'Mirror Made of Rain' looks at how patterns of self-destruction are inherited

'Mirror Made of Rain' looks at how patterns of self-destruction are inherited

Transcript¹

Indian author Naheed Phiroze Patel says she's always been drawn² to unlikeable characters.

So it's not surprising that Noomi, the strong-willed protagonist³ of her debut⁴ novel Mirror Made of Rain, has a lot of negative qualities.

Noomi tends to do things that can be self destructive – in part due to a painful family history and parental⁵ neglect. Her parents' friends include high powered lawyers and business tycoons⁶, whose children know no boundaries. When lines are crossed, elders often look the other way at any misdeeds. It's the kind of India where you can be demoted in social circles if not invited to a high society party.

Patel makes difficult topics like addiction⁷, rape⁸, and shame front and center in her novel. She spoke⁹ to NPR's Morning Edition about the book, which came out in India last year and makes its U.S. debut this week.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Noomi is a young woman who grows up in an upper-middle-class Indian family. Her family is ostensibly very modern. The women are allowed to drink. But she has a mother who has not had the support that she needed for her mental health, and she kind of passes down that trauma¹⁰ to her daughter like an inheritance. And Noomi [has to] navigate¹¹ this really constricting¹² social structure of small-town conservative India and she tries to break free of that mold. [The book] is also about how a person like Noomi is encouraged all the time to look at herself through the eyes of of people watching her, because in India – and I'm sure in other places as well – we have this phrase log kya kahenge, which is basically "what will people say?" And that's such a determining factor for a lot of young women growing up in India and elsewhere.

On portraying¹³ women in her book

When we talk about patriarchy or the rights of women, or the state of women in India, we think of the bigger and more ostensibly horrific things like "dowry" that capture the headlines. But there are these small, everyday violences that occur to women, which nobody really talks about – these small microaggressions and the way that society fails women like an undercurrent of patriarchy. And I couldn't stop noticing it. For example, the way society treats female addicts¹⁴ over men. Or the extent [to which] women's anger – and Noomi is a really angry character, and I think her mother is also a very angry person – the way that their anger is pathologized and negated¹⁵ while the anger of men, to a large extent, is kind of mythologized, or deemed righteous.

On Noomi's relationship with her mother, who struggles with addiction

One of the questions I really wanted to explore in the book was how to "mother" when there is a vacuum of support and care. I think that Noomi's mother is left to the wolves in the sense that she's not provided with the support that she needs from her family, and from society in general, to be an adequate or good mother to Noomi. The novel kind of explores what failure to "mother" means, and why it is such a lonely failure. I feel like, when men fail at parenthood, society steps in to help, or there's a lot more empathy. But when a mother fails, she kind of fails all by herself. And Noomi blames her mother for everything and kind of joins in not having any empathy for her mother. Yet she is, in a way, slowly turning into her mother. I felt like that was the most natural organic way to write this relationship.

On how the book was received in India

I was actually really surprised – pleasantly surprised – at how well it was received, but there was also a diversity of opinion about the book, which is also interesting to me. Because some people just really, really did not like Noomi and they felt so angry at her that they wrote in their reviews that they would like to physically¹⁶ assault her. And these were written by women. I thought that was incredibly interesting because I think that Noomi kind of evoked¹⁷ a lot of internalized misogyny. And I found it really interesting to see it bubble up to the surface in that way.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

3 protagonist   

n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公

参考例句：

• The protagonist reforms in the end and avoids his proper punishment.戏剧主角最后改过自新并避免了他应受的惩罚。
• He is the model for the protagonist in the play.剧本中的主人公就是以他为模特儿创作的！

4 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

5 parental   

adj.父母的；父的；母的

参考例句：

• He encourages parental involvement in the running of school.他鼓励学生家长参与学校的管理。
• Children always revolt against parental disciplines.孩子们总是反抗父母的管束。

6 tycoons   

大君( tycoon的名词复数 )； 将军； 企业巨头； 大亨

参考例句：

• The great tycoons were fierce competitors, single-minded in their pursuit of financial success and power. 企业巨头都是激烈的竞争者，他们一心追求钱财和权势。
• Tycoons and their conglomerates are even raising money again on international markets. 企业大亨们以及他们的企业甚至正再次从国际市场上筹集资金。

7 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

8 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

9 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

10 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

11 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

12 constricting   

压缩，压紧，使收缩( constrict的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Objective To discuss the clinical characteristics and treatment of congenital constricting band syndrome(CCBS) and amputations. 目的探讨先天性束带症与先天性截肢的临床特点及治疗方法。

13 portraying   

v.画像( portray的现在分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作，曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

14 addicts   

有…瘾的人( addict的名词复数 )； 入迷的人

参考例句：

• a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
• There is counseling to help Internet addicts?even online. 有咨询机构帮助网络沉迷者。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

15 negated   

v.取消( negate的过去式和过去分词 )；使无效；否定；否认

参考例句：

• Our historical right to rule ourselves as a people had been negated. 我们被剥夺了作为一个民族治理自己国家的历史权利。 来自辞典例句
• Thus far we have negated frictional effects in the harmonic oscillator. 到现在为止，我们一直没有考虑谐和振荡器中的摩擦效应。 来自辞典例句

16 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

17 evoked   

[医]诱发的

参考例句：

• The music evoked memories of her youth. 这乐曲勾起了她对青年时代的回忆。
• Her face, though sad, still evoked a feeling of serenity. 她的脸色虽然悲伤，但仍使人感觉安详。