An Autobiography

Davis, Angela. An Autobiography. New York: International Publishers, 2000. (first Published in 1974).

The autobiography is about a black activist's struggle against the american state. Angela Davis begins her autobiography with a crisis in her life. She is a fugitive running away from the FBI who has charged her against murder. She is finally caught by the police and is taken to the New York jail to await trial. The first chapter describes her trials in this jail and is titled "Nets." The text becomes a document of a black Marxist woman's interpretation of the state punitive system. In the beginning, she is placed in a room full of mentally deranged women, who have been deliberately given tranquilizers. It is a dead house and they are always spaced out on different drugs. Angela is placed there with the excuse that she might be attacked by the other inmates. But, the truth is that she is loved by them and they look upto her as an activist. Later when she is moved into solitary and then along with the other inmates, she developes a close relationship with the jailed women. There is a full fledged social life in the jail with homosexuality (including formalizing of relationships, sexual and otherwise) happening within its confines. Angela makes friends not only with the inmates but also some of the jail authorities. But, in between, she is handed over to California by New York state and has to shift her residence to another jail.

A History of Insects

Roberts, Yvonne. A History of Insects. Surrey: Review, 2000.

The novel deals with a colonial (to be more precise, post colonial - Peshwar, Pakistan in the 50s) childhood, the memsahibs and the sahibs still in an illusionary world of pre-independence, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and its targetting of the West, the meaningless marriages in which both men and women are caught, the racial tensions between the whites and the browns etc are the setting of this growing up tale of Ella Jackson. While it happens in the explosive situation of inter-racial tensions, the story is about the different secrets that Ella Jackson, the main character in the novel witnesses. They are all secrets of sexuality, forbidden and therefore dark. It is also the consequences of speaking about secrets. In fact, the title is derived from Ella's contradictory desire to speak and to keep secrets - her diary is named "A History of Insects" to make it look unattractive to the grownups.

She is child of nine, known to be imaginative and causing a lot of worry and distress to her mother, Alice due to that. Bill, her father, is from the working class background, and is unhappy in marriage. His only reason to hang on to Alice and her pettiness is Ella. The girl is growing up, lonely and without any reassuarance from a mother who thinks she has come between her and her husband's affection. The story revolves around an incident that Ella accidentally witnesses. She sees the murder of a Pakistani army man, colonel Ashraf Khan Afridi, who she revers and likes as her "uncle Ash." This happens in the "secret garden" which she frequents with the gardner Shafi. She witnesses the neighbour's wife, Marjorie and Ash making love and later, Marjorie's husband, Piers murdering Ash. But, since the body is never found, no one believes Ella. Ash's family is used to his disappearances and they do not complain. Ella is removed to the boarding school for some time due to Alice's insistence. It is St. Winifred's at Chowdiagalli. There Ella is subjected to the combined torture of Zuhra Iqbal who teaches her that "teacher's pets" like her and other white girls should be taught another lesson. She is a witness to another secret, between Caro and Millie, two senior girls in her group named "Buttercup." Both she and Zuhra are subjected to witness Dr. Mac, a preacher, masturbating. Zuhra has to leave St. Winifred's because she tells the truth about him. Ella remains because she becomes dumb and unable to speak for many months. Betty, the considerate American picks her up forcibly from the school and gets her home. But, it is trouble time there. President Nasser has announced the nationalisation of Suez Canal and anti-West sentiment is blowing all over the Islamic countries. There is riot in whcih Ella's father and Betty rescue and Anglo-Indian family, but seriously jeopardizing his career in the meanwhile.