The Bandit Queens

I picked 'The Bandit Queens' from the 2023 Women's Prize For Fiction Longlist because I’m a sucker for a ‘solve the patriarchy problem by killing off the patriarch who is causing you problems‘ kind of book. It seems like good advice to me. If you can get away with it. I was thinking of books like ‘How To Kill Men And GetAway With It‘ by Katy Brent or ‘Sweetpea’ by C. J. Skuse.

I went into 'The Bandit Queens' expecting to find the same narrative of 'female killer getting away with it' playing out in a village in rural India. Although there are similarities, that's not what 'The Bandit Queens' is really about.

Firstly, Geeta, the main character, is not really a killer. She is an abused wife who has not corrected the belief show more held in her village that she 'removed her own nose ring' by killing her vanished husband. She's not a slick, confident Black Widow, gleefully reducing the number of terrible men in the world. She's a woman who still bears the scars of emotional and physical abuse and who wants nothing more than to live in safety and be left alone.

Secondly, this is not just the story of Geeta's struggle. Geeta quickly finds herself collaborating with three other women from the village who, together, are the Bandit Queens of the title.

Thirdly, although the story centres around the consequences of the physical and emotional abuse of women, it also looks at other issues that shape the lives of the village women: social exclusion based on gender or religion or caste, childlessness, motherhood, the marginalisation of women by the patriarchy, the negative impact of the dowery system, and the rivalries between the women themselves.

So, what is the book about?

To me, it was mostly about women coping with the problems in their lives, many of which stem from the men in their lives, and discovering that they are stronger than they thought, especially when they can find ways to collaborate.

The story is clever and suspenseful and shot through with dark humour. It doesn't shy away from describing the abuses that women are subjected to but it doesn't sensationalise them either. The storytelling is engaging and vivid.

The book has a strong opening that brought me swiftly inside the situation and then gave it a twist before taking a breath and expanding my understanding of the main characters.

The writing was subtle and credible. It describes a world well outside my experience but I found myself believing completely in the people that I met there. The dialogue is perfect - distinctively Indian but still accessible to people like me.

What I loved most was the way the story brought the four main women to life. Geeta is a wonderful creation and I found myself hoping that things would work out well for her even when I couldn't imagine how that outcome would be achieved. I enjoyed seeing her grow in confidence as she recovered from the effects of a marriage that had left her physically and emotionally damaged and socially isolated.

I also liked Geeta's childhood best friend, from whom she became estranged after her marriage. She is the only woman in the book who enjoys being a wife. She's also an unstoppable powerhouse, with tremendous energy and a constant urge to organise everyone.

Then there is the woman who asks Geeta, as someone with proven husband-killing skills, to help her to kill her own abusive husband. She turns out to be quite a piece of work, someone much closer to the sociopath I'd been expecting to read about. She's hard to like but very easy to believe in.

Finally, there is the woman Geeta and her friends would not normally meet, an Untouchable matriarch who deals with all the dead bodies in the village - human and animal - and who is not at all what Geeta expected.

The men in the story are also well-drawn. Some of them are predators the world would be better off without. Some of them are just weak. A couple of them are actually nice. For the most part, their attitudes towards women are toxic and so much a part of who they are that the men themselves are quite untroubled by them, blaming the women for any consequent problems.

I admire Parini Shroff's ability to balance her storytelling so that, although difficult issues were central to the narrative, the book never became a tract. The plot had enough surprises and enough suspense to keep me turning the pages eagerly and the growing depth of character development kept me invested in the women and what happened to them.

'The Bandit Queens' is a rare kind of book: accessible, entertaining, truthful and thought-provoking. It's a remarkable achievement and an astonishing one for a debut novelist. I hope that Parini Shroff continues to write. I'll certainly be there to buy her next book. show less

This is more than a darkly funny story about women killing their husbands. It deals with serious issues like patriarchy, the caste system, abuse and societal pressures. I liked the rural village setting and the way the author wove in customs, superstitions and folklore to create a strong sense of place. Geeta was a wonderful character -- independent, emotionally damaged, a little awkward. She is the kind of character I could really feel for.

