May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India

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a sensationalized stumbling-block

A sensitive, honest, well-researched report on the lives of Indian women

May you be the mother of 100 daughters:)

a real eye-opener

Completely Clueless

May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India
Elisabeth Bumiller
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0449906140
Release Date: 1991-04-30

Amazon.com

Before Elisabeth Bumiller lived in India in the mid-1980s, she had reported mainly on upper-crust Americans for the Washington Post. Her four-year stay turned her romantic image of India and largely unexamined feminist sentiments upside down and shook them hard. Although Indian women are guaranteed equality by their constitution, religious and cultural conceptions of their lowly role make this a hollow boast for many. Bumiller's well-spun book deals with admittedly sensational topics: a bride burning case; a rare death by sati, in which a young widow joined her husband on the funeral pyre; poor villages where girl babies are so unwelcome that some don't survive and cities where boy babies are given the edge by prenatal tests and the availability of abortion. Arranged marriages, the lives of village women, and the great histrionic appeal of the Indian film industry also catch her Western eye. Beneath the surface of each story several others bubble up, sometimes illuminating customs or obscuring easy outrage. Other times, though, they emphasize the limitations of being an outsider. --Francesca Coltrera

Book Description

"The most stimulating and thought-provoking book on India in a long time..Bumiller has made India new and immediate again."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
In a chronicle rich in diversity, detail, and empathy, Elisabeth Bumiller illuminates the many women's lives she shared--from wealthy sophisticates in New Delhi, to villagers in the dusty northern plains, to movie stars in Bombay, intellectuals in Calcutta, and health workers in the south--and the contradictions she encountered, during her three and a half years in India as a reporter for THE WASHINGTON POST. In their fascinating, and often tragic stories, Bumiller found a strength even in powerlessness, and a universality that raises questions for women around the world.

Customer Reviews:

a sensationalized stumbling-block.......2007-03-09

Bumiller refuses to take her informants at their word if what they are saying at all contradicts her preconceived notions about gender in Indian culture. She is treating some serious and important issues here, but I fear the journalist's tendency to put a sensational spin on things has made this book a stumbling-block to improved gender relations in India and other parts of the world. If you are looking for an introduction to important social issues in India--issues like bride burning, arranged marriage, or female infanticide--this is the wrong book for you. There are too many fictions mingled with the facts here.

A sensitive, honest, well-researched report on the lives of Indian women.......2005-11-07

Elisabeth Bumiller's account of the lives of women from various walks of life, accumulated during her time spent living in India in the 1980s via interviews and friendships and augmented by the extensive reading she did on the subject before, during, and after her time in India, proved to be a "good read". It was not merely a series of personal anecdotes (lacking in broader perspectives and studies) nor did it err on the other end by being little more than a dry, academic, emotionally detached account of bride burning, dowry murders, female infanticide, the film industry of Bollywood, overpopulation, arranged marriages, domestic hardships, and the like. Instead it was a passionate and thoughtful account by a Westerner living in India who grew to love the people she met and whose research reflected the respect and curiosity she had for the women of India.

Some of the reviews of this book have accused it of being "stereotypically western", "condescending", "shallow", "overgeneralized to the point of being trashy", exhibiting a "Western imperialism", "colonial mindset", or being a "stereotypical account with a liberal dose of sensationalism". I can only say that I found none of those things to be the case when I read the book. There is no doubt that the author's western background and mode of thinking provided the platform from which she observed and evaluated her experiences in India, but she went to a great deal of trouble to broaden her own impressions by consulting the people of India about the problems of India: through her friendships made in India, through numerous interviews (and follow-up interviews) with people from both city and rural areas and from different castes, through viewing of films and television, through reading various Indian magazines (e.g., India Today, Business India, etc.), various Indian newspapers (e.g., The Times of India, The Telegraph of Calcutta, Indian Express,etc.), through special reports (e.g., "Women in India: A Statistical Profile - 1988" put out by the Department of Women and Child Development via the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the Government of India), and through reading various books written by both Indian authors (e.g., Sudhir Kakir, Jawaharlal Nehru, Chidananda Das Gupta, et. al) and foreigners who had lived in India. The result is a balanced and broad view of some of the problems being faced by women in India, not a provincial, overgeneralized, condescending, stereotypical account of India.

