Ginu Kamani was born in Bombay, India, and moved to the U.S. at age 14. She graduated with an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Kamani returned to Bombay for three years to work in film production before returning to the U.S., where she spent time as a professor at Mills College and continued to work on writing and film projects. Two of her short stories from JUNGLEE GIRL and several of her poems were published under her full name, Gaurangi Kamani, in the anthology OUR FEET WALK THE SKY: WOMEN OF THE SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA.
Several of these 11 short stories, all involving Indian girls or women, show authorial promise, but few are strong on substance. Young girls narrate tales ("Lucky Dip," "The Smell," "The Cure") that require mature vocabulary and intelligence; other stories ("Shakuntala," "Maria," "Waxing the Thing") exhibit excessive fascination with the genitalia of women. Of note is the book's publicity blurb that stresses Kamani's "wanton bawdiness" and "explicit sexuality," but such story elements fail to advance a theme or a conclusion, as seen in "Just Between Indians," where Indian and American cultures and languages are abruptly intermixed. Also, the author's plot contrivances ("The Tears of Kamala," "Younger Wife") fail to convey sufficient believability. Overall, the tragic aspect of these stories is the lack of strong and reliable editorship, for Kamani clearly has creative talent that cries out for responsibly helpful mentorship.‘Glenn O. Carey, Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond
In the Indian province of Gujarat, where Kamani lived until she left for the U.S. at 14, a ``Junglee'' girl is an untamed, uncontrollable one. In these 11 short stories, characters span the gamut of women, the irony being that in India's sexually repressive traditional society, this pejorative term could be applied to any self-aware woman. But Kamani, a gifted, savvy writer, combines such precarious, complex elements as class, caste, gender and eroticism into readable, imaginative and often hilarious tales. Humor is both salve and salvation; it is earthy and bawdy, reminiscent of Colette's more raucous coming-of-sexual-age chronicles: in ``Lucky Dip,'' one school-girl's crush on another is complicated by her friend's lower-class status. Magic realism effectively shapes ``The Cure,'' in which a ``Dr. Doctor'' prescribes a choice to a girl uncontrollably growing into a giant‘a lifetime of abstinence or marriage to himself. Especially poignant are depictions such as ``Cipher'' and ``Just Between Indians,'' in which modern Indian women confront the traditional mores they have abandoned. What is most notable is the vigor of the writing and the subtlety with which Kamani suggests the cultural ties that always threaten to bind women. Author tour. (May)
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