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Jasmine

Bharati Mukherjee

3.43 · Rating details · 3,216 ratings · 247 reviews

When Jasmine is suddenly widowed at seventeen, she seems fated to a life of quiet isolation in the small Indian village where she was born. But the force of Jasmine's desires propels her explosively into a larger, more dangerous, and ultimately more life-giving world. In just a few years, Jasmine becomes Jane Ripplemeyer, happily pregnant by a middle-aged Iowa banker and t ...more

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Paperback, 256 pages

Published April 5th 1999 by Grove Press (first published 1989)

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· 3,216 ratings · 247 reviews

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Sep 08, 2017 Kathleen rated it really liked it

Shelves: women-writers

“Can wanting be fatal?”

This captivated me. It’s about hardships, and fighting to overcome them. It’s about illegal immigration, why it can happen, and the terrifying journey it can be. There are vivid, even shocking descriptions of life in India, but to me this is a very American story—scrappy and full of ambition.

Jasmine undergoes multiple transformations along her journey—to her surroundings, her home, her family and her name. Mukherjee takes us back and forth in time through these worlds, whi ...more

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Apr 13, 2016 Sohaib rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2016-reads, 2017-reads, postmodernism, literature

"For the uncle, love was control. Respect was obedience. For Prakash, love was letting go. Independence, self-reliance: I learned the litany by heart. But I felt suspended between worlds."

"In Hasnapur, Dida told stories of Vishnu the Preserver containing our world inside his potbellied stomach. I sit, baffled, in the dark living room of our house in Baden, loaded rifle against my belly, cocooning a cosmos."

Five stars! W/o a flinch!

The Gods never lost their androgyny in the East, did they!?

I'm qu ...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Georgia rated it it was ok

I was recommended this book following a lecture series on US-Indian literature, and unfortunately, it does not live up to its hype. A young Indian widow's quest to fulfill her late husband's will by traveling to America and visiting the college he attended would make an interesting starting point for a story about a woman's search for her identity in a foreign country, but sadly, this endeavour soon falls flat due to one-dimensional protagonists and plot "twists" in the style of an improbable Bo I was recommended this book following a lecture series on US-Indian literature, and unfortunately, it does not live up to its hype. A young Indian widow's quest to fulfill her late husband's will by traveling to America and visiting the college he attended would make an interesting starting point for a story about a woman's search for her identity in a foreign country, but sadly, this endeavour soon falls flat due to one-dimensional protagonists and plot "twists" in the style of an improbable Bollywood comedy.

That is not to say that the book doesn't have its good points. Its non-chronological narrative is a point in its favor, as are the lush descriptions of Jasmine's home village, the Indian lifestyle, and her young romance with her husband.

However, when Jasmine makes the journey to America following her husband's death in an act of terrorism, the book begins to falter badly. The foreshadowing, which Mukherjee employs somewhat effectively in the section set in India, becomes heavy-handed and is employed with such frequency that the reader stops caring about what happens to the characters. If one is constantly told what could/might happen exactly before it does happen, in exactly the same manner and with exactly the previously outlined consequences, foreshadowing ceases to be an effective tool. Plot threads are introduced only to be discarded with little care for a satisfying solution, such as Jasmine's adoption of a Vietnamese boy, who suddenly finds his long-lost sister and moves out of Jasmine's household with barely any emotion involved in the parting.

Added to this is that as the main character, Jasmine cannot carry the weight of her own story and fails to go through all the transformations Mukherjee conveniently marks with a change in her name. "Jasmine," "Jase," "Jyoti" and "Jane" are virtually the same person, who seems content to adopt whatever role the people around her want her to adopt — not because this is part of her character, but because the author does not give Jasmine and her "transformations" enough character to make them feel like changes are taking place, like Jasmine is completing stages in a personal journey.

