Sita

by Kate Millett

'A wrenching and intimate autobiography, "Sita" is an unsparing, moment-by-moment record of the fading of love, with all of its agony and false-dawn respites. For the first time, the original text of "Sita" is accompanied by the first of Millett's moving prose elegies, written after Sita committed suicide. This lament lends new resonance to the original text and gives the reader a fuller understanding of the mercurial devotion that bound the two women to each other. This reissue also features a new preface by the author."Sita" follows the disintegration of Millett's love affair with a woman who is ten years her senior, a veteran of several marriages, and the mother of grown children. Fiery, seductive, elegant, and exotic, "Sita" captivates Millett in every sense, offering unimagined pleasure and much-needed emotional security. One day, however, all this changes. Arriving from New York to spend half the year in Berkeley, as they had arranged, Millett is appalled to find the house - their house - overrun with Sita's troubled children and their hangers-on.Amid this unexpected chaos, she struggles with searing jealousy and self-doubt to salvage her relationship with Sita, who is often preoccupied, impatient, and cold, and who frequently disappears for assignations with male lovers. With remarkable candor, Millett charts her months with Sita and the inexorable shift from passionate abandon to abandonment. As each fragile thread of their love dissolves, Millett dwells on what drew them together, recounting all the hopes, tricks, and evasions that made up their erotic dance. Obsessive and impassioned, "Sita" speaks with a sharp immediacy to everyone who has ever experienced the exhilaration and despair of love'.

Genres: Queer, Nonfiction, LGBT, Memoir, Lesbian, Feminism, Biography

321 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Katherine Murray "Kate" Millett was an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She attended Oxford University and was the first American woman to be awarded a postgraduate degree with first-class honors by St. Hilda's. She has been described as "a seminal influence on second-wave feminism", and is best known for her 1970 book Sexual Politics," which was her doctoral dissertation at Columbia University. Journalist Liza Featherstone attributes previously unimaginable "legal abortion, greater professional equality between the sexes and a sexual freedom" being made possible partially due to Millett's efforts.

The feminist, human rights, peace, civil rights, and anti-psychiatry movements have been some of Millett's key causes. Her books were motivated by her activism, such as woman's rights and mental health reform, and several were autobiographical memoirs that explored her sexuality, mental health, and relationships. Mother Millett and The Loony Bin Trip, for instance, dealt with family issues and the times when she was involuntarily committed. Besides appearing in a number of documentaries, she produced Three Lives and wrote Not a Love Story: A Film about Pornography. In the 1960s and 1970s, Millett taught at Waseda University, Bryn Mawr College, Barnard College, and University of California, Berkeley.

Millett was raised in Minnesota and has spent most of her adult life in Manhattan and the Woman's Art Colony, which became the Millett Center for the Arts in 2012, that she established in Poughkeepsie, New York. Self-identified as bisexual, Millett was married to sculptor Fumio Yoshimura from 1965 to 1985 and had relationships with women, one of whom was the inspiration for her book Sita. She has continued to work as an activist, writer, and artist. Some of her later written works are The Politics of Cruelty (1994), about state-sanctioned torture in many countries, and a book about the relationship with her mother in Mother Millett (2001). Between 2011 and 2013 she has won the Lambda Pioneer Award for Literature, received Yoko Ono's Courage Award for the Arts, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Miriam Vigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sita es la historia de dos mujeres pequeñas en un mundo enorme. Dos mujeres que han sentido el amor muy cerca, poseídas por la melancolía de una vida que las ha traspasado. Perdidas y unidas al mismo tiempo, su historia está compuesta de pedacitos de la nuestra. Es una obra real, desgarradora, hermosa e impactante. Una historia de Kate, de Sita y nuestra. Y, por supuesto, imprescindible.

Crítica completa en: https://alibreria.com/2018/12/14/sita...

[A Librería · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sita es la historia de dos mujeres pequeñas en un mundo enorme. Dos mujeres que han sentido el amor muy cerca, poseídas por la melancolía de una vida que las ha traspasado. Perdidas y unidas al mismo tiempo, su historia está compuesta de pedacitos de la nuestra. Es una obra real, desgarradora, hermosa e impactante. Una historia de Kate, de Sita y nuestra. Y, por supuesto, imprescindible.

Crítica completa en: https://alibreria.com/2018/12/14/sita...

[Amina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sita is the ultimate breakup book. I first read it when a long term relationship was slowly burning out, and was a bit horrified to learn how authentically Millett captures the anxiety and grief of watching love end right before your eyes. "Our bodies are dead between us." like FUCK!!!! One of those books that finds you at just the right time.

[Miriam Vigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

El libro, de tapa dura y apaisado, termina con textos breves manuscritos de la propia Millet, con preciosos retazos al más puro estilo intimista. En fin, es la clara idea de que la realidad siempre puede ir más allá que la propia ficción.

Reseña completa: https://cafelibreria.com/2020/11/12/e...

