Shashi Bhat's short stories explore experiences women face in today's world
CBC Radio | Posted: August 23, 2024 2:40 PM | Last Updated: August 29
The author of Death By A Thousand Cuts discussed the collection on The Next Chapter
Shashi Bhat's latest work, Death By A Thousand Cuts, is a short story collection exploring the everyday impossible expectations that come with being a woman.
Death By A Thousand Cuts dives into the widely relatable experiences of modern women. The short stories follow several different women as they deal with the daily struggles of their relationships with others, themselves and the world around them — from a student attempting to change the colour of her eyes after a mean comment from her boyfriend, to a writer whose ex published a novel about their relationship.
Bhat's previous work includes the novel The Most Precious Substance on Earth, which was a finalist for the 2022 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction. Her short story Mute won the 2018 Writers' Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. She has been shortlisted for a National Magazine Award and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award. She is also the author of the novel The Family Took Shape. Bhat lives in New Westminster, B.C..
She discussed some of the challenges facing women today and the struggles of modern dating in the digital world with Christa Couture on The Next Chapter.
You have written two novels, but this is your first collection. I read an interview recently where you said the short story is the perfect vehicle for emotion. What did you mean by that?
I just think there's nothing that can devastate me the way a short story can. Partly it's the way a story is structured, how its ending can have this feeling of irresolution that creates an opportunity for a gut punch or a lump in the throat style ending, that's my favourite thing about the short story.
In the first story, called "Deal Breaker," we follow a woman who swipes right on a man and then goes on a date with him. She's 37, she's a successful furniture designer, owns her own home and she doesn't want kids, but she wants a serious relationship. How do these factors play into her desirability on the dating scene?
I think she's very much aware of how small the dating pool is given those facts about her. I wonder if that drives some of her decision making.
Women will often ignore their fear instinct out of politeness. - Shashi Bhat
That story was partly inspired by this nonfiction book that's often recommended to women on Reddit. It's called The Gift of Fear by this security expert, and one of the things he talks about is how women will often ignore their fear instinct out of politeness. I think that's part of the way she acts the way she does in this story, but I think part of it is also this, like, scarcity mindset, the sense that my options are limited.
Before she goes on this date, she's carefully examining the online dating profile, as one does. You're going on the information that's there, right? Like what they're looking for, the profile pictures, the state, his job as an elementary school art teacher. How much does someone's online profile affect our perception of them in real life?
This is one of the things I find so interesting about modern day dating and why I'm interested in writing about dating. I was actually worried that writing about, particularly contemporary app dating, would make people take the book less seriously. But I think dating is so fascinating on a character level. One, for exactly what you just said, we paint this initial impression and then there's the truth of who we are actually revealed to be. I think also, dating comes with expectations built by that profile and sometimes they're clashing expectations. Also, dating begins with yearning, which I think is beautiful and conveniently, it also drives fiction.
Dating begins with yearning, which I think is beautiful and conveniently, it also drives fiction. - Shashi Bhat
Your titular story, "Death By A Thousand Cuts," is about a young university aged woman and her blue eyed boyfriend. In the story she's mentally noting everything problematic about him, including his constant microaggressions. He jokingly says if they had kids, it would be hard to lose them in the snow, but she just can't shake it off when he says, "You would look fantastic with blue eyes." Why does that comment affect her so much?
I'm so glad you used the word microaggressions because I don't think I use that word in the story but that was definitely what I was thinking about. I think that's even how I came upon the phrase "death by a thousand cuts," I was just reading about microaggressions.
I think what I wanted to get at is, to her boyfriend, these comments are innocuous. He's not saying them in a pointed way intentionally, but to her they have a pretty deep effect. And then, of course, she starts reading about blue eyes and blue eyes are everywhere, there are songs about blue eyes. She stumbles upon that website where she learns about a procedure where you can transform your brown eyes into blue eyes. This is a procedure that really exists too which I was really surprised by. I think it just gets under her skin and makes her start questioning her physical appearance and also her ethnic identity in a way that maybe she hadn't before.
I mentioned when I introduced you, your tweet, "what doesn't kill you makes you write short stories," and I'm curious, how do your real life interactions and experiences shape your storytelling? Are you always interacting with the writer's lens on?
I do write about my personal experiences sometimes, but it tends to morph on the page. I wouldn't call these stories autobiographical for the most part. I think I'm often aiming for emotional truth.
It's also a story about a woman who is afraid to take up space, and I often am that woman. - Shashi Bhat
In a story like "Giantess," for example, it's about a woman who's a female giant who works at the library, a literal giant, and I'm not a giant, I've never worked at the library. But I think it's also a story about a woman who is afraid to take up space, and I often am that woman.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.