Jasmine (novel)
| Jasmine | |
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| Author(s) | Bharati Mukherjee |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Grove Press; 1st ed. |
| Publication date | 1989 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 241 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-8021-1032-0 |
| Preceded by | The Middleman and Other Stories |
| Followed by | The Holder of the World |
Jasmine (1989) is a novel by Bharati Mukherjee set in the present about a young Indian woman in the United States who, trying to adapt to the American way of life in order to be able to survive, changes identities several times.
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[edit] Synopsis
The main backdrop of Jasmine, which was based on an earlier short story in The Middleman and Other Stories, is the mixing of the East and West through the story telling of a seventeen-year-old Hindu woman who leaves India for the U.S. after her husband's murder. Her husband dies due to a religious attack in India. In her path she faces many problems including rape and eventually returned to the position of a health professional through a series of jobs. Here in this context the unity between the First and Third world is shown to be in the treatment of women as subordinate in both countries. The story expanded as a story of a young widow suddenly widowed at seventeen. She uproots herself from her life in India and re-roots herself in search of a new life and the image of America as well. It is a story of dislocation and relocation as the protagonist continually sheds lives to move into other roles, moving further westward. The author in some parts of this novel shows some agony to the third world as she shows that Jasmine needs to travel to America to make something significant in her life. And in the third world she faced only despair and loss.
[edit] Acclaim
- Selected as a New York Times Book Review notable book of the year.
[edit] Further reading
- T. C. Boyle's novel The Tortilla Curtain (1995) is about a Mexican couple living illegally in California and getting into trouble.
- Julia Álvarez's novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1992) tells the story of a wealthy Dominican family fleeing their troubled country and starting a new life in New York City.
- See Heroines in literature for a list of female protagonists.
[edit] Book information
Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee
- Hardcover – ISBN 0-8021-1032-0 (ISBN 978-0-8021-1032-9) published in September 1989 by Grove Press
- Paperback – ISBN 0-4492-1923-2 (ISBN 978-0-4492-1923-2) published on December 25, 1990 by Fawcett Publications
