Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has become known for her poetry and literature for adults. How did she arrive at writing for young people? She says a number of different paths led her to this audience. Her two young sons (now 9 and 11) had been asking for quite awhile when she was going to write a book for them. They actually got quite involved in the process of writing The Conch Bearer, read drafts, offered excellent feedback, and were forthright in telling her what they thought about passages she read to them. "After 9/11," says Divakaruni, "I really felt a need to write books about my culture, to show children what it was like from the inside. I am sure you know how important it is to see oneself reflected in literature and art in positive and complex ways. I also wanted children of other cultures to be invited into my culture and to relate to characters who are Indian." She believes that deep inside we all struggle with similar issues. Getting attuned to cultures that might initially be unfamiliar to readers is one way to open up their minds and see those similarities.
Born in Kolkata, India (formerly known as Calcutta) but growing up in a number of places in India (Mumbai, Delhi, Darjeeling), Divakaruni feels a strong connection to the people and the landscape of the subcontinent. Her mother still lives in Kolkata. Even though the place changes each time she visits, Divakaruni sees the stories and traditions of Bengal as being core to her identity as a writer.
I ask her to talk about the hero archetype in The Conch Bearer. (I find that we pronounce it the same way, konch, as opposed to the American konk!) She says, "9/11 really made me think about how we, as human beings, look for heroes." She expands on her sense that in every culture, there is a need for heroes. When people do not find positive heroic models, they often worship negative ones, because at least they seem strong. In much of adult literature today there are no undiluted heroes. "It's one thing to have characters to reflect confusion, but I believe we have another need, to be inspired by art." Divakaruni wanted to write a book where there could be heroic characters. The magical form realized in The Conch Bearer began to take shape in her mind, a story where she could bring in mythic elements, even while the tale itself was contemporary in nature. It is an extension in some ways of the exploration of magic in the here and now that is found in her adult novel, The Mistress of Spices. "If you are living an existence devoid of wonder it's very flat. One needs to seek out the magical." Anand's belief in that magic sets the stage for the reader too to suspend disbelief.
Does she have a favorite scene, one she tends to read from? The scene where Anand takes the train from Sealdah Station, she says, admitting that she's always had a fondness for trains. "Indian railway stations are such amazing places."
That sense of place comes through clearly in both The Conch Bearer and in Divakaruni's other children's title, Neela, a series volume for Pleasant Company. The author's mother was a consultant on Neela. It provided a welcome avenue for them to talk about a time of upheaval in the history of India, when women often discarded traditional restraints on their public roles and ventured out to take part in the freedom struggle.
It's always interesting to find out what literary or story backgrounds writers see as influencing their work. Divakaruni links the core of her writing to books she loved as a child, including a Bengali language volume titled Thakumar Jhuli or Grandmother's Sack (of stories). She reminisces lovingly about this treasure trove, that includes talking animals, princesses, ogres, magical things, and people who turn into stones. It also contained stories of strong women who overcame great odds, to achieve ends that were sometimes remarkable, sometimes funny. Elements of classical mythological tales from the Hindu epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, and story collections such as the Panchatantra all find expression in her work. "But I also read all the children's books I can lay my hands on, including a lot of what my sons have read, and all those voices are influences too."
I ask if Divakaruni finds herself having to translate ideas and imagery, walk between cultures even as she's telling a story? She says she sees herself as an explorer rather than an interpreter. She doesn't want a "tour guide" feel to her writing, neither does she want it to be inaccessible. "I want my books to invite people in-not to be condescending or overexplanatory. But neither do I want readers to feel excluded, because they belong or don't belong to a particular group."
We talk about a controversy that hasn't really arrived in the mainstream of children's publishing as yet, but has certainly been thoroughly explored in postcolonial adult literature-that of the italic! The Conch Bearer doesn't italicize "foreign" words. Neela does. In the children's market, there's an additional concern, since we're writing for an "audience-in-progress" so to speak. Will kids get confused, sans italics and glossary? And because children's sales target institutional markets, will librarians and teachers need those additional crutches? Chitra Divakaruni was delighted when Roaring Brook acquiesced to her desire to keep the italics out. She didn't want children to stop at those italicized words. She felt that "part of the experience of reading this book shouldn't separate the Indian words. Italics arrest the reading...set up a visual fence." Glossaries are fine, she feels, for those who want an additional resource. With Neela, it was an entirely different matter--the house style of the series offered no room for such literary exercises. Neela follows the common children's market convention of italicizing every occurrence of a "foreign" word. Divakaruni may well have launched a discussion of this issue in the world of children's books. What publishers will make of it still remains to be seen.
Would she ever want to write of subjects outside the cultural contexts she knows and renders with such feeling? Would she be allowed to do that, or has she been exoticized into a niche? She laughs off the questions, saying, "There's so much here, in the immigrant community, to explore--our people, the histories, the issues. This is what I know, my little window into understanding."
One more question that goes back to her reasons for writing The Conch Bearer, the beginnings of her need to speak to children. Some say we live in a time when the United States is narrowing rather than broadening its horizons. Illustrator Barry Moser recently described the prevailing ethos as one of "myopic, flag-wrapping patriotism and the perceived sin of dissent." What, I ask Chitra, do you want to say to children in our time?
She grows suddenly serious. She says, "This is something I feel very passionate about. I see a really dangerous tendency to close down the borders, to redefine what it means to be a good American. I'm trying in some ways to contest that with my books. Children shouldn't have their minds closed before they've even had a chance to open them in the first place."
