In her third novel, Intemperance, Sonora Jha (Foreign; The Laughter) crafts an ingenious and triumphant story of a "pathbreaking feminist sociologist," as her 28-year-old son, Karan, puts it, who wants to be married for a third time.
The unnamed narrator will turn 55 years old in five weeks. She has chosen this date for her swayamvar, a Hindu ceremony in which a woman of upper-class status chooses her husband from a group of eligible suitors. She will design a feat for them to compete at, and--on that same day--will wed the winner. Jha brilliantly sets the structure of the novel in chapters that lay out the narrator's plans for the celebration.
Some strong women come forward to help, but not everyone is supportive. Karan asks his mother to "reconsider this," and the narrator receives missives from a "distant cousin-brother" in New Delhi who attempts to dissuade her from her plans by revealing in installments a family curse involving one of her ancestors. In a kind of antidote to this pall, a silver box of kohl arrives from an unfamiliar woman in Patna. Each time the narrator applies the kohl, she has a vision. Jha deftly intertwines the details of the curse and the kohl-induced visions to yield moments of clarity for the narrator, as she arrives at an acceptance of who she is and what she wants.
Thanks to Jha's satirical edge, exquisite pacing, and blending of myth and fact, the days leading up to her heroine's swayamvar will provide a series of epiphanies for readers as well as for the bride-to-be. --Jennifer M. Brown, reviewer