Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon: Himalayan Foothill Folktales (Exeter Studies in History)

This is a lovely and evocative book. The author brings us stories as an intimate of the women who tell them. Illuminating and graceful, the stories tell of life in a large sense, but the author shows us how their tellings grow out of particular lives and specific settings. As I read the stories, I felt that I came to know Urmilaji, too, and the hardships and pleasures of the Himalyan village in which she lives. I use this book often in teaching and my students love it. It helps them understand India in a subtle and pleasing way, and shows them how stories are rich with many meanings.

I had this book for my anthropology class (Kirin Narayan is a professor here at University of Wisconsin - Madison) and though more often than not I find assigned books to be boring, this one was the opposite and I read it more than once and kept it at the end of the year instead of selling it back because I thought it was so great. Ms. Narayan visited our class one day and talked to us about how she had to learn Urmila Devi Sood's dialect before she could talk with her and record the folktales. I love the folktales in this book!! This is a great book to own!

Good read.