The Mistress Of Spices: Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize

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What do the characters in Divakaruni's novels and stories lose and gain as they become more "American"?

How does the Indian immigrant experience compare to that of other immigrants—Spanish, Italian, Chinese? Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning author and poet. Her themes include the Indian experience, contemporary America, women, immigration, history, myth, and the joys and challenges of living in a multicultural world. Her work is widely known, as she has been published in over 50 magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, and her writing has been included in over 50 anthologies. Her works have been translated into 29 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Hindi and Japanese. Divakaruni also writes for children and young adults.Her novels One Amazing Thing, Oleander Girl, Sister of My Heart and Palace of Illusions are currently in the process of being made into movies. http://www.chitradivakaruni.com/books.... Her newest novel is Before We Visit the Goddess (about 3 generations of women-- grandmother, mother and daughter-- who each examine the question "what does it mean to be a successful woman.") Simon & Schuster. Writing is so central to my life that it leaves little time/desire/need for other interests. I do a good amount of work with domestic violence organizations—I'm on the advisory board of Asians Against Domestic Violence in Houston. I feel very strongly about trying to eradicate domestic violence from our society. Protagonist Tilo is a haughty, rebellious old woman who can speak to spices and draw upon their power. It may help to imagine her as a brown Professor Trelawney in a patched up sari. The story itself is based upon how Indian superstitions, the culture and use of spices has influenced the western world, and is aimed at NRIs based in America. It shows us a piece of life of various kinds of people struggling to survive in a foreign land.There were strict rules in keeping her magic powers. She knows that... "A good hand is not too light, nor too heavy. Light hands are the wind's creatures, flung this way and that at its whim. Heavy hands, pulled downward by their own weight, have no spirit. They are only slabs of meat for the maggots waiting underground."

The eponymous ‘Mistress of Spices’ is Tilottama, an old woman—old on the outside only—who has been magically transported to America from an island, where she and other young women were trained in the magic of spices by an Old Mistress. Here in America, ‘Tilo’ dispenses spices, other Indian ingredients and handicrafts, advice and magic to smoothen out the lives of the people who visit the store she runs. People, nearly all of them Indian, for some of whom the immigrant dream has soured, and others who face varying problems… and there’s the American, Raven, whom Tilo lusts after. But the Spices are suddenly angry and jealous, and things soon start to go sour in her relationships with her other customers. Haroun gets in an accident, Geeta's family situation does not improve, Jagjit falls in with the wrong crowd at school, and Kwesi's girlfriend breaks up with him. Doug comes to meet her that night and sadly tells her that his Native American-born mother had died.

You've got to believe a little bit in magic and fairy tales for this book. But there is enough realism embedded in the story to keep you captured. Add a cup of mysticism and a few pinches of romance, and you've got the Spice shop in Oakland California. From the outside it is just another shop from an old Indian immigrant lady selling them. However, it is soon clear that these spices are not only the exotic, culinary delights of the Indian cuisine that we love. In Divakaruni's stories, women are wives and mothers, but the men are portrayed primarily as husbands, not fathers. How are the men's roles in the novels similar to or different from those in the stories?

Divakaruni was born in India and came to the United States at 19. She put herself through Berkeley doing odd jobs, from working at an Indian boutique to slicing bread in a bakery. She lives in Houston, Texas, and teaches creative writing at the University of Houston. ( Adapted from the publisher.)

The New York Times Book Review states that The Mistress of Spices"becomes a novel about choosing between a life of special powers and one of ordinary love and compassion." Did Tilo choose correctly? Why or why not?