Perhaps worst of all, however, are the plot "twists" Mukherjee employs to shuffle Jasmine from location to location, which, not to spoil too much, are among the most contrived I have seen outside of a soap opera and include such ludicrous ideas as Jasmine having to flee from her husband's killer, who somehow stalks her, an illegal immigrant who hitchhiked her way around the country, in the guise of a snack vendor in the middle of twenty million people New York City. Whether this is real or just in Jasmine's head is never clear, but even if it is just a product of Jasmine's wild imagination, it doesn't have any logic to it and Jasmine's reaction (fleeing to Iowa) doesn't seem like it would do anything to deter her (real or imagined) assassin.

I won't even get into the ending, which is something that occurs completely out of the blue and is squeezed into the remaining five pages, without any logic, emotion or consequence. We're supposed to cheer for Jasmine for finding out what she really wants, except her character never developed in any significant way, and thus, all the ending represents is another change in location on what already felt like an insanely long train ride. ...more

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Jun 03, 2007 Andrew Kubasek rated it it was ok

Shelves: completed

In the name of honesty, I read this book for a class taught by the author. It was a great class, and she used the novel as a great example of things like how a writer thinks, approaching symbolism, and the writing and publishing process generally.

Still, this book, although unique, failed to really strike a chord with me. I felt no sympathy or disgust for any of the characters, even though I got the sense that I was supposed to feel SOMETHING. What this book did do well was intrigue me enough to ...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Emilie added it

I have no idea what to think about this book. Did I like it? Hm... Did I dislike it... Hm... I kinda nothing it.

While reading this I kept wondering wether it would get a spot in my bookshelf or go to a second hand. The latter won. Because of the ending. What the heck was up with the ending? It destroyed the whole story that COULD have been something. Thanks to the ending I know for sure it was nothing.

Identity crisis and culture shock is a serious matter that affects a lot of people. Doesnt me ...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Johnny rated it liked it

Shelves: india, female-protagonist, fiction, asia

I first read this in graduate school with a professor who assigned the book and then once we finished reading it proceeded to totally deconstruct it. A post-colonial Indian himself, he took umbrage with the backward depiction of rural life in India. I was very impressionable and spent the next ten years thinking Mukherjee was a hack writer with simple minded constructions.

On a second read at a more mature age, I see now that there is much to like in this novel; the fragmented and nonlinear const ...more

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Oct 16, 2020 Hákon Gunnarsson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: indian-literature

When Jasmine is just seventeen she is already a widow. She lives in India, but wants more than living there can offer her, so she moves to America.

I read this some twenty years ago (damn, has it really been that long?) at uni, and I remember I thought at the time that it was an interesting story. Don’t know how I would react to it now. There are fond memories attached to it, so I don’t know if I’m willing to read it again to find out.

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Apr 23, 2018 Noelia Alonso rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2018

I appreciated the story but I didn't really get along with Mukherjee's narrative ...more

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Jan 25, 2020 Nouur Benabbes rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, contemporary

I don't know what to say about this book. I was hoping to read about Indian culture, to learn about the struggles of those who are escaping their miserable realities, seeking for brand new identities and searching to fit in.
However, the synopsis was so misleading. That was not what I expected. The first few chapters were loaded with Hindi expressions, agricultural more precisely, and as someone who knows absolutely nothing about India and its agruculture, it was such a turn off.
The other few ch ...more

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May 15, 2007 The Book Maven rated it liked it

Shelves: read-fiction

What will you give to be an American? What will you give to experience the American dream, to grasp all the prosperity and security and happiness that so many Americans seem to have?

For Jyoti, a seventeen-year-old widow who lost her husband to the violence that plagues India, there's not a lot she won't do. Illegally immigrate? Sure, why not? Commit murder? Steal another woman's husband, and then leave him? There you go. As Jyoti gradually acclimates to the society and values of America, she lea ...more

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Jan 07, 2019 Nada Kamiche rated it really liked it

