THE SLATE OF LIFE: More Contemporary Stories...

THE SLATE OF LIFE: More Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of India edited by Kali for Women (Feminist Press: $12.95; 131 pp., paperback original). Originally written in nine different languages, the 10 stories in this anthology depict women gradually emancipating themselves from a culture that regards them as a troublesome cross between a chattel slave and a beast of burden. In “Hand-Me-Downs” by Wajida Tabassum, a servant girl exacts a singular revenge on her snobbish employer; Lata, the impoverished title character in a dramatic story by Binapani Mohanty, assembles her village to confront the men who raped her during a carnival.