At the end, though, the book left me sad. The reason this book works at all; the reason it is darkly funny, is that the women have so little power and so few alternatives compared to men. It shows that we still have a long way to go to achieve equality in our justice system and society more generally.

A darkly funny and chaotic romp about marriage and friendship in a small town in India. Geeta's drunken and abusive husband disappeared over five years ago, and although in many ways she's better off, she is still isolated among the villagers who believe that she killed her husband. Her only social interaction is the weekly microloan circle where she meets with other wives to improve their businesses.

One of the women in the loan group approaches her for help in solving a particular problem. That problem is her own drunk and abusive husband who has been stealing her loan money and threatening her children. Geeta doesn't want to help this woman who was unsympathetic to her own abuse, but is convinced after she learns that he is planning show more to come for her loan money next. They hatch a plan and are successful, but now other women in the loan group want the same type of help.

This rollicking cast of characters lend entertainment and levity to a book that would otherwise be bogged down by extremely dark topics. The author does a masterful job of building these intersecting circles of friendships, feuds, grudges, and cultural barriers which drive the characters even as they fight to overcome them. This book has a lot to say about marriage, friendship, and the cultural bonds of misogyny which empower and constrain women by turns.

I found this book compulsively readable and very satisfying. show less

Based on the true story of Phoolan Mallah, born in 1963, a poor woman from a tiny North Indian village, married off at age 11 to a man in his forties, our heroine Geeta is inspired by Phoolan’s violent actions as she tries to survive in her small village after her husband Ramesh disappears. An outcast due to her uncertain marital status and her childlessness, she joins a microloan group with five other women and becomes entangled with them and their desires to be rid of their own oppressive husbands. Geeta especially despises Saloni, her childhood best friend, with whom she fell out when she married. As she acts in ways that surprise herself, Geeta is also inspired by the avenging goddess Durga as she creates remarkable outcomes for show more Hindu, Muslim, and Dalit women of her village. The ever-changing sniping and support, "kiss-and-scratch" with the other group members fills Geeta's life with humor, strength, and recognition of the hard life that every girl and woman share in this cruel and insular environment. Especially hilarious is the repetitive, eye-rolling mantra of those with children: "Motherhood is rewarding, SO rewarding". To be inside Geeta's head is a delightful place to live as she emulates the real life and divine women who triumphed. This is my favorite novel of 2023 so far. show less

She resented being put in a position where those were her choices: violence or violation.
from The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

Abused wives decide to murder their husbands. Sounds like a very disturbing story. But I was laughing for days. If you enjoy dark humor (“gallows humor,” the author names it), and root for women taking power over their own lives, then The Bandit Queens is for you.

Its set in a small Indian village ruled by ancient traditions of gender and caste. Arranged marriages give men complete power over their wives. Untouchables are ostracized, their futures ordained regardless of their intelligence or the wealth accumulated from performing jobs no one else wanted to do.

Geeta’s husband Ramesh disappeared five years show more ago. People feared her, believing she had murdered him. After all, he had made her life a misery. He drank away all their money and continually abused her. Geeta removed her nose ring and assumed the life of a widow, supporting herself by making beaded necklaces with funding from microloans.

Geeta’s microloan group included her childhood friend Saloni who had warned against marrying Ramesh, which ended their friendship. Farah was one of the few Muslins in town, her face usually showing the bruises of an abusive husband. Preity and Priya were twins. You could tell them apart because Preity bore acid scars from when her sister’s rejected suitor attacked her, thinking she was Priya. The man married Preity in compensation, having made her unmarriageable. The sisters were trapped together in one household with him.

Geeta has given up trying to convince people she that didn’t kill Ramesh. Geeta hates the injustices of her world. Her heroine may be the Bandit Queen who suffered abuse from men only to exact her revenge through murdering them, but Geeta is no murderer. Farah comes begging for her help. Farah wants to eliminate her abusive husband to save herself and their children. After all, Geeta already murdered one man. Geeta soon finds herself involved with a series of crimes.

