My post a couple days ago about the prize I won from the 24-hour readathon in October reminded me that I still haven’t discussed all the books I read during that read-a-thon!

“Queen of Dreams” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a book I started, but did not finish before the 24 hours of the readathon was over.  This book was purchased at our local used bookstore; the cover is what initially caught my eye.

This is a 9/11 novel — that is,  the events of 9/11/01 take place in it.  9/11 does not occur until later in the novel, however.  I think most novelists at that time were so impacted by the events that they felt that they had to include it and try to show how they relate to it, and/or to make sense of it.

 The main character, Rakhi (an Indian-American or “desi”)  is an artist who is also a divorced mother.  Rakhi has her plate very full — not only is she juggling motherhood and art, she is the co-owner of a struggling tea-shop in Berkeley.  Along with her ex-husband, Rakhi also has to deal with her parents.  Rakhi’s mother is a “dream-teller” ; someone who is able to predict what will happen based on her own dreams; and she has kept dream journals throughout her life.  There are excerpts inserted throughout this novel from Rakhi’s mothers dream journals.

Under a set of circumstances, Rakhi is forced to understand her mother’s past, and how it formed her mother’s personality.  In this process, Rakhi is also able to understand her father better; they had not been very close previously. 

Relationships grow and change in this novel.   As just mentioned, Rakhi is able to become closer to her father.  Rakhi also comes to terms with the relationship she has with her ex-husband.  Also, Rakhi and her co-owner (and close friend) of the tea-shop learn in unexpected ways what it will take to keep it in business.  And, being a single mother, Rakhi examines her relationship with her own daughter.

How does 9/11 figure in this book?  After the attacks, many angry Americans mistook Indians/South-east Asians as the same type that were perceived as terrorists.  So, Rakhi and her family and friends have to deal with the fear and misunderstanding of that time; including violence directed towards them.

Here are some passages in this book:

“She remembers something her mother said to her when she was about ten years old.  It has stayed in her mind because her mother so rarely gave her advice.  They’d been in the garden, planting chili peppers.  Her mother lowered a seedling, its boll of hairy roots, its chilies like tiny red bird beaks, into the hole that Rakhi had dug.

“Shona,” she’d said in her burnt-sugar voice with its slight, delicious rasp, “The best way to love people is not to need them.  That’s the purest love.”

An excerpt from Rakhi’s mother’s Dream Journals:

“How little I knew myself, to think that I would not desire human loving.  To think that my longings would always be in my control.”

I enjoyed reading this book.  The storyline keep me going, and there were thought-provoking moments throughout, also.   In the near future, I’d like to read more of Chitra Banerjee Divakuruni’s novels. 

I had not heard of this author until I discovered this book.  Have you; and if so – what have you read and what did you think?

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