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Summary: An adolecent, self-important tale of lust and longing...
Review: The "Mistress of Spices"...An all too-predictable, somewhat smug tale of loneliness and longing...The lust for a slice of Real America and all the "positives" that image or concept the protaganist desperately wishes were true...Sappy, verbose, pompous, mediocre and suprisingly adolescent in tone and plot. Forgettable...If it weren't "Indian" it would not have made the "bestsellers" list. Is this the Age of Deepak Chopra? None of the "reverb", haunting imagery, or power of Roy's "...Small Things". This book wasn't challenging in any way, shape or form. Perhaps I should have bought the paperback version.
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Summary: Everyone should read or hear this story.
Review: I actually borrowed the cassettes from a customer.
I never dreamed that this story would make me feel the way I do. I feel awakened and inspired. The magical way that Divakaruni chooses her words to describe Tilo's memories, feelings, and her concerns are extrodinary. It has been a long time since I have read or even listened to a book that has made me feel like I was actually there, seeing, feeling, and experiencing the story as it was told.
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Summary: Chitra Feature in Bold Type (www.boldtype.com)
Review: Read two original essays and an excerpt of THE MISTRESS OF SPICES on Bold Type at www.boldtype.com
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Summary: Excellent book; highly recommended
Review: Thiis is a fairy tale for adults, complete with sea serpents, pirates, a distant, magical land -- and a handsome stranger who possesses a special magic of his own with which he frees the heroine from enchantment. And yet Tilo, the Mistress of Spices, is not a passive victim waiting for rescue. She is a headstrong and willful magician who freely chooses her fate; then, when she can no longer bear the consequences of that choice, actively summons her champion to rescue her. With her command of and simultaneous enslavement by the spices, Tilo both wields power and is herself overpowered. A most intriguing woman -- a most intriguing book
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Summary: Definitely worth reading
Review: The book flows very well. The realism of lives revealed to Tilo is chilling. I was specially dumb sturk by the story of Lalita. The cause of battered women, especially Indian is usually lost in honor and societal pressures. It is very difficult for members of an individualistic culture to understand the societal demands placed on a Indian woman. With her really great manner of writting, Ms. Divakaruni is able to present the case in simple terms. Even though the book flows very well, I think the ending of the book did not do justice to the rest of book. It was the sort of anticlimax I was not expecting and was not prepared for. The reason for Raven to come after Tilo was not strong enough. Reason for Tilo's intense desire for Raven still needed work. On the whole, however, the book is worth reading. I will never walk into an Indian grocery store and look at the woman behind the counter the same way agai
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Summary: How I came to write The Mistress of Spices
Review: I wrote this novel after a near-death experience I had at the birth of my youngest son two and a half years ago. Lying very ill in the hospital, I had a sensation of floating between different lives, and a vision that our existences are indeed made up of more than just this one life that we are aware of living. I wanted to write a book that would capture this experience, and thus would necessarily be very different from anything I'd done previously. So in this book I move into the realm of magic and myth and draw upon many of the tales I'd heard growing up in Bengal, combining their lyricism with the harsh language of inner-city America. My heroine is a woman who undergoes a number of death-like experiences in mythic lands before ending up in a little Indian grocery in Oakland, California. In this novel I also wanted to explore the relationships between different ethnic groups in America and the Indian community--something I had not done in Arranged Marriage--thus the novel features, among others, Chicanos, African Americans and Native Americans. I took a lot of risks here. It will be interesting for me to discover what the world thinks of it
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Summary: The journey from expatriate to citizen
Review: I, for one, will never again take my spices for granted, thanks to Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's wondrous new novel "The Mistress of Spices." I now know that the dry red chili "was born of Agni, god of Fire to bring taste to this bland world," and "is a cleanser of evil for when there is no other way." I also know that "peppercorn, has the ability to sweat the secrets out of you," and that fenugreek "renders the body sweet again, ready for love."
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning poet and author of the much acclaimed collection of short stories "Arranged Marriage." "The Mistress of Spices" is her first novel which combines her ebullient prose with her gift for poetry. Part Laura Esquivel's magical "Like Water for Chocolate" and part Marion Zimmer Bradley's reimagining of the Arthurian legends "The Mists of Avalon," "The Mistress of Spices" is one immigrant woman's journey from established traditional paradigms of the past to an uncharted future in America. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has crafted a splendid Coming-to-America novel that explores the grim realities of urban decay within a lush framework of magic, pirates, enchanted islands, Indian mythology, and the mystical powers of spices and herbs.
Tilo, short for Tilottama, named "after the sun-burnished sesame seed, spice of nourishment," has had many lives and many names. A precocious and willful girl-child with supernatural powers, she can read the hearts and minds of people, and "change their luck" with the touch of her hand. Her fame spreads far and wide until she is abducted by pillaging pirates. However, the resourceful Tilo overthrows the chief and quickly becomes queen of the buccaneers.
Soon she is bored and sets her sights for more. She wills herself a shipwreck and is saved by snakes who tell her about the enchanted island of spices ruled by the "Old One," also known as "First Mother." She responds to the call of spices and serves as an initiate-sorceress under the tutelage of the "Old One," much like Morgaine, King Arthur's half-sister who learns sorcery and witchcraft from Viviane, priestess of the enchanted land of Avalon and Lady of the Lake.
And while "Mists of Avalon" is a story of profound conflict between Christianity and the old religion of Avalon, the worship of Mother Goddess, "The Mistress of Spices" presents the dilemma of negotiating one's cultural and biological identity with the drama of alienation and self transformation in an adopted homeland, i.e. America.
