Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni writes about what she knows and feels.
And she is at her best exploring the themes of love, friendship,
assimilation, self-analysis, and discovery. Divakaruni has carved
out a very a special place in Indian literature –-- that of
being a storyteller of immigrants, especially women, who must face
the contradictions between the country they left behind and the one
that they must call home.

In that aspect, the award-winning author and poet's work always
contains autobiographical elements. THE VINE OF DESIRE is a sequel
to her earlier novel SISTER OF MY HEART, in which she explores the
emotional bond between two cousins, Anju and Sudha, whose lives
have been entwined by birth in their native city of Calcutta. We
leave them leading separate lives in America and India,
respectively.

In THE VINE OF DESIRE, devastating events in both of their lives
bring them together: Anju in America has had a miscarriage, and
Sudha has walked out of her in-laws' and husband's house; she has
refused to give in to their command of having an abortion when the
fetus was declared to be a girl. She also is escaping from the
suffocating embrace of her first love and former boyfriend, who
insists on taking care of her and her daughter.

Hurt, aching and saddened by the events of their lives, they reach
out to one another for comfort and affection when Sudha arrives in
California. Complications arise when Anju's husband's Sunil
discovers he is still deeply attracted to Sudha, whom he met on the
night of his marriage to Anju.

The tension between the wife and husband's already broken marriage
and their awareness and self-consciousness of literally having a
third person in the marriage create some nerve-racking moments.
They do not voice their feelings, choosing instead to focus on
Sudha's toddler Dayita, whom everyone adores, especially Sunil, who
forms a special relationship with her.

Sudha is alternately soothed and stifled as she assumes the role of
the maid, cleaning, cooking and caring for the household, as Anju,
forced to deal with her restlessness, goes back to college and
realizes that she can write. This also becomes her escape from her
growing dissatisfaction with her marriage.

In a small two-bedroom apartment, the lives of two women who know
each intimately, a man and his longing, and a child's ability to
adapt to new surroundings unfolds in a tale of sensitivity,
passion, yearning, love, and traditions.

Set in 1994, against the saga of the murders of Nicole Brown
Simpson and Ron Goldman and the focus on O. J. Simpson as the main
suspect, the television loudly and ironically echoes a story of
love, betrayal, jealously, and passion. Riveted by the events, a
transfixed Sunil, who had once harbored an ambition of being a
football player, is too blind to realize that he is being sucked
into almost the same vortex of emotions. We almost cringe as he
stumbles towards his final erroneous judgment.

Divakarani's women characters emerge as people of substance. They
learn to make peace with the events life seems to have thrust on
them, they try to correct their mistakes and they grow as they hope
for some kind of happy ending and closure.

The tormenting emotions that result when the characters choose to
throw the baggage of their culture and create a new identity ---
the choices they make and the interaction they have with the
immigrant community in America and through contact with their
family –-- forces them to question their existence and
morality and find answers.

THE VINE OF DESIRE should be filed under required reading for all
immigrants.