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Nov. 8th, 2010 11:18 amDo you ever have that slightly-awkward feeling, when you're reading a book, that the author thinks they are writing very poetic prose and it does not quite hit that way for you? I thought Chitra Banerjee Divarakuni's book Mistress of Spices was a lot of fun, but every so often the prose would veer into this place where - well, I guess it's like when someone wears very trendy clothes that you can't help but feel look a bit silly. On the other hand maybe I just have difficulty taking vengeful sinister talking spices as seriously as I should.
Also - and perhaps this is just me - but if you are going to have a period in your protagonist's life in which she was a PIRATE QUEEN, dude, do not skim over that with an offhand mention! OWN THAT PIRATE QUEEN THING. Although, on the other hand, I did find it kind of hilarious how the first three chapters were like "and then I was a priestess and then I was a pirate queen and then I was rescued by talking sea serpents AND NOW I LIVE IN CALIFORNIA OKAY GO."
So, Tilo, after a VERY EVENTFUL childhood, now lives in LA [ETA:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nextian points out that it is actually Oakland! I know these places are different, I swear, I really did spend four years in California], where she's the proprietor of one of those magical little shops that show up in novels occasionally for the wizened old shopkeeper to dispense What Our Protagonist Needs. And I did think it was really cool, for a novel to focus on the person who runs one of those shops, and is supposed to be a facilitator for everybody else's stories and now would like to have her own; that's one of the many things I really did like about this book. In this case mostly what she dispenses is spices, because basically Tilo is a SPICE JEDI. Her spices give her magic psychic powers that she can use to help the Indian immigrant community in which she is rooted, and in return she is not supposed to have any particular feelings other than dispassionate goodwill towards her fellow-men, because feelings lead to friendship! and friendship leads to love! and love leads to UNSPECIFIED DISASTER.
But of course Tilo would like to have friendship and love and all those things (and I have to say, it does seem like a poor plan to pick up a bunch of young women and send them all out individually to be Spice Jedi by themselves, even if the magic makes them look wizened and old; at least nuns have the communal support and peer pressure of their convents!) and gradually gets involved in a number of people's lives and starts to Step Off the Path. I really liked her friendships with her various customers, and how she tries to help them find ways to live in the US without losing themselves while struggling with the same thing herself. I cared significantly less about her romance with a sexy angsty American with mommy and identity issues named RAVEN (!!!). Raven also spends a fair bit of time rhapsodizing about how ~exotic~ Tilo is and how much he loves her ~less materialistic~ culture, and while Tilo does call him on the fact that this is skeevy, it is still not enough for me. (Also, HILARIOUSLY, apparently there is a film version in which he is played by Patrick Dempsey [ETA: Apparently actually Dylan McDermott! I CAN'T TELL THEM APART OKAY], whom I take approximately as seriously as I take Tilo-call-me-Raven-it-is-the-true-name-of-my-heart.)
So - as you can tell probably from the fact that this may be the least coherent review ever - my feelings were mixed, but overall I did like the book and may be reading more by the author. (But instead of the romance I would much rather have read the book about TILO, THE PIRATE QUEEN SPICE JEDI WHO TALKS TO SEA SERPENTS.)
Also - and perhaps this is just me - but if you are going to have a period in your protagonist's life in which she was a PIRATE QUEEN, dude, do not skim over that with an offhand mention! OWN THAT PIRATE QUEEN THING. Although, on the other hand, I did find it kind of hilarious how the first three chapters were like "and then I was a priestess and then I was a pirate queen and then I was rescued by talking sea serpents AND NOW I LIVE IN CALIFORNIA OKAY GO."
So, Tilo, after a VERY EVENTFUL childhood, now lives in LA [ETA:
nextian points out that it is actually Oakland! I know these places are different, I swear, I really did spend four years in California], where she's the proprietor of one of those magical little shops that show up in novels occasionally for the wizened old shopkeeper to dispense What Our Protagonist Needs. And I did think it was really cool, for a novel to focus on the person who runs one of those shops, and is supposed to be a facilitator for everybody else's stories and now would like to have her own; that's one of the many things I really did like about this book. In this case mostly what she dispenses is spices, because basically Tilo is a SPICE JEDI. Her spices give her magic psychic powers that she can use to help the Indian immigrant community in which she is rooted, and in return she is not supposed to have any particular feelings other than dispassionate goodwill towards her fellow-men, because feelings lead to friendship! and friendship leads to love! and love leads to UNSPECIFIED DISASTER. But of course Tilo would like to have friendship and love and all those things (and I have to say, it does seem like a poor plan to pick up a bunch of young women and send them all out individually to be Spice Jedi by themselves, even if the magic makes them look wizened and old; at least nuns have the communal support and peer pressure of their convents!) and gradually gets involved in a number of people's lives and starts to Step Off the Path. I really liked her friendships with her various customers, and how she tries to help them find ways to live in the US without losing themselves while struggling with the same thing herself. I cared significantly less about her romance with a sexy angsty American with mommy and identity issues named RAVEN (!!!). Raven also spends a fair bit of time rhapsodizing about how ~exotic~ Tilo is and how much he loves her ~less materialistic~ culture, and while Tilo does call him on the fact that this is skeevy, it is still not enough for me. (Also, HILARIOUSLY, apparently there is a film version in which he is played by Patrick Dempsey [ETA: Apparently actually Dylan McDermott! I CAN'T TELL THEM APART OKAY], whom I take approximately as seriously as I take Tilo-call-me-Raven-it-is-the-true-name-of-my-heart.)
So - as you can tell probably from the fact that this may be the least coherent review ever - my feelings were mixed, but overall I did like the book and may be reading more by the author. (But instead of the romance I would much rather have read the book about TILO, THE PIRATE QUEEN SPICE JEDI WHO TALKS TO SEA SERPENTS.)