After undergoing the last rite, a baptism by fire, Tilo is transmigrated into the body of an aging woman who runs an Indian grocery store in Oakland, California. "Wise woman shaman herb-healer, come to make things right" Tilo, is allowed to work her spells and magic only within the confines of her rundown grocery store and only on her Indian immigrant customers. Tilo must remain aloof and refrain from any human touch. "Tilo the architect of immigrant dream. Lifegiver, restorer of health and hope." Here, Divakaruni weaves compelling stories of adversities, defeats and triumphs in the lives of the characters that populate her store and her novel. Some of the stories reflect persistent struggles within the Indian diaspora of North America, like domestic violence, racism, intergenerational discord, and the endless effort to absorb and be absorbed in a new environment.
But Divakaruni's inquiry into transculturalism is at once allusive, subtle and lyrical which cuts through the Indian stereotypes and presents the reader with powerful allegories of transformation and change, for example "Daksha to whom no one listens so she has forgotten how to say," is the workhorse in the family hierarchy of an aging mother-in-law and a husband who will not help around the house. Daksha is a nurse in the AIDS ward. Tilo ministers to Daksha through her spices. "Daksha here is seed of black pepper to be boiled whole and drunk to loosen your throat so you can learn to say No, that word so hard for Indian women. No, and Hear Me Now." Tilo gives Manu, "a senior at Ridgefield High" a "slab of sesame candy made with sweet molasses, gur to slow you down just enough to hear the frightened love in your father's voice losing you to America" when he is not allowed to attend the school prom.
And the story of ten and a half year old Jagjit who is traumatized at school, will break your heart. "Talk English sonofabitch. Speak up nigger wetback asshole." At school he is jeered at and physically harassed for wearing a green turban and at home he is rebuked by an impatient mother who refuses to understand her son's predicament. It is no wonder that in time, the boy will be sucked into the underbelly of street gangs and a false sense of invulnerability. Equally poignant is the story of Mohan who is severely beaten by skinheads while closing his restaurant for the night. Betrayed by American justice when the thugs are acquitted, Mohan smashes everything in sight and returns to India a broken man.
But Tilo's magical prowess begins to crumble when she is drawn to the mysterious Raven, "the lonely American," who walks into her store. Tilo is unable to penetrate his psyche and must break all her vows to taste the forbidden fruit. And while "First Mother" may represent a mythical pull for the security of one's cultural and emotional ties to India, the land of birth, "the lonely American" becomes the call to explore and forge a new identity in America's vast multicultural landscape.
Raven's hatred of his mother begins when he uncovers the dark secret of her ruse to pass as a White American while making every effort to distance herself from her Native American heritage. But it is in this story of Raven, the half Native and half European-American that Divakaruni loses her voice and her poetry. One gets a sense here that Divakaruni may have stepped out of her element.
But no matter. The reader will soon be happily jerked back to the twittering of the "bougainvillea girls." The-shop-till-you-drop daughters of wealth with everything but matter between their ears, are India's answer to the San Fernando "Valley Girls" immortalized by Frank Zappa and his daughter Moon.
Divakaruni is an informed writer. She presents the disruptiveness of change and the power, beauty, strength and validity of redefining one's own individual identity within a broader universal context. Myth comes to life in "The Mistress of Spices" and magic illuminates us all.
And now, I must remember on Sundays, when I "pray to the nine planets for love and luck," to rub in turmeric on "cheek, forehead, chin. It will erase blemishes and wrinkles, suck away age and fat."
Reviewed by Amy Dadichandji Laly
International Examiner
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Summary: Magic mixed with reality.
Review: This book is my favorite by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Whereas her short stories all seem to end with depressing ending, this book does the complete opposite and leaves the readers with a complete sense of hope. It's the story of Tilo and how she incorporates her enchanted world into the mundane lives of those that need her help. She uses her magical spices and her powers that were granted to her to help those around her. It's a modern day fairy tale that throws mystical elements into an ordinary California town and Divakaruni writes it so magnificently, that the magical world seems believable. The stories of those that Tilo helps, tugged at my heartstrings and I found myself empathizing with more then one character. But most of all, I found myself empathizing with Tilo as she goes on her journey to find her place in the world and what she is truly meant to do. This is a heart warming story full of rich characters that the author writes with very colorful and precise details. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
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Summary: a fairytale for adults...
Review: I loved this book!! It's almost like a fairy-tale for adults, Tilo (the mistress of spices & the protagonist) is reminiscent of an indian cindarella & fairy godmother rolled into one (read the book & you'll see why..:) Just like in fairytales, the moral of this story is: do good and good will come to you. Two of the main themes in this book are power and the immigrant experience (in this case the indian immigrant experience, which I thought the author does a great job portraying) Ms. Dovakaruni mixes reality & fantasy and the result is enchanting. This is the first book I read by her & it will definitely not be the last!!
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Summary: Magic mixed with reality.
Review: This book is my favorite by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Whereas her short stories all seem to end with depressing ending, this book does the complete opposite and leaves the readers with a complete sense of hope. It's the story of Tilo and how she incorporates her enchanted world into the mundane lives of those that need her help. She uses her magical spices and her powers that were granted to her to help those around her. It's a modern day fairy tale that throws mystical elements into an ordinary California town and Divakaruni writes it so magnificently, that the magical world seems believable. The stories of those that Tilo helps, tugged at my heartstrings and I found myself empathizing with more then one character. But most of all, I found myself empathizing with Tilo as she goes on her journey to find her place in the world and what she is truly meant to do. This is a heart warming story full of rich characters that the author writes with very colorful and precise details. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
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