The Vine of Desire is peopled by Indian immigrants and--just as palpably--by their hopes and dreams. As one character says, "All immigrants are dreamers, but they're practical about it. They know what's OK to dream about, and what isn't." Though it's a sequel to Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Sister of My Heart, the novel stands alone as an exploration of the contemporary immigrant experience. Anju and Sudha, cousins and best friends since their Calcutta girlhood, find themselves in the Bay Area, Anju with a husband and Sudha with a baby daughter. Each covets what the other has until finally their relationship collapses. Anju finds solace among her fellow Berkeley students, while the beautiful Sudha learns, for the first time, what it's like to pay her own way. Digressive and overwritten, The Vine of Desire can try your patience, but it's so well plotted and compassionately told that you can't help but care about these immigrant dreams. --Claire Dederer


From Publishers Weekly
This exquisitely rendered tale of passion, jealousy and redemption continues the extraordinary relationship between Anjou and Sudha, the two exceptional women at the heart of Divakaruni's praised Sister of My Heart. The two cousins have traveled a lifetime away from their home city of Calcutta to California, a place so foreign to their native culture and traditions that they must constantly reevaluate their bearings and values. Anjou, miserable after a miscarriage and its unhappy effect on her marriage, and Sudha, fleeing both a husband whose family urged her to abort her daughter, and a first love who wants to take care of her and her child, hope to find solace in their sisterlike relationship. Divakaruni expertly juxtaposes the challenges, freedoms and crassness of modern-day America with the issues, both personal and cultural, each woman faces. Anjou uses Sudha to help her cope with a growing restlessness as well as with dissatisfaction with her husband, Sunil. Sudha is both comforted and suffocated by her life as an escapee from her past, becoming a servant in her cousin's household. At the same time, each woman must eventually acknowledge Anjou's husband's unspoken but obvious attraction to Sudha. Divakaruni combines a gift for absorbing narrative with the artistry of a painter. Her lyrical descriptions of the characters' inner and outer worlds bring a rich emotional chiaroscuro to an uplifting story about two women who learn to make peace with the difficult choices circumstances have forced upon them. Agent, Sandra Dijkstra. National author tour. (Feb. 1)Forecast: Already a reading group favorite, and consistently hailed by critics, Divakaruni can expect excitement for this book to build quickly. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
This third novel from the well-received Divakaruni is a successor to her second, Sister of My Heart. That was a coming-of-age novel following best friends Anju and Sudha from childhood in Calcutta to arranged marriages. This one is a being-of-age novel that picks up the two a year later in America, as Sudha leaves India (and her husband) with a baby daughter to join Anju, who has just suffered a traumatic miscarriage. The two reunite and puzzle their way through U.S. ways, but the bond is threatened by Anju's husband's manifest and growing attraction to Sudha. The plot twists, the characters are engaging, and Divakaruni's vaunted style is evident (although there's some overwriting here, too). Evocative and emotionally charged, this could be a good alternative for your Anita Shreve readers. Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, NY Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Divakaruni's empathy for young Indian women living in the U.S. caught between homesickness and the promise of a more liberated life knows no bounds, flowering in beautifully wrought short-story collections, including The Uncommon Errors of Our Lives [BKL Mr 1 01], and magical novels, including Sister of My Heart (1998), the spellbinding tale of two cousins, Anju and Sudha, who share a fierce, sisterly love. Divakaruni continues their tale as each young woman faces a crisis worthy of the complicated drama, spiritual suffering, and mysterious instances of epiphany and rescue found throughout the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata. Anju and her husband, Sunil, settle in the Bay Area, where they eagerly anticipate the birth of their son. When Anju miscarries, a tragedy that almost costs her her sanity and unhinges her already shaky marriage, she summons Sudha, still in India, to her side. When Sudha was pregnant with her daughter, Dayita, her tyrannical mother-in-law tried to make her have an abortion and try for a son, driving her out of her marriage and into single motherhood, disgrace, and poverty. She accepts Anju's invitation in spite of the fact that she knows how much Sunil desires her. This is a recipe for disaster and melodrama but only of the most exalted kind. Poetic and bewitching, observant and compassionate, Divakaruni has a remarkable gift for intertwining romance with trenchant insights into the harsh realities of women's lives, whether they live in material comfort in Berkeley or in poverty in Calcutta, thus granting readers both visceral pleasure and clarifying aesthetic revelation. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
?An engrossing and satisfying novel.? ?The Washington Post

