Review: The Mistress Of Spices

The Mistress Of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am a huge fan of Divakaruni's writing, but frankly speaking, I am a tad disappointed with this book. The quaint title of the book, "The Mistress of Spices" and the unusual subject it deals with, intrigued me to purchase this book. This is like a modern day fairy-tale, a mixture of modernity and mythology. Though unlike the other novels of Divakaruni, the storyline is quite sluggish. When I was midway through this book, I put it aside for sometime, as the story was moving at a rather slow pace. Then after quite a gap, I started to read it again and finished it. That's why I have given it one star less in rating. There are so many stories intertwined: Ahuja's wife, Haroun, Geeta, Jagjit, each of them has a different story. But the main characters of this novel are the spices, each with it's own distinct characteristics. Divakaruni, as always, weaves magic with her words. And that I think is the charm of her books. I'd like to share some quotes from the book worth remembering:

"Child-longing, deepest desire, deeper than for wealth or lover or even death."

"What answer is there for love."

"..... vanity which is the other face of the fear of being unloved."

"Most ordinary..... is the nature of deepest magic. Deepest magic which lies at the heart of our everyday lives, flickering fire, if only we had eyes to see."

"..... mothers bear the pain that starts with the birthing and continues for ever, the pain and joy both, tangled dark and blue as an umbilical cord around an infant's throat."

"..... does one ever really know what one wants?"

"Hope not built on reason brings disappointment only."

"Each desire in the world is different, as is each love."

View all my reviews