{"id":48521,"date":"2021-09-02T11:12:11","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T15:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=48521"},"modified":"2021-08-25T21:45:07","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T01:45:07","slug":"the-archer-by-shruti-swamy-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-archer-by-shruti-swamy-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"The Archer by Shruti Swamy [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-48531\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/08\/Archer-Shruti-Swami-BookDragon-520x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/08\/Archer-Shruti-Swami-BookDragon-520x800.jpg 520w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2021\/08\/Archer-Shruti-Swami-BookDragon.jpg 666w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/>As in her lauded debut short story collection,\u00a0<em>A House Is a Body<\/em> (2020), Shruti Swamy examines women\u2019s ownership of their very selves in her first novel, which is set in a disappeared Bombay. Swamy divides Vidya\u2019s young life into five distinct sections, focusing on pivotal developmental moments defined by her bonds (or lack thereof) with other women.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s initially nameless to herself while others are referred to as Aunt-Not-Mother and Father Sir as she\u2019s raised by an extended family while her mother is institutionalized. By part II, motherless Vidya has become caretaker to her father and younger brother, while an all-encompassing passion for kathak (an exacting form of classical Indian dance) allows her to reclaim her sense of \u201cI.\u201d Part III places Vidya in college where her most significant relationship, beyond her kathak guru, is with a brilliant older girl. Then \u201cI\u201d becomes \u201cwe,\u201d with Vidya seemingly content in a nontraditional marriage until suddenly she\u2019s pregnant. Part V comes full circle as Vidya unexpectedly returns to her childhood home.<\/p>\n<p>Each segment challenges expectations and exposes the limitations of being female. Beyond adaptation, sacrifice, and even erasure, Swamy provides no easy answers to the search for fulfillment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.booklistonline.com\/The-Archer-\/pid=9747701\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Fiction,&#8221; <em>Booklist<\/em>, August 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As in her lauded debut short story collection,\u00a0A House Is a Body (2020), Shruti Swamy examines women\u2019s ownership of their very selves in her first novel, which is set in a disappeared Bombay. Swamy divides Vidya\u2019s young life into five distinct sections, focusing on pivotal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,52,53,6535,17,18],"tags":[9894,6608,6668,58,10,149,68,51,13,129,39,9895,44],"class_list":["post-48521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-indian","category-indian-american","category-repost","category-south-asian","category-south-asian-american","tag-archer","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-coming-of-age","tag-family","tag-gender-inequality","tag-haves-vs-have-nots","tag-identity","tag-love","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-shruti-swamy","tag-siblings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Archer by Shruti Swamy [in Booklist] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-archer-by-shruti-swamy-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Archer by Shruti Swamy [in Booklist] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As in her lauded debut short story collection,\u00a0A House Is a Body (2020), Shruti Swamy examines women\u2019s ownership of their very selves in her first novel, which is set in a disappeared Bombay. 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