This is my first post after testing.
Silence was dominating thus far.
I have been quietly reading "Sister of My Heart" and its sequel "Vine of Desire" by Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni. She is a Bengali Author who has been living in the United States since 1976. She is a part of my parents' generation and yet she has her finger on the pulse of every generation of Indians in the US. She hits very close to home sometimes although she always talks about Bengalis. Superficially, Bengalis are nothing like us (us being Kannadigas, Tamilians, Punjabis, Gujrathis, Rajasthanis, Malayalis..etc etc). Ok, well they must be something like us... I would like to talk about her emotional revelations at some point but not now. Right now I want to discuss the literary tools that she uses.
This book is unique in that it is written from two people's perspective, alternating by chapter. The two people are "sisters", not real sisters, but something like cousins who grow up together, who are born on the same day. Anju and Sudha. What could this tool achieve? It could give you two sides of the same coin, two memories of the same time period, it could clarify the misunderstandings of both people to the reader. Why is it that Divakaruni can't write this novel in third person then? She writes other emotionally spun stories in third person, case and point, her short stories in "Unknown Errors of Our Lives". I think its mostly because she wants us to "panic" with the person. She uses the same "panic" or "truth" voice in "Mistress of Spices." In the Mistress of Spices the first-person-woman often says things to herself in fragments which are warnings, omens, intuitions etc. These fragments usually have some type of "urgent sound" to them. Tilo's inner voice says things like "Don't do this Tilo, it will ruin you!" to herself. These phrases are written in italics and that I believe is the main reason she uses first person or alternating first person in both these stories. The imperative form is much more forceful than third person. Compare the earlier warning to "Tilo felt that undertaking action x would bring about her ruin."
Vine of Desire is not a well-written story. She ruins the beautifully constructed characters and plotline from the previous book. She uses very gaudy literary tools that don't seem to work properly. In this book Anju is in College in the US and in some of the chapters she uses "letters" that Anju writes to the father that she has never met. Other chapters contain assignments from her classes which Anju seems to undertake in a very 3rd-grade style. Why would a person in a college english class write in this immature 3rd grade style? Its just not convincing.
In this book Divakaruni switches between about 5 people's perspectives. I find Sunil's perspective especially disingenuous. He often says words like "kiddo" in his head and has a sort of Americanized 2nd generation way of speaking. It sounds really silly and weak. However, he idealizes Sudha and still seems very freshly Indian, complete with the acceptance and support of the overbearing traditional culture that she portrays in Bengal. We understand that although he is relatively progressive and Americanized, he still has some sort of soft spot for idealized Indian beauty. We already know this from the storyline and don't need it hammered into our heads with his ridiculous speaking style. Also, why did he give that performance in the first book to win over Anju? He didnt even know her yet, this too does not add up. Sudha of course is the character that makes no sense at all and seems more and more irritatingly irrational as the novel goes along. My hunch is that this "world of folly" was something of a fantasy for Divakaruni. Perhaps she wishes Indians would take more emotional risks, make more dating-mistakes and follow fewer mating rules. She projects this fantasy in the form of an awkward pointless novel. If she really needs to work on her literary tools then a novel is probably not the place to do it. Maybe she should work on her experiments in her own time at home so as not to spoil the other beautiful book and characters.
Silence was dominating thus far.
I have been quietly reading "Sister of My Heart" and its sequel "Vine of Desire" by Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni. She is a Bengali Author who has been living in the United States since 1976. She is a part of my parents' generation and yet she has her finger on the pulse of every generation of Indians in the US. She hits very close to home sometimes although she always talks about Bengalis. Superficially, Bengalis are nothing like us (us being Kannadigas, Tamilians, Punjabis, Gujrathis, Rajasthanis, Malayalis..etc etc). Ok, well they must be something like us... I would like to talk about her emotional revelations at some point but not now. Right now I want to discuss the literary tools that she uses.
This book is unique in that it is written from two people's perspective, alternating by chapter. The two people are "sisters", not real sisters, but something like cousins who grow up together, who are born on the same day. Anju and Sudha. What could this tool achieve? It could give you two sides of the same coin, two memories of the same time period, it could clarify the misunderstandings of both people to the reader. Why is it that Divakaruni can't write this novel in third person then? She writes other emotionally spun stories in third person, case and point, her short stories in "Unknown Errors of Our Lives". I think its mostly because she wants us to "panic" with the person. She uses the same "panic" or "truth" voice in "Mistress of Spices." In the Mistress of Spices the first-person-woman often says things to herself in fragments which are warnings, omens, intuitions etc. These fragments usually have some type of "urgent sound" to them. Tilo's inner voice says things like "Don't do this Tilo, it will ruin you!" to herself. These phrases are written in italics and that I believe is the main reason she uses first person or alternating first person in both these stories. The imperative form is much more forceful than third person. Compare the earlier warning to "Tilo felt that undertaking action x would bring about her ruin."
Vine of Desire is not a well-written story. She ruins the beautifully constructed characters and plotline from the previous book. She uses very gaudy literary tools that don't seem to work properly. In this book Anju is in College in the US and in some of the chapters she uses "letters" that Anju writes to the father that she has never met. Other chapters contain assignments from her classes which Anju seems to undertake in a very 3rd-grade style. Why would a person in a college english class write in this immature 3rd grade style? Its just not convincing.
In this book Divakaruni switches between about 5 people's perspectives. I find Sunil's perspective especially disingenuous. He often says words like "kiddo" in his head and has a sort of Americanized 2nd generation way of speaking. It sounds really silly and weak. However, he idealizes Sudha and still seems very freshly Indian, complete with the acceptance and support of the overbearing traditional culture that she portrays in Bengal. We understand that although he is relatively progressive and Americanized, he still has some sort of soft spot for idealized Indian beauty. We already know this from the storyline and don't need it hammered into our heads with his ridiculous speaking style. Also, why did he give that performance in the first book to win over Anju? He didnt even know her yet, this too does not add up. Sudha of course is the character that makes no sense at all and seems more and more irritatingly irrational as the novel goes along. My hunch is that this "world of folly" was something of a fantasy for Divakaruni. Perhaps she wishes Indians would take more emotional risks, make more dating-mistakes and follow fewer mating rules. She projects this fantasy in the form of an awkward pointless novel. If she really needs to work on her literary tools then a novel is probably not the place to do it. Maybe she should work on her experiments in her own time at home so as not to spoil the other beautiful book and characters.
posted by S at 2:02 AM
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