brokebookmountain’s Reviews > Sultana's Dream and Padmarag > Status Update

Also I felt like they promoted this more as sci-fi? Which isn't true at all; Sultana's Dream is thoroughly a sci-fi utopian story, but Padmarag is nothing at all similar to it. I guess in an effort to portray this book as cohesive, they'd misdirected readers as to what Padmarag truly contains—a feminist, anti-colonialist group of women (and helpful men) assisting the people in need of aid and education.

the blurb makes it seem lile Padmarag is a utopian novel, when it's nothing of the sort. It's honestly so realistic that it doesn't even make sense for it to be utopian. Hossain makes it clear that they went through struggles in the school, so I'm just genuinely confused why the synopsis says so

it's a heartening read, looking at how women have been mistreated by men (and women) in a patriarchal society, and how despite all that, life persists. it's personal, heartbreaking, yet at the same time, moving and powerful.

contrary to my previous expectations, this was in fact not a collection of sci-fi stories. instead, it's one sci-fi short story (originally written in English), and a short novel about the daily affairs at a shelter for women, people in need or with illness. it's a framework on managing a feminist and anti-capitalist shelter, which would've been monumental in 1900s India

So far, I'm enjoying this, but I'm not fully impressed. Rokeya Hossain is an intelligent writer, and she reminds me of Malaysian female authors like Zurinah Hassan and Salmi Manja, the way they all approach interesting ideas and themes in an accessible, engaging way for their communities at the time

Sultana's Dream was so interesting, reminds me of Izumi Suzuki's Terminal Boredom. Padmarag is reeling me into the story, but I thought that it was going to be more of a sci-fi/speculative fiction like Sultana's Dream. I could see the text being impactful in the 1900s when it was originally written, especially considering the patriarchal culture that was pervasive in South Asia back then (and still now)