Who do you talk books with? I talk books with my dentist – well as much as I can with my mouth open and strange instruments being pushed in. My dentist mentioned that Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is one of her favorite authors and I decided to give Ms.Divakaruni another chance.

I have read The Palace of Illusions and The Mistress of Spices before and somehow I never felt. I barely remember anything about the books and it is sad that I read books I do not remember about but I decided to give Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni another chance and picked up this book.

3-4 pages into the book – I could literally see Aishwarya Rai being the mother – the dream teller and I tried hard to shake the image. I have not seen the movie – Mistress of Spices but somehow the trailers and the book helped me have an idea of what the book will be and I was carrying it into this book. I shook my head and proceeded to read. After the first 20 pages I lost it. The book lay forgotten till my library sent me a reminder that the book was due soon and I started afresh.

100 pages into the book I really wanted to know what was happening and how the book with continue/end. But somewhere between 100 and 200 pages the author loses me again. Thinking about the book – it should be great – a mix of fantasy, realism and life in perfect does. But I do not feel it. Indians blessed with supernatural powers is a theme Ms.Divakaruni carries in this book too and I hate it. I know hate is such a strong word but I mean it. It projects India as a land of snake charmers and elephant taxis – the mystical – the joke to hear repeated way too often.

The Review

Rakhi akki Rikki – single mother, artist, co-owner of the Chai House is a San Fransisco native. She grew up knowing her mother is a dream teller – someone who can see the dreams of others and warn them – a gift Rikki wished she had inherited. After her mother’s death, Rikki and her father sit and read her mother’s dream journals in an attempt to piece the past and find answers to the future. In the process she rediscovers her father, the Chai House becomes a cha place, 9-11 happens, and she learns the truth – her daughter Jonaki has inherited her mother’s gift/curse.