Brown Women Have Everything: Essays on (Dis)comfort and Delight

Dasgupta (Women Who Misbehave), a creative writing professor at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, reflects on living as an Indian woman in America in this sharp collection. Recounting her childhood in India, Dasgupta suggests in “Becoming This Brown Woman, or, Three Glorious Accidents” that watching her parents deal with the culture shock of moving to Kolkata from New Delhi when she was five taught her “that there is honor and dignity in pursuing your dreams,” even when doing so causes discomfort. Occasionally, chatty digressions distract from the main point of an essay, as in “Mane Story,” where Dasgupta’s meditations on her complex relationship with her hair are diluted through undercooked comparisons with Rapunzel, Joan of Arc, and Britney Spears. However, Dasgupta has a talent for finding the profound in the everyday. For instance, she recalls how during a day trip to Beaufort, N.C., during the summer of 2020, she and her husband visited a knickknack store whose owner repeatedly insisted they take off their masks, an unnerving confrontation that nonetheless prompted the realization that people travel “so we can feel a little out of sorts” and “be reminded that we will never know with certainty what to expect.” Perceptive and personal, this is worth checking out. (Oct.)