Rating: 
Summary: good material for one episode...
Review: When I first began to read this book I was a little disappointed and a lot confused- the writing style was completely new and jarring, and 3 person/ 1st person flying something or the other. After resting from those first few pages I again picked it up now knowing a bit of what to expect and I plunged it to it.
The story is great, Divakaruni is truly a gifted storyteller, but the constant reference to news stories- particularly the OJ trial was overbearing. It is clear to see that she was trying different things in her writing, and while I appreciate it, there is such thing as overdoing a good joke.
I enojyed the book though- she left room for a continuation, and I wouldnt mind reading about Anju and Sudha again. I love their characters. It's a good book- if you have a chance- read the much better written Sister of my heart and then The vine of desire.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Plot Tedious Writing
Review: When I first began to read this book I was a little disappointed and a lot confused- the writing style was completely new and jarring, and 3 person/ 1st person flying something or the other. After resting from those first few pages I again picked it up now knowing a bit of what to expect and I plunged it to it.
The story is great, Divakaruni is truly a gifted storyteller, but the constant reference to news stories- particularly the OJ trial was overbearing. It is clear to see that she was trying different things in her writing, and while I appreciate it, there is such thing as overdoing a good joke.
I enojyed the book though- she left room for a continuation, and I wouldnt mind reading about Anju and Sudha again. I love their characters. It's a good book- if you have a chance- read the much better written Sister of my heart and then The vine of desire.
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading, but....
Review: While I enjoyed this sequel to "Sister of My Heart", I found that it paled in comparison. It was not as vivid, not as energetic, not as descriptive, yet it sometimes was overdone. I really wish that the author had left this story in India and think that she was more comfortable with a novel that was set there.This book continues the story of Sudha and Anju, cousins raised like sisters in Calcutta. Both have married but Anju and her husband Sunil have emigrated to the United States while Sudha struggles, in vain, to keep her marriage together in India. While Divakaruni's beautiful prose is still front and center, and held my attention most of the time, I found that the story of Sudha's arrival and life in America was just too dragged out. Anju should have known better than to insist that Sudha (and her baby girl) come to live with she and her husband Sunil in their cramped apartment in California. After all, she knew of her husband's attraction to her cousin. At times I felt like yelling at these young women to JUST DO IT. Neither of them were at all decisive and merely let things happen to them. And Sunil was not much better. He seemed more concerned with OJ Simpson than with what was happening under his own roof. There was little communication between the cousins, nor between Sunil and Anju. It was interesting to read about how the young women viewed and tried to adapt to the new culture in which they were living. And I really enjoyed the section of the book when Sudha goes off on her own to nurse an elderly Indian man. This is a lovely and touching section, successfully weaving the immigrant Indian culture with that of the old country.
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