Maybe they were all normal and she was the only lunatic. Was sanity, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder?
from The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

What ensues is hilarious, devious fun as the women endeavor to take control over their lives by murdering their husbands. Geeta makes an enemy out of a Dom selling bootleg liquor diluted with methanol which he tests on dogs—which she sets free, adopting one of the dogs. She encourages the wealthy untouchable widow Khushi to join the village council.

I loved all these characters, down to the scruffy dog Bandit. The women scheme and turn on each other, yet work together planning their madcap crimes. The real criminals are hilariously proud and stupid. Shroff tackles disturbing social problems in the form of a comic age-turner. I loved every page.

I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased. show less

Don't judge a book by its cover. We've all heard that, right? Well, this book, with it's fun and appealing cover can indeed be judged on its wrapping. Although perhaps in this case, it would be appropriate to suggest that the cover doesn't show the depth and serious topics included here in a story that superficially matches its light-hearted cover. Parini Shroff's new novel, The Bandit Queens, is that tricky balancing act, a delightful novel filled with incredibly difficult topics but liberally laced through with humor and good feeling.

Geeta's abusive, alcoholic husband disappeared five years ago and the rumor in town is that she killed him even though she is adamant that she didn't. Her only friendship fell apart years ago for reasons show more that are only slowly revealed, leaving her to become a curmudgeonly loner, mostly avoided by her fellow women and whispered about by their children. She's a member of a business cooperative with several other women because she needs to earn a living now that she's a widow but even in this business dependency, she has never been entirely accepted by her fellow businesswomen. Unlike the other women in the group, she does not ignore it when one of the other women is once again beaten badly by her husband but she is appalled when that woman comes to her for her help in ridding her of her terrible husband as she assumes Geeta did to her own. And she is not the last woman from the group who seeks Geeta's help in "removing her nose ring."

This is not just a romp about killing terrible men though. There is real depth and complexity here to not only Geeta but to the other side characters, female and male, as well. And the story addresses far more than just abused women bumping off their abusers. Geeta's a wonderful, awkward, emotionally damaged character and Shroff uses her beautifully to explore the problems of caste, the disgrace of childlessness, the patriarchy, abuse, women's strength, and more. The title refers to the very real Indian folk hero, Phoolan Devi, who escaped a horrific marriage, became a bandit, and revenged herself on not only the men who terrorized her but those who abused and terrorized other women, all on her way to becoming an elected official in India's Parliament. She is Geeta's hero and gives her the inspiration and strength to keep moving forward through all of Geeta's own trials. The twists and turns the novel take keep surprising the reader, making for a lightly suspenseful tale. This is a clever, engaging, and serious look at life for women in a small Indian town with a main character you can't help but root for. show less

It is not yet March and wholly unintentionally this is the third book I have read about killing husbands. Coincidence? Or have we reached some sort of boiling point?

I raced through this one! Funny and engrossing and also heartbreaking, The Bandit Queens tells an important story about domestic abuse, caste discrimination, and the power of the patriarchy in India. The book follows Geeta, a woman approaching middle-age, alone because her abusive drunk husband left her five years ago. Everyone in town thinks she is a witch and that she killed her husband and fed him to the dogs and she is perfectly happy to let them believe that. After a time though other women start seeking out her "services." I don't want to get into the story because it show more would be impossible to do so without spoiling, but suffice to say there is action and sustaining friendship, and some revenge.

I hate the term "chick lit" because it is not something that describes but rather something that diminishes. It is as if the things that concern women are trifles as compared to the concerns of male writers. Women saving themselves from being beaten, maimed and killed are nothing while the purveyors of dick lit are taken very seriously for writing about perceived emasculation, alcoholism, and affairs with students. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of what I classify as dick lit, but I also don't see it as necessarily having greater craft, value, or import than the stories of women. All that said, this is what most would classify as chick lit - it is a story about women coming together to work around a system that was built with the intention to keep them powerless. Inspiring and enjoyable. One note, this is inspired by the story of the real Bandit Queen, Phoolan Devi, a woman whom I had not heard of. A low caste woman abused beyond what one would think was imaginable, she fought back against the system, ended up in jail (for real crimes) and then became a politician but was assassinated in her 30's. Her story is really interesting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoolan_Devi show less