Her account is certainly not a dry, emotionally detached one but rather one in which she is actively involved. Is she opinionated? Sure: that's what keeps the book from being boring. Yet it is important to note that the author is honest and fair enough to keep this book from degenerating into a one-sided polemic. Even when she disagrees with a practice she observes (such as female infanticide) she does more than present her own opinions: she also presents the opposing viewpoints and mitigating life circumstances that lead people to act as they do. Moreover, her disagreements are not made in a spirit of self-righteous condemnation but rather with a good deal of compassion. The reader is allowed to see the emotional and intellectual struggles the author goes through as she has her viewpoints challenged by what she sees and hears.

Having read about and traveled in India myself, I found this book to be enlightening. As I mentioned earler, it is a "good read", meaning that the book doesn't drag. Is it the "definitive" book about women in India? Of course not. Such a book doesn't exist. Moreoever, coming out as it did in 1990 (1991 for the paperback), it grows a little more dated each year. However, both as a valuable historical document and an anthropological tool for helping understand more of the Indian character, "May you be the Mother of a Hundred Sons" deserves a place alongside other books that are rightfully praised for their usefulness in throwing light on a fascinating country full of an immense diversity of peoples and practices.

May you be the mother of 100 daughters:).......2005-02-25

This book was very interesting & I feel that I have learned a lot from reading it. It is non-fiction, the author discusses topics that as citizens of this world we should all educate ourselves on: arranged marriage, bride burning, female infanticide, women in politics, & population control among other topics. This book was written in the 1980s so some of the information might be somewhat outdated but it is very informative regardless. Ms. Bumiller is a Westerner (seemingly a wealthy one) & the book sounds at times like a reading from an academic journal: the case-studies will outrage you but won't bring tears to your eyes or make you board the next plane to India to "make a difference" & help out (it is not a very emotional account). Every woman & man interested in women's status in other cultures should pick up this book & if you consider yourself a feminist you should definitely read it!!

a real eye-opener.......2005-01-04

I an american woman of indian descent, can really take this book to heart. Though women in Inida have achieved a great deal, they still have a LONG way to go. They must overcome many traditional SOCIAL attitudes. I was brought up in the US, around Indians, and I remember the lies and silly games girls would have to play so that they could get around the traditional culture that prevented them from dating, going out, etc. India may appear modern on the outside, with legal status guaranteed to women under the law, and of our recent economic boom, but look behind the curtains and you'll see a society where the fascade of modernity is overshadowed by a centuries-old view of woemn and their roles in society. Not only does India and its men discriminate against women, but it makes life a living nightmare for those individuals who really do want to encourage reform and liberate the society there. Males are still favored over femlaes, and thus many girls' lives are miserable in their families, especially in the rural areas. What's worse, the goervnment only pays lip service to such issues and is not at all genuine in implementing social reform and legal protection for women and girls. India's Still VERY BACKWARD in its social attitudes, and let's hope that through education and westernization, we can shed some light on some taboo issues, and make all necessary changes. We can only pray India gives women a fair chance.

Completely Clueless.......2004-06-17

This book is an eyeopener. It illustrates the stereotypical western attitudes towards Indian culture and religion. The author lacks any true insight into the lives of the people she is writing about and carries on giving us her 2 cents anyway.

Imagine if some Indian woman with no idea of western culture "studied" women by living in the US for 4 years and took it upon herself to write something as condescending about American women, society, culture and history, how would that turn out ? That is how ridiculously shallow this attempt is.

Read Chitra Devakaruni, Jumpha Laheri, Bapsi Sidhwa, Veena Oldenburg ... this author has no clue ...

Customer Reviews:

Over all a good book..........2007-04-11

What She Doesn't Know centers around a twenty-year-old crime. Jolie Royale is the only survivor of the Belle Rose plantation massacre in which her mother, aunt, and Lemar a close family relation were murdered in what was thought to be a murder suicide. After being shot three times and left for dead fourteen year old Jolie recovered only to be sent away after another attempt on her life.

What she saw and experienced that day has colored her life ever since. Estranged from her father she reluctantly comes home after almost twenty years to attend his funeral. Facing her fathers second family, whom she dislikes and distrusts, opens old wounds and brings to the surface her doubts about what really happened that horrific day in her newly inherited home, Belle Rose. Teaming up with a childhood friend, Theron, out to prove that his uncle wasn't responsible for the slaughter she is determined to put the past to rest.

Forced by circumstances to accept help from her once time crush Max Deveraux, now her step brother, Jolie's feelings for her unlikely alley very from suspecting him of murdering her mother to clear the way for his own mother, to blatant attraction.

Now I like all of the Beverly Barton books I've ever read. This one less then some others. With all the family secrets popping out of the closet they don't really examine the most likely people to have killed her family. They follow the outside clues of missing police files and bribery instead of looking into who actually had the best motive to kill any of the three people murdered. There are plenty of adulterous affairs to supply suspects and Jolie doesn't really investigate any of people involved. It seems strange to me.

