Book name- SHAPE OF AN APOSTROPHE
Author- Uttama Kirit Patel
Publishers- Serpent’s Tail
Price- Rs 699
Apostrophe; the sign used for showing that you have left a letter or letters out of a word as in ‘I’m’ or ‘can’t’. Or the sign used for showing who or what something belongs to as in ‘Lina’s son’. Shaped like a comma, it also resembles the foetal position as depicted on the cover, and just like the punctuation mark, it negotiates with both what is missing and the idea of women’s ownership over their bodies and the limitations of that ownership.
Lina Solanki, a newly-married artist and the protagonist of the book, has always maintained that she does not want children. But when she is saddled with an accidental pregnancy, she is left grappling with the idea of having to justify her choices. “As if she should want them by default.” As if a “general lack of interest in the enterprise” is not a “good enough reason”. Not wanting a child leaves a woman in danger of being labelled “a child hater”, “career-obsessed”, “physically weak” (this label, in particular, comes loaded since her mother passed away at childbirth) or “selfish”. Of course, Solanki is none of those things as we find out through her trials — the unwanted pregnancy, the grief from her father’s demise, an inordinately meddlesome mother-in-law and the widening chasm in her marriage. Despite her struggles, Solanki is not easy to like initially. Unlike the secondary characters like her father, whose steadfast love is refreshing, or Nour, her “I’d-rather-die-than-lie” friend.
Not all characters receive that full, neat-bow treatment. Despite the length devoted to them, their motivations appear one-dimensional.
But Lina grows on you slowly and you cannot help but admire and empathise with her. From apathetic impatience for the poor little rich girl with an artist’s temperament at the beginning of the book to weeping for Lina at the end, Patel’s craft makes you traverse the full arc of emotional experiences, ending on a note that does not just linger but resonates.