Customer Reviews

The Vine of Desire

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I loved this book. I also thoroughly enjoyed the first part to this story. It continues the story of Anju and Sudha who are now reunited in America. Anju has suffered a miscarriage and her relationship with her husband, Sunil, is fragile at best. When Sudha arrives in the U.S. and lives with Anju and Sunil, old wounds are reopened and new passions flare.

How all three characters grow and learn makes this story worthwhile.

The writing is beautiful, almost lyrical.

A must read.

I've read all of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's fiction, and have frequently recommended this tremendously gifted writer to my friends. I eagerly awaited this book, only to be disappointed. Sister of My Heart, of course, doesn't need a sequel, and the author herself has said that she considered the story finished. Only many years later after other projects did she find she still had more to say about Anju and Sudha.

And what she has to say is very different from the earlier book. Where Sister affirmed the loving if tangled connections between its characters, Vine finds them tearing each other apart. Unfortunately, there's not enough movement in the story's first half, just an ever-elaborated atmosphere of tension. Worse, the author's trademark sumptuous language is overdone, and it throws off the balance of wordcraft with story. She delivers gem-like descriptions of trash rolling down the street but leaves the characters curiously opaque, their motivations described in artificial and thoroughly unconvincing ways. I never understood why the women acted the way they did, and felt, sadly, that I was missing the drama of present desire contending with past affection, since the loving friendship here threatened was nowhere in evidence. Given these problems with the plot and the characters, I found the language distracting and ineffective, despite some lovely images.

I did however find the book grew stronger and more powerful in the second half, after the uncomfortable menage a trois is broken up and the characters pursue their lives separately. Towards the end Divakaruni delivers some truly moving insights into the emotional realities we all share, reminding me that she's a writer worth listening to, even in her weaker efforts.

Unlike several of the other readers, I don't think the book's shortcomings derive from being set in the US rather than India, because CBD has already shown that she can tell stunning American tales in her two short story collections. Rather, I think it's that she's in a transitional mode, reinventing herself as a writer on a different scope. You can see this in her use of more varied and sophisticated techniques--five narrators (one of them omniscent) give the story a very different, less intimate texture than Sister of My Heart. Other voices crowd in through letters from India and assignments from Anju's creative writing class. CBD's authorial gaze spirals outward to take in the expanse of the city and the San Francisco bay area, the larger world that swirls around her characters. She makes pointed reference to ongoing world events, and tries (rather clumsily) to weave the OJ Simpson trial into her plot. On the whole, her voice is more experimental and self-conscious in its address to the reader. Some of these features I loved (particularly the last chapter told in Lalit's voice) and others I found distracting, but on most of them I reserve judgment. I think they'll work better in her next book.

In summary, I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone who isn't already a Divakaruni fan; Sister of My Heart needs no sequel. I would and do, however, encourage anyone to encounter this talented author through her short stories, collected in Arranged Marriage and (my personal favorite of all her books) The Unknown Errors in Her Lives. And I await her next book with curiosity, eager to see how she grows into her new skin.

This book was certainly as compelling as the first -- Sister of My Heart. This author has a talent for artistry with her writing, weaving a tapestry with words.

Beginning where Sister of My Heart left off, with Sudha starting her new life in America despite pleas from an old love for marriage, this book opens with intensity. Anju's husband Sunil has strong feelings for Sudha, and they are reignited when Sudha moves in with child. Anju and Sunil's marriage has been rocky since the loss of their baby, and Sudha's moving in does not help. The reader has to wonder why Anju or Sudha thought it would, or if in fact they knew it might not, but needed certain truths to be revealed.

Sudha tries to build a life for herself and her baby in America, attempting to date, and to find work. However, Sunil has other plans for her. This said, the triangle between these three comes to a pivitol stage, and Sudha moves out on her own, having found work and a place to live. Anju and Sunil also must work to salvage their lives, whatever paths they may take.

Ultimately, this book is about transformation and growth. It is about expectations vs. reality. And it teaches a lot about the Indian culture, as well as what it is like to be immersed into a completely foreign culture. Sudha experiences a lot of transformation as she realizes the freedoms that come with a culture so different from her own.

Again, at the end, I was left wanting for so much more. I am hoping there is a third to this series in the making, and will be disappointed if there is not. There was so much left unanswered. Three lives have yet to be developed in the new paths they've taken.

Divakaruni does it again. The sequel to SISTER OF MY HEART, which in my honest opinion was off the chart in stars, stands on it's own as a beautiful, rhythmic tale of the two cousins who are now in America. Written in a more flowery hand, intermingled with tales of goddesses and Indian folklore, I was lost in her similes and metaphors.