This book aims to show the traumatic experiences and cultural perplexity, in which it reveals the depth analysis of women consciousness and their immigrant experiences among the society of Bharati Mukherjee's jasmine (1989) the one dominated by male.
Which tells the story of an indian woman "Jasmine" in the united states, who, trying to adjust into the American society in order for her to protect her life and survive, she changes identity many times, suffered of loss, of pain, and of non-belongin This book aims to show the traumatic experiences and cultural perplexity, in which it reveals the depth analysis of women consciousness and their immigrant experiences among the society of Bharati Mukherjee's jasmine (1989) the one dominated by male.
Which tells the story of an indian woman "Jasmine" in the united states, who, trying to adjust into the American society in order for her to protect her life and survive, she changes identity many times, suffered of loss, of pain, and of non-belonging. Experiences a state of exile, has to deal with the pain of seperation and disorientation in an attempt to gain identity in a foreign country.
Identity, in its short definition, is the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is. The book touches on many different aspects of the life of an immigrant. From the struggles of traveling, to love, to confusion in identity. The most prominent theme in this novel is " Assimilation" has jasmine ever got rid of her Hindi ways? Or has she really become the American person she desires to be?
It is somehow clear throughout the story that jasmine never fully abandoned her own indian way and replace it with the American new way of life. I noticed this in the pages from (141_152) such as in the page 141 " Growing in Hasnapur, we ever sent or received a letter" and in the page 145 : " I'll wait supper for you, Indian wives never eat before their husbands. I added a laugh to lighten what i've just said."
Jasmine is unable to fully let go of her life in India and start a new life in America.
I focus here based on the story on how the indian female immigrant's identity changes in the process of "Integration"
I do believe Jasmine managed to integrate successfully in the American society through the understanding of people's ideas, beliefs, and perspectives, she might have found difficulties at first, but she was able to overcome them by the end. In an attempt to keep the promise, Jasmine traveled all along from Hasnapur (India) to Florida ( united states of America) i'm convinced that this requires strong spirited person to take the risks and choose immigration rather than staying in his comfort zone. Throughout the years Jasmine was able to challenge the person she is, and make a total new person out of herself in a quest for identity in an alien lands and the question asked is how did jasmine try to adapt herself and seeks acceptance in a foreign culture where she gains new independant individual personality in society. The book is useful and worth reading.
N. ...more

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Nov 19, 2019 KeleeAnn Littrell rated it liked it

Just when your life is all figured out and seems to be settling down BOOM!!! A bomb hits you and all is destroyed. Would you be willing to kill the man that raped you? Could you justify why you did it? Jasmine takes you on a ride of ups and downs, sadness, joyfulness, heart-pounding adventures. Just when you think you are comfortable with where you are at reading you get a 360-degree turn to something new yet it all comes together. There were times when reading that my heart was calm but as soon Just when your life is all figured out and seems to be settling down BOOM!!! A bomb hits you and all is destroyed. Would you be willing to kill the man that raped you? Could you justify why you did it? Jasmine takes you on a ride of ups and downs, sadness, joyfulness, heart-pounding adventures. Just when you think you are comfortable with where you are at reading you get a 360-degree turn to something new yet it all comes together. There were times when reading that my heart was calm but as soon as the page turns my heart is pounding as though I just ran a marathon.
Jasmine is a beautiful girl who lived in India up until she was 16. The story is told by her as a woman living in Iowa at age 24, with her paralyzed boyfriend and his family. Before she came to America she was married women to a traditional Indian man who was going to school to have and provide for his family. As Jasmine and her husband were walking to get their information to head to the United States a bomb went off and killed her husband. Jasmine was still determined to carry on to the United States in the hope of a better life. Jasmine talks about the hardships she had to go through like finding her way in a foreign country and a different culture then she has seen. Jasmine has to find her way and stand up for herself in the hardest time of her life. Along the way, she finds friends and a family that love her and cares for her. Jasmine still struggles with finding her identity of how she truly is instead of what people tell her to be. Finding who you are and what you are can be hard but always keep reaching for the stars.
I wanted to read this book because it was out of my comfort zone and something different. This was a good different. This book reminds me of life because of the struggles and the love and cares that people have and show. Yes, there may be people out there that don't show much love or care but if you look hard enough you can find them and sometimes it may be the people you least expect. It is hard to find good and kind people in this world. So many people can put up a face but that can change in a split second. When Jasmine talks about her life in Iowa and living in a town that doesn't have much, it reminds me of my childhood living in a town that doesn't have much to do and you have to find your fun things to do. The book defiantly lives up to its potentianl. You can read it through the eyes of Jasmine and feel her hurt feel her love and feel her journey all the way through.
If you love to read a book with page-turners and different challenges and struggles and understanding what the main character is going through then Jasmine is the book for you. the whole book is flashbacks and they don't always go in chronological order so if you get confused easily with that stuff it may be more difficult to read (as I am one of those people). There were times I just couldn't put it down but there were other times I had to re-read a page or chapter just because it had so many flashbacks that I got lost. This is something that can relate to many people if not all maybe not the exact situations but with the same idea in everyone's life.
...more