Readers who enjoy The Conch Bearer (pronounced however they wish!) will be glad to hear it's only the first volume of a trilogy. Stay tuned.
Contributor: Uma Krishnaswami
(This telephone interview was conducted on October 23, 2003. Uma Krishnaswami's article, On the Seashore of Worlds: Selected South Asian Voices from North America and the United Kingdom, will appear in a spring 2004 issue of Bookbird, the Journal of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People. Uma's middle grade novel, Naming Maya, will be published by Farrar Straus & Giroux, also in 2004.)
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Further information about Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and her books is available on her website.
Reviews
The Conch Bearer
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
From a writer known for her poetry (Leaving Yuba City), and adult literary fiction (Sister of My Heart), comes this middle grade novel with an appealing child protagonist venturing out upon an improbable quest. Elements of young Anand's journey are linked to ancient Hindu mythologies and sacred geography. Readers who know this context will recognize many archetypes and symbols. The visitor who creates a feast out of minimal offerings of food, the conch itself, the rejection of a heaven-like place in favor of loyalty-each of these echoes themes from the epic poem-story, the Mahabharata. Woven into the fabric of this fantasy tale, they link past and present in the muddle of then and now that is quintessential India. The strand of the father, missing since he left to take a job in the Gulf, connects this India to the world in a way that is both real and touching. In the same vein, Divakaruni renders contemporary urban Kolkata, with its street kids and tea stalls, in a manner that is both textured and affectionate. Despite the jacket text that extols the exotic flavor of this story, the really compelling places are those scenes that the reader can experience from very close to Anand's perspective, feeling both his unnamed fears and his longings left unfulfilled by circumstance. It is likely, therefore, that the story premise will feel familiar to a broad audience of readers, being the fairly classic tale of an unwilling and sometimes clueless hero growing into the significance of his destiny. Not all the obstacles on the journey are entirely convincing. The ape-creatures' pidgeon-like speech was a definite reading hiccup. The conflict of snake and mongoose felt a little obvious. Admittedly the latter might be a non-issue for young readers. It could well be more annoying to grownups jaded by the endless rehashings of Kipling the market has favored us with over the years. On the whole, it is refreshing to see this particular mingling of old and new, real and magical, in the story container of a children's book. There are places in which the prose just sings, and in all The Conch Bearer is worth revisiting. 2003, Roaring Brook Press, Ages 9 up, $16.95. Reviewer: Uma Krishnaswami
ISBN: 0-7613-1935-2
The Mistress of Spices
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Performance by Sarita Choudhury
Tilo -- born far away and long ago -- can see into people's hearts and heal their sufferings with her herbs and roots and spices. Trained in her magical arts on a distant island, she accepts immortality, and lands in an Indian grocery store in Oakland, CA. There, she tries to help her customers, mostly new immigrants, in their struggle to adapt to America. She's not supposed to have favorites or get too close to regular mortals, or even leave the store. But her heart goes out to the cab driver who wants a better life, the battered wife who needs courage to leave her husband, the teenager who gains acceptance by getting into a gang. When a handsome, lonely American walks through the door, can she resist the ultimate sin of using her powers to satisfy her own desires? Divakaruni, prize-winning author of Arranged Marriage, spins a tale of pure enchantment, blending the realities of modern immigrant lives with the magic of universal dreams and longings. Choudhury's warm, intimate reading sustains the spell, creating a world one hates to leave. It seems a shame to leave out any part of the original novel, but this abridgment captures the flavor of that delicious feast. Most likely, it will whet many listeners' appetites to devour the full-length book. Category: Fiction Audiobooks. KLIATT Codes: SA--Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 1997, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio, Abridged. 4 tapes, 6 hrs.; Standard cardboard and plastic; reader, content notes., $22.99. Ages 15 to adult. Reviewer: Betsy Coonley (KLIATT Review, March 1997 (Vol. 31, No. 2))
ISBN: 0553477013
Neela, Victory Song
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Illustration by Troy Howell
Experience what it is like to be a girl growing up in Bengal, India in 1939. Neela's older sister, Usha, is getting married and the whole family is excited. They are busy with all the many things that need to be arranged, from the dowry to the good luck ceremony to the wedding clothes and feast. Neela is happy for her sister, but concerned because she knows that once the wedding is over, her mother will begin to look for a husband for Neela. At twelve-years-old, she is not particularly interested in marriage and the changes it would bring. Then swadeshis (freedom fighters) arrive unexpectedly at the wedding feast. They collect donations from the guests and leave, but they have a lasting impression on Neela's family. Her father leaves for Calcutta the following week. He tells Neela's mother his trip is for shopping, but confides in Neela that he intends to meet with members of the Congress Party led by Mahatma Ghandi. When weeks pass and her father fails to return from his trip, Neela decides to take action. But how can a twelve-year-old girl possibly rescue a prisoner of the British forces? Where can she turn for help? Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's contribution to the new "Girls of Many Lands" series is filled with adventure. Readers are sure to enjoy Neela's daring escapades, appreciate her bravery and cleverness, and thrill at her success. The focus is on Indian culture, but there is a great deal of historical information woven into the story and included in the accompanying "Then and Now: A Girl's Life" section of the book. Also includes an Author's Note and glossary of Bengali terms. 2002, Pleasant, $7.95. Ages 9. Reviewer: Heidi Hauser Green (Children's Literature)
ISBN: 1-58485-521-5
ISBN: 1-58485-597-5
Updated 10/31/2003
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