Henna Artist
By: Alka Joshi
Published Year: 2020
Publisher: Harlequin
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own…
Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow—a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does.
First Impressions
I found out about this book from Reese’s book club. I realized I hadn’t checked the books on her list in a while and when I did, this was the month’s pick. I like historical fiction and I loved the cover, so I decided to add it to my to-read list.
What I thought
Since I’ve been taking so many walks during the pandemic and the libraries were all closed, I decided to listen to this as an audiobook. Also, because of this, please excuse any misspellings as I didn’t get to read the names, only listen to them.
Lakshmi travels to the city of Jaipur in the 1950s to be rid of her husband and start her own life. After years there establishing herself as a henna artist, as well as a side business of providing women with herbal medicines, an unknown sister shows up at her door. All of a sudden, she is in charge of caring for Radha at 12 years old while trying to further her own place in life by working for women of status and even the palace.
Before I talk about the story itself, I want to talk about listening to it as an audiobook. I did like the voice of the narrator, but she spoke n a slow and soothing voice. I found myself tuning out sometimes when she was talking and, therefore, not being as engaged in the story as I probably should have. One of my coworkers reminded me that you can speed up audiobooks, so I increased the speed to 1.25 and found that I was more engaged and less likely to space out. I have to say, I don’t think I’m really an audiobook person. I’ve listened to a handful and rarely have I found myself as interested in the book as I am with physical books.
The story itself was very interesting. I have never read a historical fiction that takes place in India. I found the cultural and class differences to be fascinating. I had never thought about the fact that rich women would hire henna artists as henna is not a part of my culture. What really intrigued me though was the way that Lakshmi used herbal remedies for a variety of ailments. She was even questioned by a doctor for her herbs, but even he ended up coming around to her ways in the end.
I wasn’t crazy about the storylines with Radha. She is very immature, as should be expected by a young girl who lived out in the country, but I wanted to smack her upside the head. She was nothing but trouble from the moment she entered and I wanted Lakshmi to ship her off somewhere and never deal with her again. I wish that the story had focused more on Lakshmi and her trying to climb the social ladder and less on Radha and all of the destruction she brought.
Overall, this was an interesting read. I liked learning about the history and culture of India in the 1950s. There are a lot of class similarities as in other countries so it was interesting to see how that played out in the Indian culture. I can’t say for sure if I would’ve enjoyed this more if I had read it instead of listening to it, but I never found myself thinking about this book after listening to it. if you’re looking for something different, I definitely recommend checking it out.