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book proved to me how over zealous I am with five star ratings. I would recommend for anyone who’s existential, anyone processing a breakup, and anyone who actually has any ounce of introspection. I don’t agree with all her thoughts and actions but I thinks that’s half the point, to be able to reflect and let the complexities of life and relationships play out.

[Bárbara Millicent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este hermoso libro es la elegía escrita por kate millet en la granja y en la casita de provincentown, lugares que fueron sus refugios en los meses siguientes a la terrible noticia del suicidio de sita. son cuatro relatos breves más una colección de poemas que hablan de lo esencial de la atracción y la fascinación hacia una mujer: los buenos momentos y la obsesión del amor irracional, la conmoción por la muerte y lo difícil del duelo. Y, siendo consciente de que estoy sumergida en las palabras reales e íntimas de una escritora ante la pérdida del amor de su vida de una manera desgarradora, me tomé mucho tiempo para poder leerla. Siempre pienso en: Tu voz, Sita. Que nunca volveré a oír. Salvo en mi cabeza (...) tu presencia es tan cercana y real como el cálido manto de tu afecto.

[Lina Ahrens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kate is a bit delulu

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one will break your heart, but stay with you for a long time.

[Yuks Flanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

He leído por ahí que este libro es difícil de leer, porque va de aquí para allá, antes después, sí no, blanco negro, me voy me quedo, delirio bucle desquicio y al final te cansas de escribir porque tu mano no puede seguir el ritmo de tus pensamientos. También dicen que Kate está loquita, que si pensamiento fragmentado y desordenado, obsesión, hoy genial y mañana fatal y luego genial y fatal el mismo día.

Pues bien amigas, viajad a los recovecos de vuestra mente, liberad las barreras del pensamiento lógico, burlaos de la psiquiatría y leed este libro ya, porque todas somos o hemos sido Kate.

[Laia-Felicitat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real y dura lectura sobre la parte buena y la parte mala de la historia de amor entre las dos mujeres . Se aprecia el sufrimiento de ambas y se palpa su decepción...También hay momentos felices aunque toda la trama huele a desastre...Sí, me ha gustado pero no, no podría leerlo otra vez. Muy difícil revivirlo todo para mi...

[Montse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una relació molt tòxica que no avança. M’ha costat molt llegir el llibre, suposo que seguia amb l’esperança que millorés, igual que l’autora amb la seva relació...

[Ángel Rodes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuánto dolor y cuánto cariño hay en este testimonio. Desgarrador. Porque Kate y Sita siempre habían hablado de tener la libertad de poder elegir cuándo morir, pero cuando esto se hace realidad, no es agradable. Tampoco es agradable el duelo, la pérdida, la forma en la que Millett escribe su proceso. De algún modo, puedes notar sus pregunta y su paulatina aceptación conforme pasas las páginas, los momentos de enfado con la que fue y seguía siendo la mujer de su vida, los momentos de desesperación y los momentos de iluminación, de saber que Sita vive dentro de ella de alguna forma. Y de que, de alguna forma, oye su voz.

Magnífica traducción y edición. Ojalá Millet pudiera haber llegado a ver lo bien que han mimado su homenaje a Sita, pues también es un homenaje en sí mismo.

«¿Cómo le dices a los muertos / que te han engañado?».

[Imaginary de Loon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book by Kate Millett that I have read, despite having known her as a "feminist author" and having checked out Sexual Politics from the library. Never got to actually reading that one. This, I picked up randomly and began reading almost immediately. I stayed with it, binge reading until I was done and cried after.

What is intriguing about this book is how much it reads like fiction. I had to keep telling myself that Sita was real, that Kate wasn't just a character and that this intense feelings, inscribed with this insane urgency were also real. It was beautiful in a "this is what life is like" kind of way. Recommended to anyone who has a slightly depressive, neurotic, self-loathing state of mind :P I kid of course. Sort of.

[Courtney Stirrat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am about half way through this book and unable to finish! I think the idea of the love that stopped working makes me so sad that I cannot do it. As well as the author's inability to do anything but wait. It makes me want to cry along with her half the time and slap her across the face the other half!

[Belensays · Rating 4 out of 5]

La mayor novela de amor de la historia.

[cafeymedialunas · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 / 5

Qué difícil clasificar, cuantificar, reseñar el dolor ajeno. Me crucé este libro por casualidad en una librería a la que no había ido nunca. Lo miré y sentí que lo conocía de algún lado, lo elegí por razones puramente estéticas. Llegué a mi casa y me dispuse a leerlo, algo habría de rescatar en una edición tan cuidada, tan pensada, tan personal. Me encontré con el dolor de otra persona hecho arte, el mismo dolor que sentimos todos y a la vez no siente nadie, la pérdida por la que lloro yo también todas las noches cuando me acuesto a dormir.

Qué dura y qué bella que es la capacidad de sentir, qué contradictoria toda la belleza terrible que se crea gracias o en consecuencia de la rotura. La rotura de la vida, de la estabilidad, de la felicidad, de la circunstancia. ¿Por qué y cómo ilumina de esta forma la oscuridad?

