HoustonChronicle.com Section: Books HoustonChronicle.com's BookTalk forum 2:58 PM 6/26/1997 Out of the shadows Novel probes complex quest for identity By FRITZ LANHAM SOMEONE once said there are only four or five great themes in literature. One of those has to be the quest for identity, for the answer to the question, "Who am I?" That identity quest powers the plot of Bharati Mukherjee's sixth novel, Leave It to Me (Knopf, $23), in which a 23-year-old mixed-race adoptee, Debby DiMartino, leaves her comfortable Hudson Valley Italian family. Having metaphorically reincarnated herself as Devi, the death-dealing Indian goddess, she moves to San Francisco in search of Bio-Mom and Bio-Dad. Mukherjee, whose book tour brought her to Houston last week, brings a complex identity of her own to the task of writing. Born in Calcutta, she was raised in a conservative, affluent family. Her father owned a pharmaceutical plant, and the family lived in a walled compound, complete with security guards and a chauffeured Rover. It was a sheltered life. Girls were expected to be docile and take orders from their male elders. All that changed in 1961. Armed with a master's degree in English and ancient Indian culture, Mukherjee came to the United States to attend the University of Iowa (she would earn a master of fine arts in creative writing and a doctorate in English and comparative literature). | |
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