3 Review(s)

The book studies the fiction of Indian-American poet and novelist, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. It presents critical responses by eminent scholars to her stories and novels. The volume is concerned with the diasporic conflict in her works: the roots/origin of the diasporic population and the manner of their development in a new environment. It takes up magic realism as the narrative mode in The Mistress of Spices. It views the themes she explored like womanhood and gender-related violence, tradition and modernity, negotiating identities, politics of resistance, and ethnicity and her characterisation such as of the central character in The Oleander Girl. It compares her as a writer with Jhumpa Lahiri and her works with those of Bharati Mukherjee and Rohinton Mistry.