A romantic novel with some social commentary, Sonali Dev’s ‘Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavours’ very loosely follows the Austen original. This is all to the good, as most Austen retellings are pale shadows of the originals. (see ‘A Multitude of Austen Silhouettes‘)
It is best to completely forget Austen when reading this novel. Dev has enthusiastically played around with the characters and their roles. The Darcy character is played by Trisha Raje, literally Indian royalty, and the novel is told largely from her point of view. Elizabeth Bennett is replaced by Darcy James Caine, a part-Jamaican, part-Anglo-Indian chef. (This is only confusing if you’re trying to keep the Austen parallels clear in your head, and one wonders why the author bothered: the novel would have done perfectly well without the Darcy/Austen connection.)
Trisha, the protagonist, is privileged in every country: born of Indian royalty, grew up wealthy in the US, beautiful, and a brilliant neurosurgeon to boot. Her charismatic brother is running for governor of California. Her princely father is also a brilliant doctor (in the same hospital, which seems unnecessarily nepotistic). Her mother was the heartthrob of millions, a Bollywood actress who eloped with the prince. It is a relief when Trisha’s cousin turns out to merely own a restaurant.
DJ Caine, in contrast, is a part-Anglo-Indian, part black immigrant to the UK, grew up as the child of a single working mother, has worked since he was 10, is devoted to his only sibling Emma, and has faced ethnic insults and racism in many countries. As befits a romantic hero, he also has plentiful muscles and a British accent.
Despite all her accomplishments and her supreme confidence in the surgical arena, Trisha dissolves into a helpless emotional mess when faced with her family. It is frequently mentioned that they ‘cast her out’ due to an incident in the past, although there is little evidence of this — she often visits the family mansion and family Carmel retreat and is always on the phone with her sister.
The prejudice in this novel comes largely from Trisha. Her upbringing in the US has not given her any belief in the dignity of labour or equality of humans: she refers to DJ as ‘the hired help’, asks him ‘Do you know how much [my] hands are worth?’, and tells him that she only dates doctors. You’d think he’d run a mile in the opposite direction, but this is a romance novel, and so despite this unpleasantness of personality, you can guess what’s going to happen.
‘Julia Wickham’ enters the story: she has a history with Trisha and her family from 15 years ago, and may be working against them again. But why? Julia is a rather one-dimensional character; her virulent hatred for Trisha and family is never really explained. It would have been nice to have a little more balance and understanding in the portrayal of Julia.
Reality checks are best ignored. (Are doctors allowed to date their patient’s brother? Do doctors chat to their own families and friends about their patients, naming names and medical details? How would a rape report ‘set back the women’s movement 100 years’?)
Perhaps the best part of this novel is the description of Trisha’s family: warm, affectionate, close. But also perplexingly self-absorbed: they are furious when she’s late for a family function, even though you’d think performing a complex surgery would be a good excuse.
The book tackles some class and race issues. DJ’s background as the child of a single working mother in England is well described, and contrasted with Trisha’s upscale upbringing. There is a scene where DJ locks his keys in a borrowed Porsche and attempts to break in, only to have the cops appear. Trisha is shocked! shocked! that the cops would treat a black man this way. (Honestly, doesn’t this brilliant woman ever read the papers?)
The missing piece is the reaction of the Indian-Americans to DJ. Racism certainly exists in the I-A community, but not a single one of Trisha’s family has the slightest negative reaction to DJ. In fact, they all but throw him into her arms. While Dev is to be commended for discussing race at all in a romance novel, it would have been interesting if she took on race issues within the Indian and I-A community as well.
Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors, by Sonali Dev. William Morrow, 2019
Recent Comments