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Nov 10, 2018 Smitha Murthy rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: relationships, india, women-writers

These days, I enjoy most of the books I read. Probably because I am more careful about what I read. I rarely turn to the latest in contemporary fiction as I used to. I spend more time on classics, feeling in these words that have endured the test of time a sense of connection that contemporary works rarely give.

When I saw ‘Jasmine’ at the second-hand bookstore I frequent, I picked it up because my reading of Indian writers has been scant this year. I have read more Indian works in translation, b ...more

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Jul 16, 2020 Sanjana Idnani rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book was full of action and explored Jasmine’s shifting identity and needs as she progresses through the various different parts of her life however I felt like the narrative became a little too fast paced with little time spent cultivating genuine relationships with each of the characters. The ending felt rushed and out of the blue and the sorrow that I should have felt at some of the final events got lost. However, I will add that the narrative between Prakash and Jasmine in India was a m ...more

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Mar 09, 2019 Craig Werner rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: asian-american, womens-lit

Crucial part of the Asian (and specifically South Asian) American literary canon. Jasmine combines responses to Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Bronte's Jane Eyre, emerging with something spellbinding and germinal. The protagonist's transformations, moral choices, negotations of radically different worlds--rural and urban India, Flushing and Manhattan, Iowa--anticipates the world of diasporic mobility that was in its early stages of development. The central character is unforgettable. ...more

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Apr 03, 2020 Gwynnie Ball rated it really liked it

I will admit, I read this for a class (please, forgive me). I had trouble getting into this book because of the constant time shifts, and I found myself really confused by the characters and when exactly everything was happening, but once I finally settled into the story and pacing I ended up really enjoying it. The questions of identity, especially in the experience of immigrants, along with the romantic elements kept me reading.

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Feb 18, 2021 Sophie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: clear-my-kindle, owned-books, read-2021, india, women-authors-2021

I didn’t dig for deep and veiled meanings while reading this story. I just let myself be carried along on Jyoti’s/Jasmine’s/Jase’s/Jane’s journey from the fate of being a child bride in India on a horrific underground journey to America. Maybe the idea that by chance she is rescued by benevolence and ends up assimilating with what seems like ease is a bit contrived, I did not mind.
For me, the language and writing made this a terrific read.

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Jun 21, 2018 Brittney rated it it was ok

2.5 stars
*Read for School*
While I did enjoy this at some parts, I feel like some of the modern-day scenes could have been condensed. I appreciated the message of this story and the I enjoyed reading about the main character. This story was hard-hitting at times and really made me think deeper about how hard it is to survive sometimes.

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Oct 20, 2020 Sarah Lorenowich rated it really liked it · review of another edition

i’m surprised with how much i ended up liking this book especially bc in the first maybe 40 pages i was fully not feeling it. but once i got used to the style and the story really started to get going it was a wonderful read ... can’t wait to write an essay on this in a month hopefully i won’t hate it after that

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Nov 03, 2020 Valentina rated it it was amazing

Fully five stars!!!!!! I had a hard time at the beginning to get attached to the character but then I latched on to her and all her worries, fears, successes, etc. So good!!!!!!!!

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Jan 19, 2014 Kaion rated it liked it

Shelves: chromatic, reviewed, contemporary

Jasmine (1989) is the third book of Bharati Mukherjee's that I've picked up, and I've definitely gained the sense that Mukherjee would really be a cool professor to have. Her writing tends to have a quality of being more successful as Professor Mukherjee's lectures on identity and global modernity than well-constructed narratives.

