The Rape of Sita

The Rape of Sita is a grabbing read. Lindsey Collen uses various modes of story telling and writing styles to sculpt the characters and the plot. Having spent three years in West Africa, I admire the voice of the story-teller as the narrator, and his manner of telling the story. It gives a story of independence and emotion a unique point of view.

The Rape of Sita tells the story a rape through a man, a story-teller in the story. Heavily political, this book deals with issue of rape and the atmosphere of fear in every society. (Is it right for a woman to stay over at a male acquaintance's house alone? If, because of that, a woman is raped, whose fault is it? Why is it that we are so ashamed to talk about being raped?) The book will tell you things you probably already know, but succeeds brilliantly in jolting it into the conscious mind. A urgent call for action and change in attitude, it challages the belief that rape is an act usually directed at women. She deconstructs rape to become only an idea: a notion of the strong conquering the weak; it takes place even before the penetration. Its lyrical and tight prose provides good respite from its heavy content, and really, by its own merit, worth a read. However, the true beauty of its book lies in its courage to challenge, and its ability to bring about change.