The Henna Artist

 

This was night and day from an earlier month’s  novel debacle, “The Thursday Muder Club”, an aimless story.  

“The Henna Artist” is a flowing, lyrical narrative  - well-organized with a theme, and plots. 

Author Joshi has focused her novel on creating a fictional memoir of her mother. 

Joshi was successful at weaving little vignettes to advance plot lines.  The author had a greater overall theme and has turned this into a trilogy.

Henna is readable at three levels:

a)             Each vignette is a joy to read because of the poetically descriptive language, but also prosaically written because of the meanings and moral of each mini story

b)           On a thematic level, each adventure reassures us, that Lakshmi will persevere – she has the strength of seven oxen – and that these morals are lessons of life.

c)     One can read the love, devotion, and respect that the daughter pays to the mother through this book. We read the open-hearted questions on a myriad of life’s lessons, such as:

1)   Yes baby – No baby                          2) Son Baby – Daughter baby

3)   healthy baby                                       4) Aborted baby

 

No one sits in judgement on these issues, certainly not Lakshmi nor Medical Doctors.  She simply provides alternative medicines and procedures.

All these thoughts are still today’s issues.

Joshi’s writing is exquisite – crafted by a professional, taking her time with each sentence, each paragraph, and each exploit.  She also has a well-thought-out theme, and plots that flow like a river.

I particularly enjoyed her depiction of the palace when she moved up a notch and was invited to display her abilities.  We share her impressions of the wealthy and frivolous characters, but also the reality that we are all alike – there are no natural schisms. 

Her caste distinctions are no different than the British or European class distinctions; and religious hatred has been here in the West forever; the USA has especial focus on racial separatism.

I thought it was uniquely introspective of the author to have Lakshmi lose track of her younger sister in all the hubbub of dozens of business activities, while the sister grew from a young 13 to a sophisticated 14.  This is so very typical of modern-day families – kids grow up fast.

Alka Joshi is a likeable, loveable person as shown in her U-Tube video podcasts on cooking, et al.