#OwnVoices: The Mistress of Spices (Book Review)

Tilo, short for Tilottama, is an Indian immigrant who owns and runs an Indian grocery store in Oakland, California. She has been ordained as a Mistress of Spices as she was the “one in whose hands the spices sang back.” Being immortal, she inhabits an old woman's body as shopkeeper, but the man who falls in love with her will be able to see how beautiful she really is through her eyes.

Tilo completed her training for special powers at a beautiful, metaphysical island where the waters were filled with blue lotuses and serpents sang. She thought her name came from ‘til’, which is a ‘gold brown’ sesame seed and which ‘fried in its own oil restores luster when one has lost interest in life.” In essence, according to her name, Tilottama is a “life-giver, and restorer of health and hope.”

However, the 'First Mother' who bestowed the powers on the mistresses says her name comes from Tilottama, the "most beautiful apsara of rain god Indra’s court.”  The mistress will lose her supernatural powers if she succumbs to falling in love with a human. The First Mother explains that “When Brahma made Tilottama to be chief dancer in Indra’s court, he warned her never to give her love to man-only to the dance”

Tilottama confidently replies that she knows the rules and she will never break them.She says disdainfully, “I need no pitiful mortal to love.”

However, she does fall in love with Raven, a good looking American who visits her store. She first thinks he is White but later finds out he has Native American heritage. She is conflicted as spending time with him will put her in danger of losing her magical powers, but she cannot resist his charm. They fall in love looking into each other’s eyes over racks of spices in her store where she playfully and pun intendedly gives him a spice ‘amchur’ for heartburn! Raven shares his unique life story with her, and they connect on an emotional level as well.

The story also takes us into the world of Indian Americans who visit Tilo’s shop. Divakaruni has used these secondary characters to reveal the challenges faced by an immigrant community displaced from their familiar world into America. There is Jagjit who is mercilessly bullied on the playground for speaking Punjabi and wearing a turban, “the color of a parrot’s breast”. We meet Geeta and her grandfather who cannot comprehend why his granddaughter cannot be obedient and desires individuality and freedom.

Lalita, who visits the store and looks longingly at clothes she does not have money to buy depicts a woman caught in the cruel cycle of domestic violence. Tilo tries to empower her to break free. She says to her, “My fault my fault. A refrain so many women the world over have been taught to sing. Why do you say that, daughter?” Other characters include Haroun, the taxi driver and Kwesi who is trying to impress his girlfriend. Tilo considers herself “the architect of the immigrant dream”

Divakaruni’s prose has rhythm and cadence. The New Yorker rightly says that her writing “is so pungent that it stains the page, yet beneath the sighs and smells of this brand of magic realism she deftly introduces her true theme: how an ability to accommodate desire enlivens not only the individual heart but a society cornered by change." 

You will fall in love with the spices and the description of their powers. There are chapters titled Turmeric, Ginger, Fennel, Fenugreek, Kalo Jire (Black Cumin), Asafetida and so on. Additionally, “each spice has a special day to it. For turmeric it is Sunday, when light drips fat and butter-colored into the bins to be soaked up glowing, when you pray to the nine planets for love and luck.” Each spice also has special properties, “sandalwood to dispel painful memories; black cumin seed to protect against evil eye." 

In the end, Tilo decides to spend a night with Raven even though she knows that the spices will be resentful, and havoc will be caused in the lives of the people she cares about as punishment. What are the catastrophic repercussions when they finally spend a night together and become lovers? Does Tilo manage to save her customers from the wrath of spices? Are Tilo and Raven united in the end? You will have to read the book to find out!

Do click on the book jacket image below to read more about the book and to find a copy in the Richland Library catalog. Do scroll down below to view the video of popular chef Padma Lakshmi's  essential spice guide followed by a book list of novels by Indian authors, old and new. 

The Richland Library #OwnVoices initiative is a space for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) staff members to provide thoughtful and well written book reviews, book lists and blog posts. These posts work to promote authors of marginalized groups and their work about the life experiences of these under-represented groups through their own perspective. The series invites our customers to learn one more way we are continuing the conversation in our community and speaking our voice. Find more resources on race, equity, and inclusion, here.