A single Indian American Sociology professor in Seattle, five weeks away from her fifty-fifth birthday, decides to throw a swayamvar. A practice referenced in Hindu epics and myths, a swayamvar is a contest set up by a king to find eligible suitors for his daughter.
The eligible men must perform impossible feats to win the hand of the princess. Such moments are key to the plot in Ramayana and the Mahabharata, among the many Indian narratives that feature this distinctive event. This practice undergirds how royal families promulgated political power by ensuring alliances with powerful warrior kings using their daughters as pawns in that political game.
In Intermperance, Sonora Jha playfully adapts the swayamvar to 21st century Seattle, and this delightful novel takes the reader into a provocative, witty, and poignant exploration of marriage, family, migration, relationships, caste, disability, race, desire, sexuality and so much more. Drawing from a variety of genres—rom-coms (our protagonist lives on a house boat in Lake Union, a nod to Sleepless in Seattle), Hindu mythology (goddesses pop up unexpectedly to guide and occasionally thwart the protagonist), magical realism (a smear of kohl sent by a distant relative from India sparks time travel to the protagonist’s complicated family history)—the novel blends a delightful plot with intersectional feminist meditations on a middle-aged woman’s quest for love.
The protagonist is aided in her quest to throw the swayamvar by a former student turned wedding planner and is cheered on by her friend, Cat, who lives on the East Coast with two young children and caring for her terminally-ill husband. Once the news of the swayamvar spreads on social media, the plan evokes a predictable range of responses from women cheering her on to internet trolls attacking her plan. A distant male cousin from India writes to her to warn her of a family curse that haunts women in her clan and to urge restraint. The cousin’s letters and emails and the protagonist’s own time travel unfold across the novel to reveal a tale of true love between two men of different castes and class in nineteenth century India. Their story challenges the heteronormative, casteist, and ableist structures of marriage in South Asian communities.
Jha creates a well-paced narrative filled with surprises while also engaging in deep discussions on disability, caste, marriage, and motherhood. It’s not easy to weave in bell hooks, masculinity studies, and critical caste studies in a novel that also entertains and inspires. Jha also reworks the tired plot lines of popular South Asian immigrant fiction. I have yet to read a South Asian novel that candidly, humorously, and realistically makes menopause a plot element.
Sonora Jha has published two path-breaking books in the last five years—How to Raise a Feminist Son (2021) and The Laughter (2023)—the latter won the Washington State Book Award for fiction in 2024. Intemperance promises to be just as significant and will no doubt be much talked about.
Sonora Jha will have several book events locally including: Oct. 11 at Bainbridge Book Festival; Oct. 14 at Elliott Bay Books 7 p.m.; Oct. 30 Third Place Books, Ravenna, 7 p.m.; Nov. 20 Seattle University, Campion Ballroom, 6:30 p.m.
Nalini Iyer is a Professor of English at Seattle University where she teaches courses in Asian American, Postcolonial, and South Asian Studies. She is the author/editor of several books in literary criticism. She lives in Kirkland. WA.