But all in all, I liked this book. You have engaging fully formed characters and a story that is fast paced and engaging.

Great Story.......2007-03-16

I really enjoyed reading Jolie and Max's story. What I found to be just as interesting were the "mini" love stories of the secondary characters. Along with the book being a good love story, it was very suspenseful and kept me guessing to the end.

Riveting...had me guessing until the end.......2007-01-29

At the tender age of fourteen, Jolie Royale had two traumatic events occur that forever altered the course of her life: She witnessed her father's liaison with his mistress, Georgette, and she discovered the lifeless bodies of her mother and aunt in their house (Belle Rose), right before the murderer shot three bullets into her and left her for dead. The police rule it as a double-murder-suicide, stating that Lemar, a black man and long time resident of Belle Rose, murdered the two sisters in a jealous rage because of his love for Jolie's aunt. And to fuel an already precarious situation with his daughter, Jolie's father married Georgette six months after her mother's death. That was enough for Jolie to cut him out of her life.

Fast-forward twenty years and Jolie is now a very successful fashion designer living in Atlanta. She receives news that her father has passed on. Jolie returns home to exact some revenge on her stepmother and her kids, but winds up joining Theron, Lemar's nephew, in his quest to reopen the murder case. Jolie had never believed that Lemar was behind the murders. Almost from the start of their investigation, Theron's and Jolie's lives are threatened, and as the bodies and attempted murders start to pile up, Max, Jolie's stepbrother, steps in to protect Jolie.

So now Jolie has two battles to fight: The person who wants her dead and her overwhelming attraction to Max.

Secrets, secrets, secrets. The plot of this story is rich with secrets and mysteries that will keep you glued to the book until the very end. I absolutely loved it.

What she doesn't know.......2006-08-20

I have every book she has written and I rank her up there with the best.

What She Doesn't Know could fill a book and unfortunately did!.......2006-05-06

What should be a twisted suspense filled novel turns out to be a scattered melodramatic southern soap filled with characters I could care less about and in general annoy the heck out of me. The action scenes are just barely OK . The love scenes although explicit are so weirdly dispassionate and disconnected that they just about scream "Cheesy Porn Flick"! What I Do Know is I want suspense that has a solid plot, twists you can't see around, characters that don't make me want to hunt them down and kick just about everyone of them and a few hot and appropriately placed love scenes for spice. This book has none of the above and frankly I want my money back.

Average customer rating:

Disappointing...
Mardi Gras Mayhem
What She Dosen't Know
I liked it
Excellent

What She Doesn't Know
Tina Wainscott
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0312984243
Release Date: 2004-08-05

Book Description

On the brink of falling for a man she met on the Internet, Dr. Rita Brooks naively assumes Brian LaPort is everything he says he is....and all that she's hoped for. But before she can come face to face with him, Rita is nearly killed in a horrific accident. Or was it an accident at all?Emerging at last from a disturbing, vision-plagued coma, Rita is confronted by a stranger who is convinced she knows more than she's telling about her own past-and his brother's. Cryptic e-mail records have led Christopher LaPorte to Rita while Brian lies near death in New Orleans from a suicide attempt. Or was it?Desperate to unlock her own muddled memories as well as Brian's secrets, Rita returns with Christopher to New Orleans. There, amidst the chaotic revelry of Mardi Gras, she is plunged into a bizarre masquerade where elaborate masks cleverly conceal familiar faces-as well as murderous intent....

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing..........2005-10-14

I don't normally write reviews, but I felt I had to for this one. It wasn't a terrible book, it just wasn't that good. Halfway through I had to force myself to keep picking it up and read to the end. Even with the touch of paranormal to make it interesting, it still fell flat. I read "Now You See Me" and thought this one would be as good. I was wrong. In addition, the ending was a total let down. The conclusion was rushed, and felt forced, like she ran out of "oomph". If I hadn't already bought "I'll Be Watching You", I wouldn't read any more of her books. I hope that one is better.

Mardi Gras Mayhem.......2005-08-15

Although the ending of the book quickly becomes typical (boy meets girs, trouble brews, but the attraction and electricity is obvious thoughout) The story is well written, though and your attention is kept throughout. This is my first meeting with this author, but I will definitely look for her again.

What She Dosen't Know.......2005-07-24

This was the first Tina Wainscott I ever read and I have gone on to read every single one since!! This was great!

