thuyết phục khiến cho nỗ lực kéo độc giả qua hơn 10 trang thành ra không xứng tầm.
6. The reader nghe như một chuyện phim cổ trang. Cũng ok. Nhưng hơi màu hường.
7. Miss Josephine tương tự như The hard kind of love, nhưng cái kết lãng xẹt hơn và không lôi cuốn bằng.
8. Shaaji and Saatnam: Một câu chuyện tình bị ngăn cấm và giải pháp của đôi trẻ khiến người ta băn khoăn: có thật vậy không?
9. If only somewhere. tiếp nối của cậu chuyện tình bên trên cơ mà bế tắc thực sự và giận dữ với nhân vật chính
10. The waitress. Hay, hai điểm nhìn của hai cô gái sinh ra trong hai hoàn cảnh khác nhau, trong một không gian ...
11. Another life. Có những tiếc nuối day dứt cả đời. Cái "chuyện" mãi đến nửa trang cuối mới được phát lộ
12. Sisters. Thực tế lạnh lùng, tác giả tái hiện tốt không khí buồn chán, bế tắc
13. Knots. Mình luôn luôn ám ảnh với cái đói. Nên chuyện này tuy chủ đề không mới nhưng cứ động mà viết về cái đói một cách thực sự dằn vặt, giằng xé, mâu thuẫn chứ không hời hợt khuôn sáo, là chạm đến mình ngay.

[Sidharth Manohar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Explicit violence and discrimination against women are abundant in discourses about Patriarchy. But a sly way in which Patriarchy subdues women is by burdening them with expectations to be pure, gentle, forgiving, docile, and non-violent. This is often louder in progressive spaces - "Don't you have a mother and sisters at home?" is a common insult pointed at someone who misbehaves with women (Women deserve respect *because* they are someone's mother or sister). Many of the Women's day wishes singularly praise the role of women as mothers - caring, gentle, nursing, warm, lovely.

In Sayantani's stories, it is refreshing to see women who don't give a flying f about the burden of expectations to be *good*. They don't conform. They hurt and get hurt. They step out of line, not always to stand up to injustice, sometimes because they are selfish. Women who are willing to screw their friend's life out of jealousy, women who are capable of killing their family in cold blood, and even a woman who was a literal Nazi. These are women who were put on a pedestal, and expected to behave like angels, reclaiming their humanity.

Lovely images - like little Binu at her in-law's place, fighting loneliness through books at the enormous library that she is asked to stay away from - and unsettling ones - like Shaaji in her mother's peach print Saree watching her entire family die after poisoning them - will remain with me for some time.

[Suvena Bansal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that leaves you spellbound and hooked. Each of the stories carries its own unique fragrance and has come out beautifully together. The choice of words, description , it's almost as if you are there.

[Manalee Nabar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yawn! Reading the stories felt like grasping for bones with no meat. They had potential and could have had SO MUCH MORE depth if only they weren’t finished off like scribbles on the backside of a napkin.

[Emily! · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed these short stories a lot more than I expected to. incredible depth but also open ended-ness. a quick and worthwhile read

[AS · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was little higher than 3 stars for me, but not enough to move into the really liked category. The stories were intriguing, realistic and the intentions of the author has been executed well enough. No story was underwhelming

[Tanisha Saria · Rating 2 out of 5]

WOMEN WHO MISBEHAVE
A book with short stories.
It's great reading about women who misbehave, not just because you can relate to them or root for them but also because they surprise you constantly as they do the unexpected. This was one of those books which made me stop and retrace my steps along sentences I'd just read, only to read them again them more slowly, savour them and appreciate the writer's craft. I just wish the stories were longer! 

[Alora · Rating 1 out of 5]

It just wasn’t for me

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

The women did not misbehave.