The Unknown Errors of Our Lives

"The Unknown Errors of Our Lives" is a collection of short stories by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni that focuses on Indian women and their immigrant experience in America. In many ways, the subject matter of these stories are similar to those of Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of the Maladies" (a favorite book of mine). Many of the stories in Unknown Errors also deal with marriages of different sorts and in different stages: arranged marriages, engagements, deteriorating relationships. The first story in the book is entitled "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter". This is a touching story about an older widow who moves from India to live with her son's family in America. Her son tells her "We want you to be comfortable, Ma. To rest. That's why we brought you here to America." Her attempts to share stories of India and cook traditional meals and help out around the house are looked down upon of by her daughter-in-law and she begins to feel un-welcomed. Life with her son and grandchildren in America isn't what Mrs. Dutta imagined it would be. Through Divakaruni's writing, the reader can feel Mrs. Dutta's pain and disappointment.As in "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter" the story "The Intelligence of Wild Things" brings up issues of keeping Old World traditions alive after immigrating versus becoming Americanized. "The Intelligence of Wild Things" is about a woman who visits her younger brother, Tarun in Vermont. She discovers that his girlfriend is an American girl with "freckled skin and reddish-gold hair." She wonders how her brother who "had never wanted to come to America" has become so Americanized while she, who agreed to an arranged marriage in order to move to America, still clings to traditions she learned growing up in India. "The Lives of Strangers" is one of my favorite stories from the collection. This story is about Leela, a young Indian woman from America who visits her aunt in India. They go on a pilgrimage in Kashmir with a group of women. One of these women is Mrs. Das whom the rest of the women believe was "born under an unlucky star" and therefor shun her due to a fear that her bad luck may rub off on them. Divakaruni does a fantastic job in this story portraying Leela's struggle with guilt and a conscience that is telling her to do what is right despite what others say. Some stories in this collection are definitely stronger than others, but overall, the book offered an excellent look at the Indian immigrant experience from the female point of view.

I've read all of the other books written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and she has yet to disappoint me. There is no question that she is a remarkable author. My favorite story in this book was the one that the book is named after. During the course of reading this book I often found myself unable to put it down. The only sad part was that like many good things in life, it had to come to an end.

I love short stories and first discovered Divakaruni by reading a short story she wrote for a magazine. What struck me then and what strikes me now having read THE UNKNOWN ERRORS OF OUR LIVES is the similarity of the experiences of the heroines in her nine tales and my own experiences or those of "plain old American" female friends and relatives of mine. I believe Divakaruni writes tales almost any woman can understand and identify with...in the same way we understand our friend's confidences, stories like the "Little House" series American girls read as children, family myths, etc.Most of us grew up with the idea we were moving toward some destiny. Often this was the way our own life would reveal itself over time. An aspect of the progress of our life might be a pilgrimage to a "holy" site. In her story "The Lives of Stangers" Divakaruni relates the experiences of two women who make such a journey to a sacred place in Kashmir. In her tale "The Blooming Season for Cacti" she tells of both the geographic movement and the internal shift of a heroine who discovers her unknown self. Many of us have experienced attempts by relatives to "arrange marriages" whether we know it or not by introducing us to someone "nice". And many of us have had the reaction of the young woman in "The Unknown Errors of Our Lives" who discovers the unknown errors are the ones you commit unknowingly over and over. Many women opt to make their own choices like one of the characters in "The Names of the Stars in Bengali." I personally have two female Indian friends who married blonde, blue-eyed "American" guys.Many Americans have made a journey to a far city away from relatives and toward the future (the most mobile society on earth). It does not matter if you live on the East Coast of the U.S. and your mother is on the West Coast or she is in some other part of the world your life will be different and you will grow apart (i.e. lose that childhood connection).Many folks of Indian descent migrated to the United States from India as well as places other than India. One reason Americans may identify with Divakarumi's stories is because we are a nation of immigrants, but folks of Indian descent folks blend relatively seamlessly into U.S. culture (at least in Washington DC, New York, the West Coast, and other areas) because many of them speak English from birth, hold middle class values, and migrate from what used to be British East Africa, England, Canada, Fiji, and the West Indies. The Indian diaspora took place long ago and since the U.S. is a former British colony, folks from other British colonies have much in common with us...including our language.Which leads me to Divakaruni's writing. In addition to telling tales I can identify with, creating characters I care about, and describing settings with wonderful detail, Divakaruni has a way with English. Her writing is beautiful, filled with imagery, lyrical and very much like the tales told by that great Canadian author Alice M

This book of short stories, by the author of the wonderful, magical Mistress of Spices, was mesmerizing. The author has such a keen eye for the poignant moments in everyday living, the large and small disappointments, the misunderstandings. Especially because she is an Indian writer living in the United States, she brings a unique perspective to her observations of modern American life as well as a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary Indians in India. I loved these stories and look forward to reading her other, earlier, collection, Arranged Marriage. As I was reading these stories I also found myself thinking of another wonderful collection by an Indian-American writer, Jhumpa Lahiri, whose book Interpreter of Maladies won last year's Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Divakaruni has done it again. The words simply flow as you read this book of short stories. I don't usually read short stories because it doesn't seem like there is enough time in 20 or so pages to become attached to a character but this author is the exception. Her stories are like short journeys that delve into the emotion of her characters leaving you closer to them than some authors can accomplish in an entire book. Each story is about a choice made, not always the best one for the moment but an adventure in living none-the-less. In the first story she writes of a Grandmother who has emigrated from Calcutta to live in Sunnyvale, California with her son, his wife, and their two children. We are faced with her loneliness and yearning for a culture that is lost to her in this new country. I also moved to Sunnyvale from my home in New England and remember the feeling of displacement and longing I felt. I was an outsider who dressed differently and spoke with an accent; people were not always kind or receptive. I can only imagine how life changing it must be to come from another country; it is this emotion that the author expresses so clearly in not just the first story but throughout the book. Divakaruni has enlightened us with her book of tales. She has made me feel at home in her characters heart. After reading her last book SISTER OF MY HEART, I realized that this author would always be my favorite, she is a master of her craft, and her new book has certainly not disappointed me. Kelsana 5/19/01