Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni knows how to weave a story out of disparate threads, bringing them together in an intelligent and compassionate human tapestry. In her latest book, ONE AMAZING THING (Hyperion 2009), the well-regarded author of Sister of my Heart, The Palace of Illusions, and The Mistress of Spices, brings together a cast of nine characters spending a long, tiring afternoon in a passport and visa office. Each has their reason for going to India, and each holds him or herself privately away from the others, focusing inward as they wait. When a violent earthquake rips through their building and traps them, the nine must struggle together for survival. As hopes for rescue seem to dim, each shares the story of a most compelling moment, a turning point, in their lives—something that shaped and molded them into who they are today.
The literary device of stranding a group of very different and
unassociated people together in a situation like this, forcing an intimacy that would never happen under ordinary circumstances, has often been employed by writers to create a stage upon which human frailties can be revealed. Divakaruni has taken this device and made it her own—primarily with her ability to portray characters with such clarity that readers can identify compassionately and quickly care about the outcome of their imagined lives. As in our own lives, each has their secret grief and loss, joys and pleasures; each has experienced the indifferent cruelty unintentionally visited upon those around us; and each, when life is squeezed down to survival mode, often realizes what they value most.
Author’s website: http://www.chitradivakaruni.com/
Her blog: http://www.chitradivakaruni.com/blog/
See a video interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi_-ZYmt28U
The literary device of stranding a group of very different and
unassociated people together in a situation like this, forcing an intimacy that would never happen under ordinary circumstances, has often been employed by writers to create a stage upon which human frailties can be revealed. Divakaruni has taken this device and made it her own—primarily with her ability to portray characters with such clarity that readers can identify compassionately and quickly care about the outcome of their imagined lives. As in our own lives, each has their secret grief and loss, joys and pleasures; each has experienced the indifferent cruelty unintentionally visited upon those around us; and each, when life is squeezed down to survival mode, often realizes what they value most.Author’s website: http://www.chitradivakaruni.com/
Her blog: http://www.chitradivakaruni.com/blog/
See a video interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi_-ZYmt28U
-- Rosemary Carstens
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