French Lover Essay

After Lajja the controversial novel which brought Taslima Nasrin to the limelight, French Lover her second novel created a huge expectation among her readers and critics. The readers anticipated another fatwa for Nasrin which will ruin the reputation of the writer or at the least a ban on this book which will leave her writing career at stake. But Nasrin’s French Lover broke the preconceived notion the readers developed even before the book was published in 2001. It was originally written in Bengali as Phorashi Premik and was translated into English by Sreejata Guha as French Lover. The English translation was received well throughout the world though it was not a best-seller like the novels by Kamala Das who deals with similar subject. The

French lover was neither controversial nor celebrated by the readers and critics. In fact very few criticisms and articles are written and printed about this novel. The reason for choosing this novel amidst her other sensational novels is because of the negative criticism that has concealed the true worth of the novel. This article tries to find a place that the novel deserves, in the literary canon. A psycho-dynamics study on French lover will open the gateway to the female psyche which in turn will lead to the proper understanding of the place it deserves in

He takes her to his restaurant where she meets Kishanlal’s staff, who were mostly Bengali men. After a long time she feels in ‘place’ while talking to these people. She feels rejuvenated with the few cups of tea and a hearty chat in Bengali with them. Followed by Kishanlal’s orders the Bengali men got back to work and Nila leaves the restaurant half-heartedly. Nila is in a trance when she sees the city streets bustling with energy from all sides. Kishnalal takes Nila to the supermarket that evening. She was surprised to find a whole new world inside it. After the shopping, Nila understands Kishan’s indirect command that, “Shopping done, cookery book bought; now it was up to her to get into the kitchen and start cooking dinner” (40). She realises that her life was back to square