LITERARY MAGIC IN A SPICY TALE.Byline: Jeannine Perriseau Special to the Daily News Title: ``The Mistress of Spices'' Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (1956 - ) is an Indian-American author, poet, and professor of English at The University of Houston Creative Writing Program. Background Divakaruni was born in Kolkata, India. She received her B.A. from the University of Calcutta in 1976. Data: 338 pages, Anchor Books; $22.95 Our rating: Four Stars Those who enjoy reading a book for the beauty of language as much as for a good story will consider ``The Mistress of Spices'' by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni a great find. The story is exotic, tracing the adventures of a girl born with magical powers. An ugly child, she brings her native Indian village to its knees with her ability to punish and reward. She is brutally kidnapped by pirates who have learned of her powers, and she goes on to rule the pirates with the same brutality they turned loose on her. Eventually she grows bored with her own powers and abandons the pirates for an enchanted en·chant tr.v. en·chant·ed, en·chant·ing, en·chants 1. To cast a spell over; bewitch. 2. To attract and delight; entrance. See Synonyms at charm. island. On the island, a mystical figure called the First Mother tutors girls in the magical healing powers of spices. After rigorous training, the girls are given eternal life and the ability to see into people's hearts and read their minds. The girls take vows to keep themselves apart from humankind altogether - in fact, they are forbidden to even touch another human or glimpse themselves in a mirror. They each are renamed and sent to far-flung corners of the Earth to practice their art and alleviate human suffering. Named Tilo, she is sent in an old woman's body to an Indian grocery store in Oakland. From the musty store in her decrepit de·crep·it adj. Weakened, worn out, impaired, or broken down by old age, illness, or hard use. See Synonyms at weak. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin d old woman's body, Tilo secretly treats all the sad, lonely, despairing people who enter by giving them various spices. Each chapter is named for a spice, whose powers Tilo makes use of in some way. Divakaruni depicts the various customers who cannot mask their inner turmoil, and Tilo's absorption of that turmoil and pain, with real grace and emotion. Divakaruni's penchant for fragmentary sentences underscores a sense of these characters' fluttering thoughts and adrenalized The subject of this article may not satisfy the notability guideline for Music. If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand or rewrite the article to establish its notability. stress. Their stories include those of an Indian woman who cannot get pregnant and is beaten by her husband, a young Indian woman disowned dis·own tr.v. dis·owned, dis·own·ing, dis·owns To refuse to acknowledge or accept as one's own; repudiate. by her parents for falling in love with a Latino man, and an Indian storekeeper attacked by a racist street gang. Many of the characters grapple with how to become Americanized and fit in without losing their Indian sense of identity and tradition. The story swivels on Tilo's eventual inability to keep herself removed from humankind. The tug of emotion and the need to be loved is Tilo's undoing; she fundamentally breaks her vows by involving her own desires in the use of her spice powers when she falls in love with an American named Raven. The last third of the book focuses on Tilo and Raven's idealized i·de·al·ize v. i·de·al·ized, i·de·al·iz·ing, i·de·al·iz·es v.tr. 1. To regard as ideal. 2. To make or envision as ideal. v.intr. 1. love affair, and it grows a bit melodramatic. After handsome Raven falls in love with Tilo in her saggy old woman's body, she is briefly transformed into a picture of earthly beauty that intimidates him. She is then lightly punished by the spices and transformed yet again into an ordinary looking middle-aged woman in an apocalyptic earthquake scene that rocks the Bay Area. While Divakaruni could obviously be compared to Isabel Allende For the Chilean politician and daughter of Salvador Allende, see . Isabel Allende Llona, (born 2 August 1942), is a Chilean novelist. Allende, who writes in the "magic realism" tradition, is considered one of the first successful women novelists in Latin America. and Laura Esquivel Laura Esquivel (born September 30, 1950) is a Mexican author. She was born the third of four children of Julio César Esquivel, a telegraph operator, and his wife Josefa Valdés. for the dreaminess of her prose and strong imagination, the effect of her writing is closer to American Indian American Indian or Native American or Amerindian or indigenous American Any member of the various aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of the Eskimos (Inuit) and the Aleuts. writer Louise Erdrich. Divakaruni juxtaposes the hard realities of everyday life with the magical to celebrate the human experience with its pain and agony and corresponding joy and ecstasy. This is a book with soul - and with the power to not just entertain, but transport the reader to other worlds. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author of ``The Mistress of Spices The Mistress of Spices, (1997), set in contemporary Oakland, California is a novel by Indian American writer and University of Houston Creative Writing Program professor Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. .'' |
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