Review by Bethany Lake
There is an old school of thought in literature to make no mention of technology for fear of dating the written work. In her new collection of short stories, Death by a Thousand Cuts, Shashi Bhat walks the fine line of placing her stories within our society and common 21st century experience, but without allowing current technology to take over the narrative. In doing so, Bhat has written a book that would satisfy even the most technologically-addicted reader.
As a short story collection, each story stands well on its own while still feeling connected with those surrounding it. I’m going to focus on three of the stories that will give readers a taste of Bhat’s truly great literary fiction.
In “Chicken & Egg,” a woman loses her hair due to an unnamed affliction. Her hair – once a cornerstone of her personal identity – is now falling out and slipping between her fingers. With it, her sense of self. As she grapples with her illness on a personal level, she also endures public humiliations such as looks of pity from strangers and being unrecognized by an old lover.
Not only is the woman in the story forced to confront a problem with no solution (to watch her body spin out of control) but she must also contend with the oversimplification of her malady from the people in her life who live in an illusion of control and order. Her presence soon becomes an existential threat to those around her. So, she is kept at arms’ length, and the loneliness she feels breeds further alienation. The “othering” of people who are afflicted and/or ill is an uncomfortable and unfortunate reality, one that few will vocalize, but Bhat brings this to the forefront. Bhat tells this story in the second person; in doing so, she continuously reminds the reader that they, too, are exempt neither from humiliating personal struggles nor from problems that have no solutions.
It is notable that the central female character in “Chicken & Egg” is unnamed. Names are identity markers. By neither naming this character nor her affliction and by telling this story in the second person, Bhat brilliantly pulls her reader into the chaos alongside her protagonist.
“Giantess” is the story of Genevieve, known simply as “G.,” who is living with Gigantism. For much of G.’s life, her condition has made her the target for slurs, jokes, laughter, insults, and stereotypes about giants from literature and popular culture. She has been treated and viewed as “other” for so long that she has come to view herself through the gaze, or imagined gaze, of those around her.
G. takes myriad concerted efforts to live her life against the stereotypes associated with giants. Nevertheless, she remains an outsider, even to herself. “Hers is a life of suppressed emotion, of listening but rarely participating. She hopes to one day hear a person saying something kind about her, and to let herself feel it fully.” Socially ostracized, G. carries on imagined conversations and fantasizes herself into social situations. The story pivots on a potentially mortifying experience for G. but instead turns into an example of extraordinary kindness and signals the beginning of a new path for her.
The lack of control as it relates both to the body and to chaos does not always come from within. As evidenced in the final story in the collection, we can be pulled into this chaos, against our will, by those around us. In “Am I The Asshole,” a couple, Prish and Mike, isolate together during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Mike grabs Prish’s breasts continually and without warning to the point where she is always on her guard. Despite her attempts to communicate to him that his behaviour is unacceptable, his behaviour persists.
Prish no longer feels safe in her own skin, not to mention her own house, and resorts to staying fully dressed at all times and wearing bras to bed, during which Mike has “more than once…taken it upon himself to unhook the latch through her T-shirt while she is lying there falling asleep, with her back to him.” Mike’s constant belittling, gaslighting, and manipulation tactics have made her question herself to the point where she must turn to strangers on the internet for clarity. She has lost the ability to protect herself and chaos reigns supreme —with her body at the center of the storm.
In this story, Bhat tactfully nails the way perpetrators of abuse downplay the concerns of others through ridicule and passive aggression. Mike refuses to accept responsibility for his actions. Everything is a joke to him, until suddenly, it is not.
“Am I the Asshole” deals with the rare moment of clarity and shock that occurs when one sees themselves through the eyes of others and discovers that they are not who they imagined themselves to be. The question of “Am I the Asshole” is answered clearly, but with an added and unexpected twist. I loved Bhat’s incisive understanding of the abuser-victim dynamic, her economy of words, and her ability to introduce fresh angles (including a surprising narrative turn).
Death by a Thousand Cuts is a book about people living in the 21st century. It connects with our moment in history – but transcends it – by placing basic human struggle at the centre of each tale. These stories contend with the effect that abject loneliness has on our souls when our private hells make us public spectacles, and with the particular kind of loneliness that often accompanies chaos, and ultimately, the loneliness that is found within it.
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Bethany Lake is a playwright and novelist from Nova Scotia. Her first novel, In The Midst of Irrational Things, was selected for development in the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program offered through the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. Her play, No Animal, has been published in the New York City-based literary magazine, The Furious Gazelle. She is currently working on her second novel, Silo.