The Rise of Venus by Divya Menon
I usually steer clear of women-oriented writings, for various reasons. The main factor, however, is the intense emotions portrayed in the stories by the female characters, and somehow I find them to be too strong for my reading tastes. But this time, I dared to go against my better judgment and picked up Divya Menon’s debut collection of short stories The Rise of Venus. All the stories in the book speak of the women who struggle to voice the position that the patriarchal society we live in assigns to them. A culture in which men have the power to mould our lives to their own whim.
Reading Divya Menon’s The Rise of Venus was an experience that I could not easily forget. The emotions, I encountered in each of the stories were raw yet subtly portrayed – and this is what floored me. The plot of each story is laid out well and it subconsciously compels you to read another story and then another, and then another. As you go further, you realize that the stories in the book, talk about hope, love, individuality, dreams and happiness.
The characters, I realized, were in their own little way revolutionaries. Upon realizing the shackles they were bound in; they dared to break them and emerge as the winners and bring the much-needed changes into their lives.
Though I must admit that Divya Menon did a remarkable job in the art of storytelling as a debut author. Although one wouldn’t call her written style perfect, as this was her very first novel, regardless she managed to capture my attention in her raw form. From the very beginning, I was hooked in and it didn’t let me go until I had read all the stories. And in addition to the beautiful narrative, I loved the crisp and flawless use of language. It took the reading experience to another level.
In the end, Divya Menon’s The Rise of Venus is a book that manages you to render speechless with its simplicity and inspire and teaches a thing or two about ‘us’ the women and their role in life. is a book that manages you to render speechless with its simplicity and inspire, and teaches a thing or two about ‘us’ the women and their role in life. Needless to say, I would strongly recommend this book to all my readers, especially to those, who love to read books of short stories.
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As the end of the dreadful April is almost near, tell me one thing this month taught you?
As for me, I learned that before every decision or steps I take, I have to think of the harm my desires or decisions may cause to mother earth.