The Henna Artist

Lakshmi is an attractive 30-year-old henna artist who has made a new life for herself in Jaipur after running away from an abusive marriage and life in the small village of Ajar, India. She has spent 13 years cultivating a clientele from among the city’s most well-to-do families. Despite her success, Lakshmi feels guilt at abandoning her parents and dreams of bringing them to Jaipur to live in her fine new house.

Lakshmi’s inner conflict between the desire to choose her own destiny and her sense of shame at failing in a traditional role embodies the struggle of Indian women emerging from centuries of restrictive cultural conditioning. The fact that the main character is skilled at compounding contraceptive remedies also flies in the face of the Indian tradition of big families no matter what the physical cost to the women who bear them. When Lakshmi’s 13-year-old sister, Radha, moves in with her, Lakshmi’s inner conflict is apparent in her treatment of Radha: While adamant about her own desire to choose her destiny, she criticizes that same desire in Rakha, claiming she is thinking about Radha’s own good.

For much of the novel, Lakshmi sees her house—a symbol of her material success that she hopes one day to show her parents—as a way of atoning for her past sins.