*****Dr.Rita Brooks is on her way home, when suddenly a car speeds up beside her and knocks her off the road resulting in her ending up in a coma for 5 days. While she is in the 'grey place' she is visited by Brian LaPorte-a guy she met on online-he percedes to show her some images from his life and tells her that it wasn't an accident. What wasn't an accident?? When she comes to, she is told that someone deliberately ran her off the road. Does she have any info concerning this?

A few days later she is visited by Christopher LaPorte. He informs her that his brother -Brian- is in a coma, from trying to jump off a roof. He thinks she knows something and is not telling. He says to call him if she thinks of something. Finally she decides to go to New Orleans, to try to figure out who tried to murder Brian. Fate throws Chris and Rita together, and passion flares. While in New Orleans they are confronted by a killer who will stop at nothing to wash away the evidience. Happily ever after...or not. Mystery, suspense, and a dash of romance. Who can resist?

I would recommend buying this book at a used bookstore instead of amazon. (It's cheaper).

HAVE FUN!!!

I liked it.......2004-12-20

I liked this book over all even though toward the end of the book it got weird and more weird. I guess the love story and action makes up for the boring and unexciting ending.

Excellent.......2004-11-23

Usually when I can figure out a story before the ending, that immediately drops it by at least a star. However, even that couldn't drop this one from a five-star rating.

Well written, fast paced and an excellent read. Don't miss it!

Divorce: A Guide for Women : What Every Woman Needs to Know About Getting a Fair Divorce Even When She Thinks She Doesn't Need to Know It

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Divorce: A Guide for Women : What Every Woman Needs to Know About Getting a Fair Divorce Even When She Thinks She Doesn't Need to Know It
Patricia Phillips , and George Mair
Manufacturer: MacMillan Publishing Company
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What She Doesn't Know
Beverly Barton
Manufacturer: Zebra Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0739424858

Average customer rating:

What She Doesn't Know
Tina Wainscott
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0739446401

What she doesn't already know, she's learning fast.: An article from: Countryside & Small Stock Journal

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What she doesn't already know, she's learning fast.: An article from: Countryside & Small Stock Journal
Ellen Mitidieri
Manufacturer: Countryside Publications Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008HG4FK
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Countryside & Small Stock Journal, published by Countryside Publications Ltd. on November 1, 2000. The length of the article is 599 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: What she doesn't already know, she's learning fast.
Author: Ellen Mitidieri
Publication: Countryside & Small Stock Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2000
Publisher: Countryside Publications Ltd.
Volume: 84 Issue: 6 Page: 20

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4 Romantic Suspense Titles By Beverly Barton - After Dark - What She Doesn't Know - Killing Her Softly - Close Enough to Kill

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4 Romantic Suspense Titles By Beverly Barton - After Dark - What She Doesn't Know - Killing Her Softly - Close Enough to Kill
Beverly Barton
Manufacturer: Zebra Romantic Suspense
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000M11ZD8

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4 Romantic Suspense Titles By Beverly Barton - After Dark - What She Doesn't Know - Killing Her Softly - Close Enough to Kill

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Metarex are trying to capture the Chaos Emeralds, and Sonic and his friends will do anything they can to stop them! Follow them through their battles as they protect the Emeralds, are saved by enemies, and reunite with old friends . . .

Book Description

At a time when almost any victimless sexual practice has its public advocates and almost every sexual act is fit for the front page, the easiest, least harmful, and most universal one is embarrassing, discomforting, and genuinely radical when openly acknowledged. Masturbation may be the last taboo. But this is not a holdover from a more benighted age. The ancient world cared little about the subject; it was a backwater of Jewish and Christian teaching about sexuality. In fact, solitary sex as a serious moral issue can be dated with a precision rare in cultural history; Laqueur identifies it with the publication of the anonymous tract Onania in about 1722. Masturbation is a creation of the Enlightenment, of some of its most important figures, and of the most profound changes it unleashed. It is modern. It worried at first not conservatives, but progressives. It was the first truly democratic sexuality that could be of ethical interest for women as much as for men, for boys and girls as much as for their elders.

The book's range is vast. It begins with the prehistory of solitary sex in the Bible and ends with third-wave feminism, conceptual artists, and the Web. It explains how and why this humble and once obscure means of sexual gratification became the evil twin--or the perfect instance--of the great virtues of modern humanity and commercial society: individual moral autonomy and privacy, creativity and the imagination, abundance and desire.

