India-born Anjali Banerjee grew up in Canada and the U.S. She writes both for children and adults, and not all of her protagonists are from the South Asian community, though some are. As for protagonists, one of her most acclaimed books features a cat as a narrator. Still, it’s hard to get away from the lure of the exotic that an Indian origin carries. The author’s website quotes a description of “Haunting Jasmine” — which to Anjali is a “shift away from the Indian experience toward a more mainstream story” — by a Seattle Times critic: “Banerjee invites the reader into her colourful, hopeful world, one in which the Northwest island tides coexist with the ghost of Julia Child, Charles Dickens’ mirror, and a sari or two.”
Like any author, though, Anjali, who lives in the Pacific Northwest, aims for a universal appeal. Here she shares her experiences:
While “Enchanting Lily” doesn't have an Indian protagonist, your earlier three books do. What kind of feedback did you get for these books from your American readers and those of Indian/South Asian origin? Was the reception different for the earlier three, that dealt overtly with the Indian American experience?
My wonderful readers have given me overwhelmingly positive feedback. For the first three books, American readers often loved the cultural texture and details — food, clothing, the “flavours of India” — and the humour in “Imaginary Men”. Readers of South Asian descent appreciated the ways in which their backgrounds paralleled the characters’ experiences, or sometimes the opposite. Each person’s reaction to a book is highly individual and influenced by the reader’s background, biases and expectations. Some readers who loved “Imaginary Men” and “Invisible Lives”, which dealt overtly with the Indian American experience, disliked the shift away from the Indian experience toward a more mainstream story with elements of magic realism in “Haunting Jasmine”. Other readers enjoyed the fantasy and love story in it, and the book made the foreign bestseller list in Italy as “La Libreria dei Nuovi Inizi” (“The Bookshop of New Beginnings”). Cat lovers and readers who enjoy gentle stories of renewal and second chances sent me lovely responses to “Enchanting Lily”, which is told partly from the point of view of a cat, but none of the readers identified themselves as Indian/South Asian.
On stereotypes…
I’m a writer first, so I feel my main responsibility is to spin an entertaining tale and create authentic, non-stereotypical characters. Beyond that, yes, I feel there has been a danger of becoming ‘slotted’ as a writer. For example, according to one American reviewer, the “real value” of my novel, “Looking for Bapu” (published as “Bringing Back Grandfather” in India), lay in “providing Indian Americans with a chance to see themselves and their culture affirmed.” While this is a lovely sentiment, my goal was to create a poignant, sometimes funny story of one boy’s journey through grief after the death of his grandfather. While I tried to make the cultural details as authentic as possible, I sought to present a particular story of a particular boy’s experience. Another reviewer wrote of the same book, “a fine title for libraries serving East Indian communities.” Of course I want to reach as wide a readership as possible, so I think of this as a novel that has universal appeal. Every writer wants to touch as many people as possible with her story — I would like to think that my books do that.
When can we expect your next novel?
Soon, I hope! I don’t yet have a publication date for my next book.
Feedback from India…
Two of my novels for youngsters, “Maya Running” and “Bringing Back Grandfather”, were published by Penguin Books India and are available in India and Singapore. My four books for adults, “Imaginary Men”, “Invisible Lives”, “Haunting Jasmine”, and “Enchanting Lily” (the first two books published by Simon & Schuster and the last two by Penguin USA) were also distributed in India but are more readily available online.