Suhda and Anju are about to find that hearts can be broken and the ties that bind broken but love endures. Sudha has come to America from Calcutta to make a new life for herself and her baby daughter Dayita. She finds herself in a cramped apartment with her cousin and Anju's husband Sunil who has always loved her from afar. The story though a bit sparse and predictable was tantalizing just the same. The author has a knack for making the cultural expectations clear while letting us feel the disappointments and joys that each character is faced with in this new and changing environment.

Interspersed among the chapters are letters and essays along with a very original way of showing conversation with the unsaid thoughts behind the words that give us insight into the feelings and needs that make the characters what they are. Divakaruni is an original talent to be reckoned with. Kelsana 2/9/02

Anju and Sudha are reunited again when Sudha travels to America to help her sister Anju overcome the loss of her baby. Sudha also plans to make a new life for herself and baby daughter Dayita. But the attraction that had flared just before their double wedding in Calcutta between Sudha and Anju's husband Sunil was still kindling just beneath the surface. It is this slow burning desire between in-laws that sends this household into flames.
The Vine Of Desire stands alone as an extraordinary book. Although those of us who have read Sister Of My Heart may have been looking for the same poignant writing that made us fall in love with Sudha, Anju, the Chatterjee family and India could be a tad disappointed. The writing in The Vine Of Desire, while still talented and graceful, wasn't able to give us the descriptive prose as Divakaruni did when she took us through the sites, smells, and customs of India. Should she have kept the setting in India with this book, I think not, the fact of the matter is how do you truly follow after a book like Sister Of My Heart?
Divakaruni has displayed that she is a masterful writer and I look forward to reading many more of her books.

Vine of Desire continues the story of Anju and Sudha whom we met in Sister of My Heart. Even though Sudha and her daughter Dayita had already arrived in California at the end of the previous book, this book begins before they arrive in America to live with Anju and her husband Sunil. I suppose it was to reorient us and to provide insight into Anju's state of mind after the loss of her child. Sudha's visit was meant to help Anju recover from her grief while providing Sudha the time to think about her future now that she is a divorced single mother. But the hurt and desires of the 3 adults living together is not a recipe for healing and they struggle to find the right path. While America allows many personal freedoms they would not have in India, they are bound by the duty, tradition and honor that their heritage teaches. The obvious love triangle - Sunil is married to Anju, but in love with Sudha - adds a great deal of tension.

The author uses several creative writing techniques in this book that were not present in Sister of My Heart. For the most part, they helped me understand the inner conflicts of the characters. In addition to the alternating chapters which show you the point of view of Sudha and Anju (that I was so fond of in Sister of My Heart) there are first person accounts from several of the men in the book including Sunil and chapters narrated in third person. There are also letters back and forth between the mothers in India, the people in America, Sudha's suitors etc. But several of the writing techniques were annoying. The author frequently lists current events with special focus on the O.J. Simpson murder trial. I understood the point of including these newsflashes, but I found it distracting. She also has a tendency to overwrite a moment by repeating the characters feelings or continuing with descriptions of their feelings for longer than I would have liked.

I have a great deal of respect for the way that the author successfully expanded her writing style and in turn expanded the reading experience. It is essentially successful in spite of the minor flaws. But all the characters are drowning in sorrow and confusion and although the end provides a ray of hope, the book is overall very sad. I do recommend it, but don't read this if you are looking for the charming story about the bonds between women that I found in Sister of My Heart. The bonds are still there, but they are sorely tested.

This book is in no way worth a full set of stars. I have read all of Divakaruni's novels/stories-- if you want good stuff, then stick to her beautifully written collection "Arranged Marriage" or even the prequel to this book "Sister of My Heart" which is much better written. In this novel, she goes overboard with the elements of fantasy and imagination, lacking entirely the magic of the previous novel, drawing the book too far away from any type of realism. This is what I so disliked in "The Mistress of Spices." The characters become flat and one-dimensional. Sunil, the husband, is a pathetic Indian man, Sudha simply a beautiful Indian woman. The plot seems to drag on and on without resolving itself, throwing all the characters into desperation and depression. It also takes its fair share of unnecessary events, especially the addition of a character named "Lalit," a smart and witty Americanized doctor who exists only to reaffirm Sudha's sex appeal (which is already glaringly apparent through Sunil's obsession with her). The changing format of the novel takes on too many forms and becomes confusing and vaguely annoying rather than adding anything to the reading or giving insights into the character's thoughts. The novel comes to a predictable and unsatisfying end... which is completely unsurprising after the way the book read. If you must read it, don't get your hopes up. Really disappointing-- make up your own ending to Sudha and Anju's story.