Customer Reviews:

Somebody teach this man to write English, please!.......2004-12-04

I'm a mature student of gender studies in Adelaide Australia, and was set this book as a required reading text. Laqueur - tough guy to spell, much tougher to read - seems to know his stuff so far as I can tell, but writes like a man wearing boxing gloves. After ploughing through these hundreds of turgid, pompous, pretentious, unfocused, downright awful pages, I'm sorry to say I don't have a clue what's going on. I fear the great Prof's thought processes may be equally fuzzy. Somebody get the guy an editor - which funnily enough, is what I do for a living. To other students faced with scaling this Everest of type, my condolences.

Great read..........2004-05-21

i can't think when I read a book that was so stimulating...

A Comprehensive History of a Universal Subject.......2003-03-21

Masturbation began in 1712. This is the surprising assertion compendiously documented in _Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation_ (Zone Books) by Thomas W. Laqueur. Of course, that's an exaggeration, because since our primate cousins masturbate, we probably did so from our earliest beginnings. But in 1712, there was a shift in thinking about masturbation which brought it to the forefront of reform by moralists, physicians, and other do-gooders. Laqueur's book scrupulously documents the writings on the subject before, during, and after the big change. He admits, "Potentially autarkic solitary sexual pleasure touches the inner lives of modern humanity in ways we still do not understand." This may be so, but this large and yet sprightly history must increase the understanding of a covert but universal activity.

The ancients were nearly silent on the subject. Galen said that masturbation was a method of simply getting rid of excess sperm. In Jewish law, spilling seminal fluid was much debated by the rabbis. The only reference in the Bible that could relate specifically to masturbation does not. Christianity has sometimes used Onan's crime as an injunction against masturbation, although the wiser commentators note that masturbation was not Onan's violation (coitus interruptus, and thereby refraining from being fruitful and multiplying, was). Early Christian teaching was that masturbation was nonreproductive, and was thus to be avoided, but it was not a big source of worry. But then John Marten produced his masterwork; his authorship is revealed here for the first time. Marten was a quack who had written on venereal disease and had been clapped in irons for such an obscenity. In 1712, he published _Onania; or, The Heinous Sin of Self Pollution and all its Frightful Consequences_, and masturbation was never to be the same. Marten's book was a big advertisement for Marten's potions, which would cure the horrid vice. Marten's new anxiety filled a need, which Laqueur shows was due to the philosophy of the enlightenment. It was not until well into the twentieth century that physicians stopped blaming masturbation for all sorts of illness, and now it is advocated as part of self-discovery. The famous sex shop Good Vibrations declares every May to be National Masturbation Month, and the poster last year had the slogan, "Think Globally, Masturbate Locally."

Those who want warnings on the evils of the practice can still find many religious leaders who will oblige them. Laqueur closes this comprehensive study, which is academic but entertaining, with the incident of Joycelyn Elders, who was surgeon general until 1995, when she answered a reporter's question saying that sex education should include teaching about masturbation. In the minds of some moral persons, this seemed equivalent to teaching techniques of masturbation. She had not previously pleased them with her outspoken views on AIDS or pre-marital sex, but she used the M word, causing a rift with that moral beacon, President Clinton, who said that her view of the benefits of masturbation reflected "differences with administration policy." While it amused many that there was an administration policy on masturbation, Elders was out, and the two century legacy of quack John Marten continued.

Only the Lonely?.......2003-03-05

If you can have sex by yourself, and you're not either procreating, or making money at trying to arrest or rechannel such behavior, you pose a threat -- or at least you did back in the 17th and 18th centuries. Heck, even the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Exploring how masturbation was viewed in different eras according to the ontological horizon of each era, LaQueur gives a kind of x-ray of the politics, morals, and economic assumptions of each age. In the early Enlightenment days when Bentham's utilitarianism held sway, for instance, there could be no justification for solitary sex as it did not lead to anything "productive"(except, of course to pleasure). Four hundred years later, it is still policed as a "guilty pleasure," but since pleasure has been liberated as a virtue unto itself in the consumption society, thus masturbation has been transformed. And if it has not been fully transformed into a social good, then it has been been promoted as a valid personal choice, though still suspect. Well and simply written for an academic title with great illustrations.

Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation.(Review Essay)(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Social History

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Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation.(Review Essay)(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Social History
Robert Darby
Manufacturer: Journal of Social History
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Social History, published by Journal of Social History on September 22, 2004. The length of the article is 3197 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation.(Review Essay)(Book Review)
Author: Robert Darby
Publication: Journal of Social History (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2004
Publisher: Journal of Social History
Volume: 38 Issue: 1 Page: 205(6)

Article Type: Book Review

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