{"id":4864,"date":"2020-01-21T17:34:26","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T17:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&p=4864"},"modified":"2020-01-21T17:34:26","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T17:34:26","slug":"nuanced-performances-of-perfected-women","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/nuanced-performances-of-perfected-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuanced Performances of Perfected Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bird Catcher and Other Stories<\/em>, by Fayeza Hasanat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jaded Ibis Press, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

163 pages, paper, $17.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/p>\n

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A suicidal wife longs to return to the sea. A young woman is presented to potential husbands. A Professor of Literature grapples with a language not her own. These are the women we meet in the opening pages of Fayeza Hasanat\u2019s debut work of fiction, her short story collection, The Bird Catcher and Other Stories<\/em>. Hasanat weaves a distinctly Bangladeshi-American perspective through each of her stories. Themes of Bangladeshi diaspora, systemic patriarchy, and the struggle to communicate through a language not one\u2019s own provide the backdrop for a collection that feels intensely personal yet touches on the experiences of so many women from different backgrounds.<\/p>\n

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The author\u2019s dedication to her father, acknowledging she never learned to be a \u201cperfected woman,\u201d quickly prepares the reader for stories of failed performances of structured femininity by women who fall short of society\u2019s expectation. There are performances throughout The Bird Catcher<\/em>, characters who fall short of the expectations of their families and husbands, their students, and society. Lyrical and complex language frame each of these stories, all of which are marked by struggle and many by deep sadness. Hasanat employs the occasional use of all caps or boldface type or a spare multiple exclamation points, techniques not often used in modern literature. And while this type of visual emphasis can distract from the pace of a piece, the style serves to strengthen the idea that the English language, perhaps, lacks the specificity and emotion the Bangladeshi characters seek in their self-expression.<\/p>\n

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In the collection\u2019s first story, \u201cThe Anomalous Wife,\u201d a Bangladeshi woman living in Florida, happy by her husband\u2019s account, is determined to end her life by returning to the sea. Hasanat presents her story in three chapters detailing the woman\u2019s experience as she enters a treatment facility for an attempted suicide. The final chapter, \u201cThe Letters,\u201d is composed of the woman\u2019s journal entries for the two weeks she is undergoing treatment. Through hyper-close interiority, Hasanat reveals the woman\u2019s increasingly sardonic view of those outside her own experience: \u201cThirty years. I have lived in this country for thirty years, and still haven\u2019t found a way to drill into these people\u2019s head the concept of my existence as someone not-Indian-now, but once was.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s through this closeness that the reader quickly feels the depth of emotion churning in each character. In \u201cBride of the Vanishing Sun,\u201d Aandhi, born unexpectedly on the eve of a great storm, is considered less-than desirable because of her dark complexion. Hasanat explores the prevalence of colorism in her culture, and the patriarchal system that enforces it, following Aandhi as each attempt at marriage fails until a bribe is required to secure a suitable husband. Yet Hasanat\u2019s rich and graceful language presents Aandhi\u2019s complexion is as beauty through her mother\u2019s eyes:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t look away!\u201d Sufia wanted to scream. \u201cHer eyes are darek and deep; her lips curve the prettiest of smiles; unruly ringlets hang over her smooth forehead\u2026 Ooo, look, look, look at my beautiful girl as she bends her head slightly like a fawn and offers herself for this sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In addition to addressing skin-color as a failure of womanhood in her culture, Hasanat also addresses infertility in \u201cDarkling, I Listen,\u201d and what constitutes gender normative performance in \u201cThe Hyacinth Boy.\u201d In \u201cWhen Our Fathers Die,\u201d becomes a lens through which a Bangladeshi-American professor and her ethnocentric American student find a common connection through the loss of their fathers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He laughed every time I struggled on a word that didn\u2019t want to come out of my forked tongue: one part third world, one part hyphenated American. My words were Rapunzel\u2019s exotic hair, frantically guarded by the mother not my own. Accidents were bound to happen if I did let that hair down.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In her sensitivity to such cultural issues, we see Hasanat\u2019s research interests inform her fiction. As a professor of English Literature at the University of Central Florida, Fayeza Hasanat\u2019s research focuses on, among others, Gender Studies, Postcolonial Theory, and South Asian Diaspora. She crafts her stories with both great care for her heritage and enormous respect for the characters and situations she portrays.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Bird Catcher<\/em> is published through Jaded Ibis Press, whose mission statement positions the press as \u201ca feminist press committed to publishing socially engaged literature with an emphasis on the voices of people of color, people with disabilities, and other historically silenced and culturally marginalized voices.\u201d The publisher has a keen interest in merging of various forms of art and media into works that expand in meaning and in audience, and the artwork in The Bird Catcher<\/em> is one example of the ideal marriage between a text and the visual art presented within. Artist Chitra Ganesh\u2019s illustrations appear on the book\u2019s cover, as well as throughout the book. Surreal and stylized, Ganesh\u2019s images reflect each story\u2019s sentiment, and add a dark sense of beauty to the work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hasanat\u2019s collection of beautifully rendered stories is not one to read through quickly. Each story requires\u2014and rightfully deserves\u2014a careful, close reading to absorb the richness of language and the nuanced characters in all of their complexity and beauty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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