Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A thoughtful, moving, and brave memoir by a prominent activist that chronicles his experience growing up gay in India and shows how the challenges and traumas he faced inspired him to become an advocate for members of society facing discrimination, including the downtrodden sex workers of South Asia. At the age of ten, Siddharth Dube was only just starting to understand some of his life's defining preoccupations; he realized he was gay, and it was--and still is--dangerous to be gay in India.
In this memoir, Dube shares his journey from overcoming his own personal traumas to becoming a staunch fighter for the downtrodden and oppressed: from the elite Doon School in New Delhi to Harvard University to the unsafe streets where lonely men sought each other for sex; from the halls of power at the World Bank and the United Nations to jail cells where sex workers were subjected to abuse at the whim of misguided officials.
In a book that is both deeply personal and a passionate appeal for social justice, Dube writes with insight about his own search for love and self-respect, and of the struggles of the oppressed in a time of global right wing ascendancy. An Indefinite Sentence is a beautiful and unforgettable tour de force that celebrates dignity and equality, and holds accountable those who would deny anyone the priceless joys of a liberated human life.
Synopsis
A revelatory memoir about sex, oppression, and the universal struggle for justice. From his time as a child in 1960s India, Siddharth Dube knew that he was different. Reckoning with his femininity and sexuality--and his intellect--would send him on a lifelong journey of discovery: from Harvard classrooms to unsafe cruising sites; from ivory-tower think-tanks to shantytowns; from halls of power at the UN and World Bank to jail cells where sexual outcasts are brutalized.
Coming of age in the earliest days of AIDS, Dube was at the frontlines when that disease made rights for gay men and for sex workers a matter of basic survival. He was part of a valiant movement to decriminalize same-sex relations and sex work in India, both similarly outlawed under laws dating back to British colonial rule. He emerged as a trenchant critic of the United States' imposition of its cruel anti-prostitution policies on developing countries--an effort legitimized by leading American feminists and do-gooders--warning that this was a 21st century reprise of the moralistic Victorian-era campaigns that spawned endless persecution of countless women, men, and trans individuals the world over.
Profound, ferocious, and luminously written, An Indefinite Sentence is both a personal and political journey, weaving Dube's own quest for love and self-respect with unforgettable portrayals of the struggles of some of the world's most oppressed people, those reviled and cast out for their sexuality. Informed by a lifetime of scholarship and introspection, it is a tour de force on the pressing global debates over sexuality, gender expression, and of securing human rights and social justice in a world distorted by inequality and right-wing ascendancy.
Synopsis
Finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Memoir/Biography A revelatory memoir about sex, oppression, and the universal struggle for justice.
From his time as a child in 1960s India, Siddharth Dube knew that he was different. Reckoning with his femininity and sexuality--and his intellect--would send him on a lifelong journey of discovery: from Harvard classrooms to unsafe cruising sites; from ivory-tower think-tanks to shantytowns; from halls of power at the UN and World Bank to jail cells where sexual outcasts are brutalized.
Coming of age in the earliest days of AIDS, Dube was at the frontlines when that disease made rights for gay men and for sex workers a matter of basic survival, pushing to decriminalize same-sex relations and sex work in India, both similarly outlawed under laws dating back to British colonial rule. He became a trenchant critic of the United States' imposition of its cruel anti-prostitution policies on developing countries--an effort legitimized by leading American feminists and would-be do-gooders--warning that this was a 21st century replay of the moralistic Victorian-era campaigns that had spawned endless persecution of countless women, men, and trans individuals the world over.
Profound, ferocious, and luminously written, An Indefinite Sentence is both a personal and political journey, weaving Dube's own quest for love and self-respect with unforgettable portrayals of the struggles of some of the world's most oppressed people, those reviled and cast out for their sexuality. Informed by a lifetime of scholarship and introspection, it is essential reading on the global debates over sexuality, gender expression, and of securing human rights and social justice in a world distorted by inequality and right-wing ascendancy.