The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

 

THE HENNA ARTIST reminds me a lot of some of the historical fiction I read when I was a younger woman, back in the days when people didn't care quite as much about being PC. These stories were often filled with trauma and suffering, but the triumph of these stories was the strength of the women they were about, even if the times that they were written constrained how they could express or show that strength. And look, I know this is a sensitive point with a lot of readers who want everything to be black and white, but history and reality aren't like that. Bad people are human beings like the rest of us and they have moments of nuance. It seems irresponsible to condemn people for portraying that IN FICTION. Not every main character has to be an anachronistically ardent crusader for social justice to be considered worthy or strong. (I say this as someone who is very liberal by the way.)

I think people who enjoy historical fiction like IN THE COMPANY OF THE COURTESAN, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, SNOWFLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN, and THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL will love this, because it does that thing where the author just lets the characters tell their own stories without trying to convey some sort of heavy-handed morality tale and lets the characters be a bunch of bitches if they feel like it (and boy do they). Lakshmi, the heroine, does things that benefit others-- and she has a mostly kind heart-- but she's also in it for herself, and sometimes this makes her cruel, and sometimes this makes her selfish.

Lakshmi, a woman from the Brahmin caste who has become a little disgraced as a henna artist because she touches hands and feet which are considered to be unclean, is a woman who knows what hell looks like. She escaped her abusive husband and turned to henna-ing because she didn't want to sell her body. Against all odds, she succeeded. And the high demand for her art has proven extremely lucrative, especially when her connections put her in the path of the royal family. However, her job is filled with secrets because her side hustle could prove to be ruinous: she provides the husband of one of her clients with prophylactic sachets to help prevent pregnancies (having started out her art in the pleasure districts working for whores). Just in case that wasn't enough drama, Lakshmi also finds herself with a new sister, Radha, that she never knew about after leaving her parents. Radha is spirited and quick to anger, which, of course, ends up providing even more problems when a bitch has such big secrets to hide.

I thought this book was pretty good. It does a great job portraying the nuances of social politics and the concept of saving face. I also liked how all of the characters, including the "bad" ones, were portrayed as complex people with good and bad sides to them. Lakshmi wasn't always likable but you could see how circumstances hardened her and made her willing to do whatever it took to survive. Radha was less likable, and I found her very frustrating towards the end of the book, but she was also a very young character and lived in a fantasy land where she was desperate to be loved, and I could see how the dissonance between her own life and what she wanted could cause problems. This book is set in the mid-1950s in Jaipur so it was also cool to see all the '50s pop-culture references and Western influences juxtaposed against a country recovering from the trauma of British colonization.

Apparently I got this book as an ARC. I thought I had reviewed it because I remember vaguely reading and liking it before, but for whatever reason, I didn't post my review to Goodreads. Sorry about that.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars