Archana Srinath. The Ecstatic Journey: Chitra Divakaruni's Woman, Child and Immigrant. Chennai: Emerald Publishers, 2020. Pp. 173 Price: Rs. 250/- ISBN: 978-93- 89080-47-6

Abstract

The Ecstatic Journey: Chitra Divakaruni's Woman, Child and Immigrant, which consists of five chapters, namely, “A Survey of Indian Immigrant Fiction”, “The Diaspora Consciousness in Chitra Divakaruni's Short Stories”, “The Project of Acculturation in Divakaruni's Children's Fiction”, “The Struggle of Being Woman in Divakaruni's Novels” and “Conclusion”, is Archana Srinath's doctorate thesis in the form of a book. Archana Srinath rejects the Trishanku-like life for immigrants and offers her submission that immigrants can maintain the balance between two cultures and women are neither superior nor inferior but equal to men. She proves her stance by analysing and quoting from the works of the Indian immigrant author Chitra Divakaruni who is the Calcutta-born author, settled in the United States. Though Chitra Divakaruni started her career as a poet, she switched over to fiction because of her art of narration and the story element. The book for review highlights, as is clear from the title of the chapters, some important thematic dimensions like diasporic life, family, society, roots, child life and predicament of women's life in Divakaruni's works.