As a novel following the journey of Jyoti/Jasmine/Jane, who goes from Indian country girl/beloved wife to illegal immigrant/Upper West Side nanny to Midwest trophy Jasmine (1989) is the third book of Bharati Mukherjee's that I've picked up, and I've definitely gained the sense that Mukherjee would really be a cool professor to have. Her writing tends to have a quality of being more successful as Professor Mukherjee's lectures on identity and global modernity than well-constructed narratives.

As a novel following the journey of Jyoti/Jasmine/Jane, who goes from Indian country girl/beloved wife to illegal immigrant/Upper West Side nanny to Midwest trophy wife/mother to a teenage son, Jasmine is too short and underdeveloped to be thoroughly satisfying. In addition to suffering from the same meandering quality which sunk The Holder of the World, Jasmine's characterization is thin. Key figures in the narrative, including love interests Taylor (the perfectly enlightened NY professor) and Bud (the simple-minded farmer), are mere cardboard cutouts. Truly, The only secondary character that pops is Du, the adopted Vietnamese son of Bud and "J", who shares with her a mutual understanding of the chameleon-like trajectories of the immigrant.

Additionally, the eponymous "J" never quite overcomes a certain elusiveness that is meant to be a symbol of her continual reinvention, but has a tendency to read as blankness. At one point, Mukherjee has "J" ironically question, "Can wanting be fatal?" --to which a delightful yahoo had written emphatically "YES!" in my copy-- but I never bought that sense of wanting from her, the endless desire essential to her destructive tendency. Consequently, the transformations "J" goes through feel entirely contrived to make a thematic point, rather than coming out of the characterization itself.

However, as a vehicle for Mukherjee's reflections on identity, and her riffs on the various segments of society that "J" encounters? Jasmine is pretty entertaining. Mukherjee appears to have a pessimistic view towards the dream of the multicultural melting pot, if not an outright cynical one. A scene at a PTA meeting, in which "J" meets with one of Du's teachers, sparks with provocation:

And then he said, "He's a quick study isn't he? They were like that, the kids who hung around us in Saigon." He didn't make "quick study" sound like anything you'd like to be. We're all quick studies, I should have said. Once we start letting go—let go of just one thing, like not wearing our normal clothes, or a turban or not wearing a tika on the forehead—the rest goes on its own down a sinkhole. When he first arrived, Du kept a small shrine in his room [...]

"I tried a little Vietnamese on him," Mr. Skola went on, "and he just froze up."

I suppressed my shock, my disgust. This country has so many ways of humiliating, of disappointing. How dare you? What must he have thought? His history teacher in Baden, Iowa, just happens to know a little street Vietnamese? Now where would he have picked it up? There are no harmless, compassionate ways to remake oneself. We murder who we were so we can rebirth ourselves in the images of dreams.

Not exactly providing your typical take on the American dream of reinvention, eh? Mukherjee obliterates the myth of obsequious assimilation or peaceful pursuit, while not ruling out the possibility of finding that life, liberty, and happiness (if in another form than we expected).

It's this quality of intelligence, of a willingness to offer real opinions in her writing which makes, for me, reading Bharati Mukherjee always interesting — ultimately, more rewarding against that of more safe and tasteful writers ~~Jhumpa Lahiri~~, despite the unevenness of her output. Rating: 3 stars ...more

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Aug 19, 2017 Adam Morris rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, asia

This story was not what I had expected from an Indian author. Initially the first few chapters concerning Jasmine's current life in the United States I found unremarkable even tedious. It wasn't until the author took us back to her life in India, her misfortunes, her escapes and her travels that the story became more interesting. Eventually I finished the book quite keenly although I felt that there were several places where the narrative was too thin and events were summarized where more detail ...more

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Jul 25, 2014 Donna rated it really liked it

