Leaving Yuba City
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
List Price: $13.95
Pages: 112
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0385488548
Publisher: Anchor
"My writing reflects my poetry....I am always conscious of rhythms."
-- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni on her work
With her writing, whether in a novel, short story, or poem, Chitra Banerjee
Divakaruni casts a spell. Her words flow swiftly, sweeping readers along;
at times they whisper softly, tempting, at others they thunder emphatically,
daring. Throughout her work, Divakaruni uses her chameleon-like voice
and mastery of rhythm to create unforgettable characters and weave stories
that are both exotic and familiar, at once fresh and universal.
"There is a certain spirituality, not necessarily religious -- the
essence of spirituality -- that is at the heart of the Indian psyche,
that finds the divine in everything . . . . It was important for me to
start writing about my own reality and that of my community."
-- The author on being Indian
Divakaruni, a devout Hindu, attended a convent school in India run by
Irish nuns before she came to the United States in 1976. Most of Sister
Of My Heart takes place in Calcutta, while in The Mistress of Spices
and in her collection of short stories, Arranged Marriage, Chitra
explores the immigrant experience through Indian women in American cities.
Whether set in India or America, Divakaruni's plots feature Indian-born
women torn between old and new world values. She gives uses her laser-like
insight and skilled use of story, plot, and lyrical description to give
readers a many-layered look at her characters and their respective worlds,
which are filled with fear, hope, and discovery. Whether in California,
Chicago, or Calcutta, women learn to adapt to their new and changing culture
and, as a result, discover their own sense of self amidst joy and heartbreak.
"I'll share a secret with you. It's always like hanging at the edge
of a cliff."
-- The author on combining writing, teaching, marriage, and raising children
Divakaruni did not write fiction until she finished her doctoral studies
in English at the University of California at Berkeley. In speaking of
her path to fiction writing, she notes that academic writing didn't "...[T]ouch
my heart. It had nothing to do with my real life as an immigrant woman
in America."
Unlike many of her heroines in Arranged Marriage, she chose her
own husband, and she praises his support for the work she does. They have
two children.
Sister of My Heart, and another book of stories. She has published four other volumes of poetry, including Leaving Yuba City (available from Anchor Books). Arranged Marriage was awarded the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Prize for Fiction, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for Fiction, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. The Mistress of Spices was shortlisted for the Orange Prize (England) and chosen by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best books of 1997.
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