?Divakaruni is gifted with dramatic inventiveness [and] lyric, sensual language. . . . The Vine of Desire offers many delights.? ?Los Angeles Times Book Review

?Divakaruni is an incomparable storyteller. . . . the beauty of her talent is her ability to capture the true complexity of the emotional landscape in her characters. . . . A lovely read.? ?The Denver Post

?Incandescent. . . . Abounds with vibrant images.? ?Houston Chronicle

?Grab The Vine of Desire. Divakaruni is a transplanted cultural treasure [and] a brilliant storyteller.? ?The Seattle Times

?As gracefully structured as a piece of chamber music.? ?San José Mercury News

?Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni fills a space all her own. . . . Her fiction draws a line straight to the heart.? ?The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

?Divakaruni. . . . paints worlds of complex characters and cultures with an absorbing story line and beautiful language that reads like poetry.? ?The Oregonian

?Compassionate. . . . Provid[es] with graceful economy a complex backdrop of contemporary Indian society.? ?The Boston Sunday Globe

?Dazzling and powerful. . . . Divakaruni?s descriptions, as always, possess a fine lyrical beauty. . . . Readers . . . will have much to feast on.? ?The San Diego Union-Tribune

?Moving, passionate. . . . A beautiful, imperfect journey, much like life itself, and one well worth taking.? ?Austin American-Statesman

?[An] exquisitely rendered tale of passion, jealousy, and redemption. . . . Divakaruni combines a gift for absorbing narrative with the artistry of a painter.? ?Publishers Weekly

?A potent, emotional book delivered by a writer who knows when to step back and take in the poetry.? ?Book

?Compelling. . . . Divakaruni writes prose that is lush. . . . [She] excels at depicting the nuances of the immigrant experience.? ?SF Weekly



Book Description
In a novel that reunites the beloved characters of Sister of My Heart, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores the emotional ties between two lifelong friends–and how they change when the husband of one is dangerously attracted to the other.

The Vine of Desire continues the story of Anju and Sudha, the two young women at the center of Divakaruni’s bestselling novel Sister of My Heart. Far from Calcutta, the city of their childhood, and after years of living separate lives, Anju and Sudha rekindle their friendship in America. The deep-seated love they feel for each other provides the support each of them needs. It gives Anju the strength to pick up the pieces of her life after a miscarriage, and Sudha the confidence to make a life for herself and her baby daughter, Dayita–without her husband. The women’s bond is shaken to the core when they must confront the deeply passionate feelings that Anju’s husband has for Sudha. Meanwhile, the unlikely relationships they form with men and women in the world outside the immigrant Indian community as well as with their families in India profoundly transform them, forcing them to question the central assumptions of their lives.

A moving and satisfying sequel to Sister of My Heart, The Vine of Desire stands on its own as a novel of extraordinary depth and sensitivity.
Through the eyes of people caught in the clash of cultures, Divakaruni reveals the rewards and the perils of breaking free from the past and the complicated, often contradictory emotions that shape the passage to independence


From the Inside Flap
In a novel that reunites the beloved characters of Sister of My Heart, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores the emotional ties between two lifelong friends–and how they change when the husband of one is dangerously attracted to the other.

The Vine of Desire continues the story of Anju and Sudha, the two young women at the center of Divakaruni’s bestselling novel Sister of My Heart. Far from Calcutta, the city of their childhood, and after years of living separate lives, Anju and Sudha rekindle their friendship in America. The deep-seated love they feel for each other provides the support each of them needs. It gives Anju the strength to pick up the pieces of her life after a miscarriage, and Sudha the confidence to make a life for herself and her baby daughter, Dayita–without her husband. The women’s bond is shaken to the core when they must confront the deeply passionate feelings that Anju’s husband has for Sudha. Meanwhile, the unlikely relationships they form with men and women in the world outside the immigrant Indian community as well as with their families in India profoundly transform them, forcing them to question the central assumptions of their lives.

