“This highly original book, based on a rich but mostly unknown corpus of oral texts from the western Himalayas, reveals a world in which gods and goddesses from the classical Indian pantheon mingle with human beings, particularly women, and take part in their everyday lives, their communal rituals, and their deepest emotions. The translated songs are ravishing, and the ethnographic observations with which the author frames them are powerful texts in their own right.”
— David Shulman, author of More than Real
“Fluid, readable, and evocative, Everyday Creativity is enriched by Narayan’s trademark: a painterly mastery of charming, descriptive prose. We might almost forget that we are reading anthropology—yet her deep insights are gracefully woven throughout.”
— Ann Grodzins Gold, coauthor of Listen to the Heron’s Words
"Even as Narayan focuses on the musical choices of individual singers, she does not lose sight of the cultural context in which this creativity occurs. She briefly provides background on where and when these songs are sung and what role they fill in community life. She also places the songs within a larger tradition of sung stories about deities and devotees within Indian religions that cross oral and written bodies of work. Narayan’s writing, however, continuously forefronts the personal pleasure that the women derive from curating and singing these songs. So, as Narayan examines oral literature—a common topic in anthropology and ethnomusicology—she constantly re minds the reader that its significance derives from the people who sing it. Focusing on everyday creativity allows her to examine the use of the texts rather than the texts themselves. . . . Everyday Creativity demonstrates how it is possible to write a monograph that is scholarly but not stuffy, beautifully written but thought provoking, and challenging in its humility of subject."
— Notes
"The great value of this book is that with sensitivity discloses the reality of women’s lives in Indian villages and the stages of a woman life – from her wedding, motherhood, widowhood, to the old age – with all their difficulties, aims, desires and realistic possibilities."
— newbooks.asia