Hello everyone! Hope you'll enjoying this rainy weather. So here I am yet again with a new book review of aa novel by Alka Joshi named ‘The Heena Artist’. You'll definitely enjoy it reading.
It's the 1950s. Laxmi Shastri is in her early thirties, a woman chasing independence and the means to build the house of her dreams. She'd walked out of her abusive marriage thirteen years ago and ended up in Jaipur, establishing herself as a henna artist for the elite women of the enchanting city, leading a peacefully succesful life. Until the day her husband Hari arrives at her doorstep with a sister she didn't know she had - Radha, a 13: year old now, carrying with her nothing except the shattering news of their parents ' death. And that's when Laxmi's life starts taking various unexpected turns, uprooting the future plans she'd so thoughtfully carved for herself. Laxmi is mysterious in more ways than one. She secretly services women with her knowledge about contraceptive teas and herbal healing that she'd inherited from her mother - in - law. Her character is so intricately layered, much like her henna designs, giving her a distinct voice of her own and that holds true for the other characters as well. Malik, for instance, her 8 year old assistant she cannot imagine her business without. And even all the women she caters to - Parvati, Maharani Indira & Latika, and Kanta. The book unfolds as an engaging drama, bringing to life a newly independent India and the richly cultured state of Rajasthan, which gave me the impetus to ponder over my own roots from there. Alka Joshi's writing is colourful and vivid and provides sufficient food for thought, suggestive of how brokenly regressive our society has always been. Like the hypocritical nature of royal families that is often kept veiled behind curtains, the politics of birth, gender & unacknowledged privelege, and the unfair, bigoted hierarchical structures that cut through it all.
I was invested in the story throughout, rooting for Laxmi & Radha, and the complete opposite of that for Samir & his stupid son, but it ended on a happy note so I feel very satisfied about it. If you're looking for a feminist book that paints your imagination with beautiful imagery, look no further than this one! I can't recommend it enough.
If anyone of you have read it already, do let us know your thoughts on this book. Have a nice day!
