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boundtwobooks's review
4.0
“We murder who we were so we can rebirth ourselves in the image of our dreams.” (29)
This is, for me, the most powerful sentence in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine. In this one sentence it summarises the story of the novel by embodying the nature of transcontinental lives and living.
The main protagonist in Mukherjee’s novel has a name for every person she has ever been: she is the village girl Jyoti; Jasmine to her first husband; Jane; Jase; Jazz; Kali; Widow; Wife; and Day Mommy. These names represent not only her fluid identity, but how she the people around her perceive her identity and in some cases her culture. The only name that Jyoti ever really gives herself is Sage: a foreseer of truth and fate. The beginning of the book opens with her meeting a sooth sayer who foretells Jyoti’s future. He claims that it is fate that will guide her life, although Jyoti is not convinced and from this point she is sent off in a whirl-wind of adventure and experience that leaves her both fulfilled and drained.
Jyoti’s identity is never really defined by her alone. Her names are given to her by the different men in her lives and she seems to accept these names, going along with the flow. It is hard to say if Jyoti really comes to finding her own identity or not though, and I felt that this was a difficult question for me to answer with certainty.
Jyoti moves to the U.S.A. and finds herself to be brown and othered. She feels the pressures of meeting Western expectations and whilst she is treated with respect and love from a lot of the white people in her community, there is is somehow still a feeling of not quite belonging.
“Educated people are interested in differences; they assume that I am different from them but exempt from being one of “them,” the knife-wielding undocumenteds hiding in basements webbing furniture.”
Here we can already see that racism does not always function and work the same in each country and that there isn’t one single group of “other”. One can conclude that Mukjerjee is probably talking about Hispanic immigrants here. The issue of racism and othering is further complicated by the sheer size of the USA, where there are instances of minority groups feel safer in certain states or regions than others.
If you’re interested in learning about the issues that face Indian immigrants in the U.S.A. then this is a great book to start to expand your knowledge about race, immigration, and non-Western religions. I am a firm believer that books can have the ability to change people, and to change people for the better. This is a book that will change you.
This is, for me, the most powerful sentence in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine. In this one sentence it summarises the story of the novel by embodying the nature of transcontinental lives and living.
The main protagonist in Mukherjee’s novel has a name for every person she has ever been: she is the village girl Jyoti; Jasmine to her first husband; Jane; Jase; Jazz; Kali; Widow; Wife; and Day Mommy. These names represent not only her fluid identity, but how she the people around her perceive her identity and in some cases her culture. The only name that Jyoti ever really gives herself is Sage: a foreseer of truth and fate. The beginning of the book opens with her meeting a sooth sayer who foretells Jyoti’s future. He claims that it is fate that will guide her life, although Jyoti is not convinced and from this point she is sent off in a whirl-wind of adventure and experience that leaves her both fulfilled and drained.
Jyoti’s identity is never really defined by her alone. Her names are given to her by the different men in her lives and she seems to accept these names, going along with the flow. It is hard to say if Jyoti really comes to finding her own identity or not though, and I felt that this was a difficult question for me to answer with certainty.
Jyoti moves to the U.S.A. and finds herself to be brown and othered. She feels the pressures of meeting Western expectations and whilst she is treated with respect and love from a lot of the white people in her community, there is is somehow still a feeling of not quite belonging.
“Educated people are interested in differences; they assume that I am different from them but exempt from being one of “them,” the knife-wielding undocumenteds hiding in basements webbing furniture.”
Here we can already see that racism does not always function and work the same in each country and that there isn’t one single group of “other”. One can conclude that Mukjerjee is probably talking about Hispanic immigrants here. The issue of racism and othering is further complicated by the sheer size of the USA, where there are instances of minority groups feel safer in certain states or regions than others.
If you’re interested in learning about the issues that face Indian immigrants in the U.S.A. then this is a great book to start to expand your knowledge about race, immigration, and non-Western religions. I am a firm believer that books can have the ability to change people, and to change people for the better. This is a book that will change you.
kairosdreaming's review
4.0
This novel was not what I expected. When I first picked it up I had thought it would be about a woman's life in India. And to an extent it was, however, it took a twist and brought the woman to America.
The main character is a woman named Jasmine. Throughout the story she goes by several other names including Jane, Jyoti, and Jase. Each name she has seems to bring its own life with it and she has several different periods of time in her life.
She starts out as a young girl in India where she marries at fifteen. When her husband is murdered in a bombing, she travels to America with the intent of committing suicide at the college campus he was to go to. However, she is stopped by a fierce determination to live after a hardship befalls her.
Without giving away too much of the novel I don't want to give greater detail to the events of her life. She lives with several people performing different tasks at each and this storyline flits back and forth with one of her final stays, with a handicapped man whose child she is carrying.
I was impressed with this novel. While I originally wanted to dislike it for not being what I expected I found that it told an impressive story. One might not think much of the hardships of one woman, but this book made you care about her and at the end I was rooting for her to take a certain path in life.
The language is clear and doesn't get overly wordy. Even though a lot of the concepts are from India Mukherjee makes them easy to understand. Overall, it was a great story.
Jasmine
Published in 1989
241 pages
The main character is a woman named Jasmine. Throughout the story she goes by several other names including Jane, Jyoti, and Jase. Each name she has seems to bring its own life with it and she has several different periods of time in her life.
She starts out as a young girl in India where she marries at fifteen. When her husband is murdered in a bombing, she travels to America with the intent of committing suicide at the college campus he was to go to. However, she is stopped by a fierce determination to live after a hardship befalls her.
Without giving away too much of the novel I don't want to give greater detail to the events of her life. She lives with several people performing different tasks at each and this storyline flits back and forth with one of her final stays, with a handicapped man whose child she is carrying.
I was impressed with this novel. While I originally wanted to dislike it for not being what I expected I found that it told an impressive story. One might not think much of the hardships of one woman, but this book made you care about her and at the end I was rooting for her to take a certain path in life.
The language is clear and doesn't get overly wordy. Even though a lot of the concepts are from India Mukherjee makes them easy to understand. Overall, it was a great story.
Jasmine
Published in 1989
241 pages
bibliophilelinda's review
3.0
"Jasmine" is the tale of a Punjabi woman destined to search for peace. Widowed at the age of 17 by a terrorist bomber, she flees to America begins the process of trying to assimilate into American culture. Rather than retain her Hindu identity, Jyoti/Jasmine/Jase/Jane seeks to forget the horrors of her past and live an uneventful life. The writing was quite beautiful but the ending rather threw me for a loop.
33p3barpercent's review
1.0
Had to read for class... Strongly disliked. Couldn't identify with the main character, and she was not likable. The non-chronological order the story was told in, was interesting, but she kept skipping over the parts I wanted to know more about: life in India, married to a guy who wanted Jasmine to be more modern? Then cuts to Iowa cornfields where her farmer neighbor is having problems.
Ugh.
Skip it like your life depends on it.
Ugh.
Skip it like your life depends on it.
carolyn_librarian's review
2.0
A lovely example of a non-linear plot line. Interesting protagonist that makes the reader think about the creation of self identity.
andresreading's review
3.0
Throughout most of the narrative I felt it was being told as something far away, instead of personal (not always though). And it felt as if the main character was moving too fast from one point to another, so there isn't a lot of background development.