In a little more than 200 pages Jasmine, the narrator, tells her story. She went back and forth in time piecing it together. She was born in Hasnapur, India, 18 years after the Partition of India. She was the 5th daughter and 7th of 9 children. In 1947, due to the partition, her parents fled the city of Lahore where they lived a comfortable life and moved to Hasnapur where they now lived in poverty. For Jasmine there would be no money for a dowry. And “bad luck followed dowryless wives, rebellio In a little more than 200 pages Jasmine, the narrator, tells her story. She went back and forth in time piecing it together. She was born in Hasnapur, India, 18 years after the Partition of India. She was the 5th daughter and 7th of 9 children. In 1947, due to the partition, her parents fled the city of Lahore where they lived a comfortable life and moved to Hasnapur where they now lived in poverty. For Jasmine there would be no money for a dowry. And “bad luck followed dowryless wives, rebellious wives, and barren wives” which is euphemism for violence against women that we hear about on the news. There was tension between religious sects and superstition and feudal custom still ruled many peoples’ lives. When her father died her brothers took on the task of finding Jasmine a husband inspite of her grandmother’s insistance that she marry an older, widowed farmer. Through her brothers’ efforts at 15 Jasmine met and married Prakash, a modern city man, who wanted to make “something more of his life than fate intended…If we could just get away from India, then all fates would be cancelled – new fates, new stars … We could say or be anything we wanted…out of God’s sight.” He was kind, intelligent, spoke English, and was excited about electronics. And he encouraged Jasmine toward self determination. Together they had a dream to go to America but Prakash did not make it. When he was killed in a bomb attack by a Sikh extremist, making Jasmine a widow, she did not want to “crawl back to Hasnapur and feudalism.” When told by a swami that “our highest mission…is to create new life” Jasmine decided to do just that - but for herself. On a dangerous, harrowing journey she emigrated illegally to the United States by using a charter airline, bribes, a trawler that moved contraband, and finally a shrimp boat going to Florida – “the zigzag route”. She was raped and killed a man and shortly afterwards met Lillian Gordon, “ a facilitator who made possible the lives of absolute ordinariness that we ached for.” Jasmine “didn’t tell Mrs. Gordon what she’d rescued me from. In some fundemental way, she didn’t care. I was no threat, and I was in need…she had a low tolerance for reminiscence, bitterness or nostalgia. Let the past make you wary, by all means. But do not let it deform you.” Lillian taught her how to walk and look American. Jasmine said of Lillian Gordon, “She represented to me the best in the American experience and the American character. She went to jail for refusing to name her contacts or disclose the names and addresses of the so-called army of illegal aliens she’d helped ‘dump’ on the welfare rolls of America.” Jasmine moved on. She lived with an Indian family for a while, worked as a nanny for a professor and his book-editor-wife, and ended up in Baden, Iowa, on a farm with her common-law husband, Bud. When Bud’s mother asked her why she left India “I tell her, education, which is true enough. She knows there is something else. I say, I had a mission. I want to protect her from too much reality.” Jasmine feels “the tug of opposing forces. Hope and pain.” There is no real ending to Jasmine’s story. Her life is left open to possibilities. This was a well told story with a lot to think and talk about. What I liked the most was seeing people and culture through Jasmine’s eyes. ...more

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Sep 13, 2014 Sharon Christy rated it it was ok

This book is about a child's immigration to India. For we see all through the novel that Jasmine, call her what you will, is only a child. And the name changes, people call my Christy, Chris, some even take pride in calling me by my imaginary full name, Christina while I am just Christy. That doesn't mean I have multiple personalities, it means people like to call you differently. And also in many places, I find Jyoti or Jasmine acting like a child. When Karin calls her a gold digger, she defian This book is about a child's immigration to India. For we see all through the novel that Jasmine, call her what you will, is only a child. And the name changes, people call my Christy, Chris, some even take pride in calling me by my imaginary full name, Christina while I am just Christy. That doesn't mean I have multiple personalities, it means people like to call you differently. And also in many places, I find Jyoti or Jasmine acting like a child. When Karin calls her a gold digger, she defiantly replies, yes, the husband I am taking away from you, Bud is gold, and if digging means I am digging away his sorrows, then I am a gold digger. This retort is much like a child's "Nah na na na na". I am sorry but no, Bharati Mukherjee, I cannot believe that every man you come in contact with falls in love with you. Even Scarlett O Hara and other beauties like her had their limits. Jazzy or Jase must have had some kind of superpower. And Jasmine, isn't it convenient or extroardinarily co-incidental that the wives of the men who are interested in you just up and go away or the guy leaves them or them are not married, like Darrel. All the characters were flat characters, no change in any of them and I don't know enough about Bud's pre-Harlan life to compare with the present one you give in the novel, as he is not vastly described as a healthy, fit man. Professor Vadhera gives you the money, Taylor gives you a home and security and Bud gives you a lot more, a slow and steady climb, isn't it but not very realistic. Mother Rippleyer had to be there when you were asking around for the job and lo and behold, another man falls in love with you. Karin calls you a tornado, leaving destruction in your wake, but I think you are more like a child, leaving lovelorn men in your wake. I also think the book misrepresents Indians. You say all Indians are like fisherman looking for fish. I didn't know all Indians meant Punjabi, Hindu, fair-skinned ones. There's also a pretty racist comment by Bud where he imagines all Indian women to be dark-skinned, pot-bellied, starving women. All in all, it was an initially intriguing but finally disappointing read. ...more