Clasificar ese dolor, puntuarlo, me parece una falta de respeto, una intruición, pero al mismo tiempo mi egoísmo y el deseo de organizar lo que pienso y lo que siento, de verlo en el futuro e iluminarme reconociendo destellos de lo que alguna vez sentí gracias a algo.

[Ana Navalón · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro que cuesta de leer, primero por el presente y el pasado que se entre mezclan en la redacción de Kate, pero también en su historia. Cuesta saber qué está pasando, pero como también le cuesta a la autora entender qué pasa en su vida en ese momento. También cuesta de leer por la brutal carga emocional. Sin embargo, es una prosa ligera, un discurso sencillo que la traducción de Núria Molines ha sabido captar y transmitir a la perfección.

[Andrea Barcia]

me lo he tenido que dejar a mitad porque se me estaba haciendo muy, muy pesado. La forma en la que escribe la autora y como esta estructurado no es nada mi estilo. Además, que me da la sensación que podría haberse resumido en una novela de 150 páginas, donde todo lo bonito y doloroso de lo que habla (una relación que se está acabando) hubiera sido mucho más impactante y ligero. Quizá más adelante vuelva a el, quien sabe

[Blanca Mazón · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desgarradora desde la primera hasta la última página. Radiografía de una historia de amor y dependencias hasta que no queda una gota más por exprimir. Uno se ve reflejado en las debilidades, contradicciones, mentiras que va desgranando en este viaje interior de dolorosa sinceridad.

[Rey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart wrenching. Millet perfectly portrays the pain and thrill of having a fickle lover and the intricacies of being bound in a relationship with and against your will. Millet also tackles the stigma and pain of mental health issues within a relationship and how they test and strengthen the bond.

[mentalexotica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emotionally exhausting. Makes my own relationships and break up look tame (They are not). There is some exquisite writing to be had but it comes at the cost of wanting to tear your hair and heart out.

[Gabrielle N. N. Báez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amor, poliamor, duelo, suicido, casa.

“…Me dan pavor las mañanas que vendrán.
Tu nombre u grito en mi garganta-¡vuelve!-.
Siento que ya te vas. Asustada. Desolada.
Demasiado egoísta para que salgas de mi presencia…”

[Manuel Mellado Cuerno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un golpe de realidad. Duro. Directo. Demoledor

[Felicitat Arqué · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me encantó. Recomendación: si eres lesbiana/bisexual y estás enzarzada en un bollodrama, mejor no leerlo y esperar a estar tranquila.

[Judith de Diego · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leer a Millet es sentir dolor por haber amado.

[sofi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Profundamente doloroso. Nunca había leído una relación entre mujeres tan bien contada.

[aetnensis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dentro di me ci sono due lupe, una è sottona come Kate, l'altra è guascona come Sita.

Mi sento triste ma mi sento anche viva.

[Stevie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a difficult book in at least several senses. Going with a four for the strength of the writing and the unquestionable fact that it left a strong impression. There is some powerful writing for sure. And it's compelling enough to grab and hold the reader's attention/allegience through some super uncomfortable, confusing, odd, sad, and just emotionally jarring bits. Also difficult knowing that these were real people with awful, uppsetting things happening before and after this was written. After getting through the first half or so of the book wondering how these women could have possibly come to this place (either how things stand when you enter the book or how they could ever have possibly been before), some things become a little clearer. And a lot more confusing. And better. And worse. And...well...you get the picture. Similar to and even moreso than the other book of Millet's I read (the Loony Bin Trip) this book provoked a lot of emotion(s!) and had my full attention, but I finished very undecided how I felt about it...moved?....unsettled?...uncatagorizable? In both books, there is an odd combination of foreboding and beauty and shifts between feeling outside of or confused by events and explanations/distant from the people in the book one minute to being completely immersed in and carried along by them another. Her writing is strong stuff. There are some amazing moments. Also contains some things that are awfully hard to take. A fast and memorable but not an easy read.

[Cara G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it's beautifully written and a rare document of a failing queer relationship. On the other hand, the woman who is the subject of this book took her own life three or so years after it was published. It's a very personal account and at times very extreme. Sita is not painted in a positive light, although Millett also comes across as possessive and unwell. I can understand how it's good to have more books about queer relationships, but I honestly don't think this should ever have been published. I also think it's interesting that, while a number of biographies and encyclopedias refer to Sita's death, none of them name her, despite her seeming to be a figure in her own right.

[Ditte · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intimate insight into a dying love affair, 'Sita' offers the honest voice of a desperate Millett persona, clinging onto her great love (or the scraps that are left of it) for dear life. The vibe is a gloomy blend of melancholy, depression, and desperation, and yet (or perhaps because of this persuasive mixture) I found myself bound to this melancholic character (the quality of the writing often makes you forget that it's not fiction) and stuck with her loyally to the end of this miserable affair.