The Conversations of Cow

by Suniti Namjoshi

Genres: Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Collections, Lesbian

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Suniti Namjoshi is a poet, children's author, and teacher. She ran a collaborative fiction site in the late nineties called The Reader's Text of Building Babel. She lives in England with her partner Gillian Hanscombe.

Reviews

[Cow · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have to know what this is going into it -- as the title says, it is a book of conversations between the author and her imaginary(?) cow friend, or cow goddess, who manifests in a thousand ways, and notes on the adventures that follow. Don't expect a story, a novel, a beginning and end. But if you're along for the journey, it's a good one.

Along the way, you might be surprised to see conversations we have now happening 30 years ago. Through Suniti's time with Bhadravati (Cow), they explore gender and gender identity, what it means to be a man or woman and if that even matters, what it means to be two lesbians with a crush on each other when neither fit into the convenient boxes. And what it means to throw all that to the wind and go on a road trip from Toronto to Quebec together.

It's a short read, but there's a lot in there.

[Sondos Shehadeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that this book breaks a lot of the conventional boxes of what a book is supposed to be.
For one, the novella is focused on a dialogue rather than events or a start, middle and end. If anything it is about the realm of one's mind and the ultimate question of identity that is not bounded by time.

The main character is presented with the question of "What or Who do you want to be?"
And yet the book end without having this question completely resolved.
The journey of reading this book, as well as the journey of the main character, is full of witty and interesting examinations of our surrounding world and the ways in which this world lives within us ( or at least some dialogues/ myths of it).
I would have loved to see more of how the main character's interaction with the world outside of her head and how would that have reshaped the conversations inside of her head.

[May]

A great little book about a lesbian separatist and a transmogrifying Brahman cow.

[l · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of it very funny, a lot of hot takes.

[Lakshmi Venkataraman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given the current political climate, I was intrigued by the title ’The Conversations of Cow’. The minute I saw the title, I assumed that this book would be all about the Cow and the politics around current-day India. Then I read that this book was written 36 years back. With that cleared, the book ‘The Conversations of Cow’ is a novella and of the genre fable. A fable is when animals are involved in the story, and they act as humans do, and most often, fables also come with a moral. This fable is a conversation between a feminist lesbian and a Brahimi cow. It was notably one of the first explicit queer literature.
In this novella, Suniti Namjoshi explores the qualms of various relationships of the protagonist, Suniti, an English professor who lived in Canada. The predominant and most obvious relationship with Bhadravati, the Brahmini cow. As the story progresses, the readers are taken through the life of Suniti, which highlights the experience of living in a different country, how she experiences privilege and the central aspect of the book, how she questions her identity. The highs and lows, the push and pull of multiple dynamics, be it with the society, community, relationship, home and the self are summarised in these 130 pages across the spectrums of identity, be it gender, sexuality or privilege.
This novella almost entirely conversational, and we experience it from the protagonist’s point of view. It reveals the inner dialogue, fears and insecurities and overlays with how it spills across outside. It helps the reader understand gender in a profound yet simple way. It can be an empathy drill as the author effortlessly shows what it is to not be a part of the mainstream. There is an emphasis on freedom; what would one do if they are told they can be anything and actually be that way? Who would you want to be? The vulnerability with which Suniti write the story is breathtaking.
The story takes place over 4 segments, and in each part, the conflict shifts, which holds the reader’s attention. But the end, like many things in life, is open-ended. Leaves you filled with empathy, and a whole lot of question fills your mind. The story is written in the first person. The main character being named Suniti, who is also an English professor, makes me wonder if the inspiration behind this story comes from a personal space. In all, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about gender.

[Veronika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book randomly 2 years ago in one of those bookshelves in Amsterdam where people leave books for others to take.
I haven’t touched the book until now but I feel like it had been waiting for the exact right moment for me to pick it up. It’s hilarious in its own bizarre way, it makes me laugh and go “wth did I just read” - all while addressing what the society feels like for an immigrant in the western world, a woman in a patriarchal society, a queer woman in a heteronormative one. Good light weight summer read

[John Hills · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fable like exploration of gender roles, discrimination and identity. Suniti certainly was a trailblazer and this would have been radical in its time, but ultimately I found it a little abstract for my liking despite its very poignant critique of patriarchal norms

[Dev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lesbian Cows, Misogynistic women and Martian Men. Peak literature.

[Deepali Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Roestig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heel leuk verhaal maar soms onduidelijk wie er aan het woord is

[Jordan Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah!

[anna_bananna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has the best blurb

[shrav]

very unusual