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May 05, 2017 Nikhil rated it liked it

Shelves: american, south-asian

3/5.

This novel doesn't really work. The main character experiences so much trauma over the course of her life, that the trauma is devalued in importance, and no specific incident can be treated with the seriousness it deserves. I understand that the novel is trying to depict Jasmine in different contexts, in each of which she experiences violence and which she interprets as being multiple selves (perhaps due to this trauma). Unfortunately, the transitions between contexts are difficult to believ ...more

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Jan 19, 2014 Anesa rated it really liked it

I much enjoyed this engrossing tale, especially the voice of the heroine/narrator as she struggles through adversity and begins to discover her own power to make a better life for herself. Pages and paragraphs alternate between several settings: India, where Jasmine’s beloved husband is murdered by religious zealots; Florida, where she makes illegal entry to the United States and survives a dire assault by her human trafficker; New York, where she works as an au pair; and rural Iowa, where she b ...more

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Jul 06, 2014 Mikanrulz rated it liked it

an interesting look into the forming of an identity. The main lead is an Indian woman who migrate to the US for a purpose, and through many hardships, she did arrive in the US soil - though this was only the beginning of her real journey.

The way the main lead literally created another name to represent another identity for each place she had dwelled in felt very real to me.

The only complain I have about this book is the inherent cinderella complex that is still quite apparent here, were every ma ...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Shaeley Santiago rated it it was ok

Shelves: realistic-fiction, immigrant-refugee, multicultural, iowa-setting

Not a YA book - too many mature scenes. I chose this story because the main character is a Punjabi woman who ends up in rural Iowa. The story contains several flashbacks to her life first in rural India and as a young bride living in the city but also in New York City and Florida where she first lived when she came to the U.S. Initially, it was a bit confusing to follow what was happening and who some of the characters were (like Taylor). While Jasmine (or Jhoti, Jase, or Jane depending on where ...more

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Mar 21, 2014 Minoli rated it really liked it

I like this book for its writing. The language is beautiful, and full of sarcastic poetry. When I read it first I gave it three stars. But then after studying the book today, I am compelled to increase it to a four star rating.

This book makes one question many things. Including if this is about Jyoti's journey from entrapment to liberation linear, or has it been in a circle, aided by men, never truly independent. ...more

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Jul 30, 2008 Jamie Nelson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: top-ten-of-all-time

This book still fascinates me. It was integral to my undergrad senior thesis (over 10 years ago) - American Studies interdisciplinary look at immigration and the depiction of immigration and assimilation in fiction. I don't read it so much as a story, but how it turns immigration stereotypes upside down, and plays with names and geography for creating identity. ...more

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About Bharati Mukherjee

Bharati Mukherjee

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Bharati Mukherjee was an Indian-born award winning American writer who explored the internal culture clashes of her immigrant characters in the award-winning collection The Middleman and Other Stories and in novels like Jasmine and Desirable Daughters.

Ms. Mukherjee, a native of Calcutta, attended schools in England, Switzerland and India, earned advanced degrees in creative writing in the United S ...more