The Legacy

It is Sabitri – whose daughter Bela goes on to live with her husband in the US, and whose granddaughter, Tara, is planning to drop out of college — who ties the three lives together.

The Indian-American poet and author, known for The Palace of Illusions and The Mistress of Spices, plays with familiar themes from her earlier works. While Sabitri’s story gathers in the reader’s minds like the ominous dark clouds, Bela’s defiance is not very distant from her mother’s. Tara is further alienated, growing up in the US, a child to immigrant parents, whose sense of identity colludes with Sabitri’s.

Divakaruni also brings in references to mythology, to Savitri, who follows Yama to the edge of the world to get back her husband’s soul. The preamble to the book begins with verses from the Manusmriti (“Where women are honoured, there the gods are pleased”) and Jean Thompson’s Fire Dreams (“Everybody lives two ways. The first is simple, the second less so”).

Additionally, vignettes of Sabitri’s letters to Tara appear, part rumination, part-lessons, aptly inserted between narratives, only to make sense towards the end.

Divakaruni’s style is lyrical but not cloying. She shuttles across continents and various narratives with much composure and ease. The men are listless, however, appearing in fits and bouts.