A passably good blend of heated passion and the short lived intensity of it forms one thread of the tale. It is interwoven with the tale of a kathakali artist whose ups and downs in life forms the spine that holds the tale together.

The nine rasas (emotions) that make up the art of Kathakali are dealt with in detail and given more depth from the perspective of the characters themselves. Kerala itself plays a major character for the tale and develops itself as the tale progresses.

Passably good enough....

I was ranting and raving about this book while in the initial half. But, as with many such books with promising starts , things started fizzling out at the end. End was dragging and just tolerable, so what I supposed would turn out to be a five star book, woefully became an ordinary 3 star one. The theme is Kathakali, an ancient kerala dance form, and about a man who has devoted his life to the same, though he is only a parallel character in the story. His niece Radha and her cousin-husband Shyam are facing marital problems and thereby enters Chris, a charismatic American with a secret who carries Radha off her feet. The contemporary events are coupled with past recollection of lives made and broken, riches gained and lost, all of which culminate in the end. I didn't much like the way women or the sexual instinct was portrayed in this book. I would have loved the initial effortless narrative to continue and culminate in a more acceptable end.

http://ponderingsofaninsomniac.blogspot.in/2013/01/mistress-by-anita-nair.html

I don't know about you. Some books I have on my shelves I get really excited about, and really look forward to reading. Sometimes these books let me down, admittedly, but usually they live up to my expectations. But I also have other books on my shelves that I can't remember why or how I acquired them, and I'm not convinced I still want to read them, but then when I do they blow me away with how good they are. This falls into the latter category.

Ostensibly, Mistress is the story of the bored Indian housewife, Radha, who is excited by the thrill of the young American man, Chris, who arrives to interview her Uncle about his kathakali dancing career, and the two have an affair. But this book is so much more than that. Interweaved with this story are various histories of her parents and grandparents, and it is this rich tapestry of history and storytelling, as well as the vivid setting of India and the cultural details about the kathakali dancing, that make this book what it is. Its quite a fat book, and could be quite daunting, but I would highly recommend it.

My favorite part of India was definitely Kerala. So in typical librarian fashion, I cam home and searched both Novelist and our catalog for Kerala - Fiction and only two titles: Mistress and Atlas of Unknowns. I enjoyed the setting of this book, it was too long and overly metaphorical. One of the main characters of this book is a retired kathakali dancer and a great deal of the book is devoted to this. I was glad to have seen some kathakali dancing, or it would have been totally lost on me. And while the concept of an artist having difficulty connecting him/herself to their art and the rest of the world is universal and interesting, the never ending descriptions and mythology of the dance got a little old. The other part of this book followed the dancer's married niece and her affair with a white man who comes to interview the dancer. This was interesting, but also seemed a bit too long. I would probably only recommend this to people who have traveled to Kerala or planning on going there in the near future.