AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: Bad Karma: A True Story of Obsession and Murder by Deborah Blum ISBN: 0-515-09386-6 Publisher: Jove Pubns Pub. Date: January, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $3.95

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: TWO YEARS AFTER THE SUMMER OF LOVE - FATAL ATTRACTION
Comment: This beautifully written, highly detailed and extraordinarily resarched book probes into the case of a fatal attraction.

Tanya Tarasoff is a bright Russian-American girl attending a local community college in Berkely, California. She hopes to be accepted at Berkeley. Her father, a cruel, domineering problem drinker appears to have some rather paleolithic views of women in general. He verbally and physically mistreats his wife and Tanya's younger brother and sister. He snoops in Tanya's room, roots through her drawers and reads her mail. Tanya spends as little time as she possibly can at home, preferring the company of her fat friend Cindy. Cindy is described as Tanya's opposite number. Noncerebral and not academically inclined, Cindy appears to be more interested in the dating scene and is perfectly content to remain in a community college.

Tanya's aspirations are much greater. She takes a cultural dance class at Berkeley where she meets a student from India named Prosenjit Poddar.

Poddar, an Indian native and grandson of an Untouchable sees California as the Golden Dream. He falls into an obsessive love with Tanya and demands every minute of her free time. Tanya is plainly not interested in Poddar and involves herself in a number of sporadic flings. She falls in love with a boy identified as "Jeff" in a health food store and is crushed by his refusal to see her again after they have sex; she has a relationship with a boy during the last summer of her life and becomes pregnant. Tanya does not appear to have any sexual responsibility and she does not sound like she treated other people very well. One gets the feeling that Tanya likes using Poddar and having the superior position. She appears to like manipulating Poddar by acting like the brass ring; maybe, just maybe he can win her love if he plays his cards right. Of course, this is impossible and Tanya remains out of his reach at all times.

Poddar's obsession takes a dangerous tone when he stalks the girl, making recordings of their conversations and even buying her an Indian sari. He demands that she go out with him and chastises her like a stern parent when she does not show up at the appointed time. His controlling attitude towards her probably reminds her of her father's controlling attitude towards women in general.

Her father extends that controlling philosophy towards his only son. Beaten and browbeaten too many times, Alex leaves home and takes an apartment in the Berkeley area. Poddar learns of this and rooms with Alex. Alex is described as being a lot like the father -- he is cruel, explosive and completely contemptuous of Poddar. He dangles Tanya in front of Poddar's face like a treat. If Poddar will fix his Dodge Charger, he will repay the favor by telling him about Tanya. Tanya does not like Poddar and wants him out of her life.

Other Indian students who room with Poddar in the International House (I-House) insist that he seek counselling. His running obsession with Tanya is frightening and alarming. They successfully get him in therapy where Poddar further reveals his obsession with the Russian-American girl.

He hounds Tanya by telephone, sends her gifts and waits for her at her home. Tanya's repeated entreaties that he leave her alone go unheeded. Fortunately for Tanya, she had an aunt in Brazil who had been encouraging her to visit. Tanya's parents endorsed the idea, so Tanya spent the entire summer of 1969 in Brazil. Poddar deteriorated mentally and mourned the loss of having Tanya.

When Tanya returns to California in early August, Poddar appears to be at least trying to put her out of his mind. His doctors are alarmed at his choosing Tanya's brother as a roommate. One wonders why Poddar disclosed that fact. That was asking for more intervention, which was sorely needed by that point.

Poddar never really is able to release his obsession with Tanya. He resumes following and telephoning her. When she takes her first courses at Berkeley that fall of 1969, Poddar is waiting for her and stalking her. Tanya has made plans to move in with her fat friend, Cindy. She voices her concerns about the stalking to Cindy and at one point tells Poddar she is not interested in him. Refusing to get the message, Poddar's obsession escalates and buys a gun to finish off his unfinished business. He kills Tanya at her home in late October of 1969.

In a landmark lawsuit, Tanya's parents sued Berkeley and Poddar's treating psychiatrists for failing to disclose their real concerns that he was indeed a very dangerous patient.

Rating: 5
Summary: Cultural shock at Berkeley, circa 1969
Comment: This is a beautifully written, painstakingly researched and organized, fearless exploration of a tragic clash of character and culture. Deborah Blum strove for objectivity and empathy, understanding and identification, and she achieved it. In so far as a true crime story can be a work of art, this is one.

The setting is Berkeley 1969, Telegram Avenue and People's Park, etc. recalled with vivid and nostalgic detail. The two central characters, Prosenjit, an Indian exchange student at the university and Tanya, an American student, begin a flirtation that ends in tragedy. She is a sweet, innocent (or nearly innocent) girl who really only deserved to be loved, but she plays head games and heart games with Prosenjit who loves her passionately, and he is deeply hurt. I guess she couldn't know from her limited experience that in such situations some men can be dangerous. He is an Untouchable, or at least his grandfather was, and a nerd, and she lords it over him with her Caucasian beauty so that gradually he becomes obsessed with her. She grows uncomfortable with his obsession and wants him out of her life. But she calls him back after being dumped by another guy. The reader knows, as in a Greek tragedy, that this calling Prosenjit back reveals her fatal flaw.

Blum includes some photos of Tanya and some of Prosenji and his village in India. Her father is a jealous and controlling alcoholic, a Russian by birth who snoops around her room looking for evidence of liaisons and follows her about and forbids her to date although she is in college. She is a bright pretty girl who lacks in confidence. Prosenjit is a genius or nearly so, who has risen from his lowly birth to be one of the most promising of his generation in India. Interesting is his friend Jal Mehta, a Parsi Indian who knows Prosenjit from school in India and believes in his genius and tries to help him. Jal is confident and charming, articulate and wise in the ways of the world, but Prosenjit is jealous of him and cannot accept his help.

At some point Prosenjit begins to threaten violence, but Tanya continues to taunt him. She gets some satisfaction out of his obsessive love for her, but she hates him because he is such a nerd, and she despises his fawning behavior. Nonetheless, she comes to his room a couple of times a week and lords it over him. He secretly tape everything, and when she is gone he listens to the tapes over and over again, looking for some sign that she really loves him. He even splices some words together so that he has her saying "I love you." She rewards him sometimes with a tongue kiss on the mouth. Prosenjit, who is a prudish Victorian Indian, is both thrilled and shocked.

This is an excellent portrait of obsession. The clear compliancy of Tanya is notable. It suggests not just carelessness or an adolescent meanness, but something sadder, perhaps a self-destructive wish. Of course we feel sorry for her. We are led to feel sorry for both of them, just as we felt sorry for Romeo and Juliet.

Incidentally Tanya's parents eventually sued UC Berkeley, the shrinks in particular, for not warning them that their daughter was in danger. They won a landmark case that makes it mandatory for mental health care workers to warn potential victims if they think their client is dangerous.