The Prologue of this novel, a birthing scene, is masterful--a classic example of the canon of fiction in which the writer creates a scene so vibrant and specific that the reader experiences it vicariously and draws conclusions about its characters on his own. Unfortunately, the immediacy of the Prologue is not sustained. In this sequel to Sister of My Heart, the author follows the three main characters after they leave India for the United States, giving the reader some background about them, and also including their large "support system" back home. But characters who were important in the first book (virtually all of them except the triangle of Anju, Sunil, and Sudha) have no direct role in this story at all, and their inclusion here, via letters, diaries, flashbacks, and references, serves as filler, a distraction, rather than as an integral part of the action.

Anju's invitation to her cousin and dearest friend, Sudha, and her baby, to stay with Anju and her husband in their tiny apartment, sets the stage for what might have been an intense study of characters interacting. Instead, the author backs off, "telling about" what's happening, rather than creating scenes. She also "tells about" the characters, rather than allowing us to draw conclusions from the action on our own. Sentences, such as the following, are common: "He should have known by now that Anju wasn't one to hide her meanings," "These are what the people closest to me are afraid of...," followed by a list, or "What fibers of steel are woven into Sudha's will..." Instead of creating intense scenes that directly involve the reader's heart, Divakaruni often becomes cute, involving the reader by addressing him/her directly, "Can you sense inside him the desire for speed?" or, when Sudha gets a letter, "We want Sudha to open her letter, but she goes about her daily chores with exasperating meticulousness," and "Have we underestimated Sudha?"

Though the book is just published in 2002, the author has chosen to set the action in 1994 in order to draw deliberate parallels between what is happening in this triangle and the O.J. Simpson case, with which Sunil is obsessed. This artifice continues when Sunil returns home temporarily to help his mother settle his father's estate: "It is the year of exiles returning home: Arafat to Gaza, Solzhenitsyn to Russia, and Sunil to a childhood he thinks of as an unhealed wound," not exactly comparable events. This is a simple, episodic tale written by an author whose work here lacks the subtlety and clear point of view one has come to expect from her previous writing. Mary Whipple

While Vine of Desire isn't nearly as great as Sister of My heart, it does have a charm all of it's own and completes the story. Sister of My Heart was a moving tale that spanned years, while this story was only a few months worth of life. Like another reviewer mentioned, I wished she would have stayed in India with her story.

At times I felt it was overdone, too flowery. Sometimes it was confusing who she was writing about. Other than those drawbacks, I'd recommend this book to those fans of Sister of My Heart, and most importantly if you haven't read Sister of My heart that's a must!! It is by far the best book I read last year, full of emotion and beauty.

Before turning the first page of this novel filled with luminous imagery and a language elegantly filled with poetic pleasures, there are two things to keep in mind:
1. This is a sequel to the novel, Sister of My Heart, where the returning characters Anju, Sudha, Sunil, and Ashok, first took on their shape and into our minds.
2. Time has passed, aging each character with deeper issues and stronger emotions.
The book opens with Anju's miscarriage and the arrival of her cousin, Sudha, along with her daughter, Dayita, to stay with Anju and Sunil in their tiny apt. in SFO. Sunil's desire for Sudha is reignited and so the journey begins inside the lives of the four main characters--carefully exploring their paths and unfolding into their complicated lives.
The brilliance of this book lies in the fact that Mrs. Divakaruni has not only taken us inside the lives of all the characters seamlessly, but through the minds of the individuals themselves.
I was pleasantly surprised with the way Mrs. Divakaruni told the story. Since the majority of the book is told through the characters voices and thoughts(even baby Dayita!), I found myself thinking differently--from their point of view and not my preconcieved notions about them. The choices they were making in their own lives made sense, since it was explained from their own perspective.
The Vine of Desire has a style of it's own. The story is rich, powerful(her abilitiy to help us understand human emotions using metaphors is brilliant), yet told with such simplicity and opulence.
Unlike Sister of My Heart, which was set in Calcutta, this novel is set in America, collaborating the different cultures, while expanding choices for the two women who are learning to liberate themseves from years of trained behavior.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. There was(just enough) a lingering taste of India and glimpses of their family back home through letters, yet the story unwrapped itself with a perfect pitch, focusing on lives that are in transistion--the many changes, the difficult choices--all of which are time-consuming, life-changing, and at times heart-wrenching.