A moving and satisfying sequel to Sister of My Heart, The Vine of Desire stands on its own as a novel of extraordinary depth and sensitivity.
Through the eyes of people caught in the clash of cultures, Divakaruni reveals the rewards and the perils of breaking free from the past and the complicated, often contradictory emotions that shape the passage to independence

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Vine of Desire continues the story of Anju and Sudha, the two young women at the center of Divakaruni's bestselling novel Sister of My Heart. Far from Calcutta, the city of their childhood, and after years of living separate lives, Anju and Sudha rekindle their friendship in America. The deep-seated love they feel for each other provides the support each of them needs. It gives Anju the strength to pick up the pieces of her life after a miscarriage, and Sudha the confidence to make a life for herself and her baby daughter, Dayita - without her husband. The women's bond is shaken to the core when they must confront the deeply passionate feelings that Anju's husband has for Sudha. Meanwhile, the unlikely relationships they form with men and women in the world outside the immigrant Indian community as well as with their families in India profoundly transform them, forcing them to question the central assumptions of their lives.

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine - Chris Barsanti

Love is a tangled thicket of thorns in Divakaruni's new novel of Indian immigrants trying to keep their lives together in San Francisco despite the distractions of family pressures and unspoken tensions. Anju and Sudha are onetime best friends who are reunited when Sudha drops her husband and leaves India to come stay with Anju and her husband, Sunil. This proves to be far from the joyous reunion the two women had hoped for. For one, Sudha has brought her young daughter, Dayita, whom Sunil adores and who serves as a daily reminder to the increasingly neurotic and uptight Anju of the guilt she feels over her recent miscarriage. This is a potent, emotional book delivered by a writer who knows when to step back and take in the poetry.

Publishers Weekly

This exquisitely rendered tale of passion, jealousy and redemption continues the extraordinary relationship between Anjou and Sudha, the two exceptional women at the heart of Divakaruni's praised Sister of My Heart. The two cousins have traveled a lifetime away from their home city of Calcutta to California, a place so foreign to their native culture and traditions that they must constantly reevaluate their bearings and values. Anjou, miserable after a miscarriage and its unhappy effect on her marriage, and Sudha, fleeing both a husband whose family urged her to abort her daughter, and a first love who wants to take care of her and her child, hope to find solace in their sisterlike relationship. Divakaruni expertly juxtaposes the challenges, freedoms and crassness of modern-day America with the issues, both personal and cultural, each woman faces. Anjou uses Sudha to help her cope with a growing restlessness as well as with dissatisfaction with her husband, Sunil. Sudha is both comforted and suffocated by her life as an escapee from her past, becoming a servant in her cousin's household. At the same time, each woman must eventually acknowledge Anjou's husband's unspoken but obvious attraction to Sudha. Divakaruni combines a gift for absorbing narrative with the artistry of a painter. Her lyrical descriptions of the characters' inner and outer worlds bring a rich emotional chiaroscuro to an uplifting story about two women who learn to make peace with the difficult choices circumstances have forced upon them. Agent, Sandra Dijkstra. National author tour. (Feb. 1) Forecast: Already a reading group favorite, and consistently hailed by critics, Divakaruni can expect excitement for this book to build quickly. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

This third novel from the well-received Divakaruni is a successor to her second, Sister of My Heart. That was a coming-of-age novel following best friends Anju and Sudha from childhood in Calcutta to arranged marriages. This one is a being-of-age novel that picks up the two a year later in America, as Sudha leaves India (and her husband) with a baby daughter to join Anju, who has just suffered a traumatic miscarriage. The two reunite and puzzle their way through U.S. ways, but the bond is threatened by Anju's husband's manifest and growing attraction to Sudha. The plot twists, the characters are engaging, and Divakaruni's vaunted style is evident (although there's some overwriting here, too). Evocative and emotionally charged, this could be a good alternative for your Anita Shreve readers. Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews