Suzanne Fisher Staples,
Shiva’s Fire.
Farrar Straus Giroux / Frances Foster, 2000

Shiva’s Fire centers on Parvati, and Indian girl whose birth and life has been predestined based on a Hindu world view. Born on an inauspicious day to Sundar and Meenakshi, Parvati seems to bring with her an avalanche of evil events – mirroring the eternal creativity and massive destructiveness of the "Lord Shiva" of Hinduism.

A supernatural and destructive storm comes with her birth. "Above them the air was crowded with the great feathered bodies of vultures, circling endlessly, looking for corpses that had been washed away … One vulture hopped brazenly up to a group of children who sat at the edge of the shelter to see whether they were edible yet."

Her father dies in an elephant attack; members of her family die of illnesses; starvation plagues their town Nandipuram; a tiger carries off several children. Parvati herself is a prescient child, aware of all the goings-on about her from birth as well as her Aunt’s hatred of her, her brothers’ ambivalence towards her, her mother’s watchful eye. As a child, Parvati discovers her raison d’etre. In an eerie echo of the outmoded Indian practice of suttee (the burning of a living widow in her husband’s funeral pyre), Parvati jumps into a fire and dances: "The flames felt like little caresses on her feet and legs, and their tickles propelled her feet to move faster and faster. She whirled and lifted her legs and arms. She knew she looked as perfect as Shiva Nataraja dancing in the niche across from her bed each night."

A guru pays her family for her dedication of her life to celebrate the elusive spiritual realities of the Hindu deities through dance, meditation, yoga, vows of silence and physical practices. Though she is lower-caste, she is separated out by her dancing talents and her predestination. The guru explains, " A devadasi is a servant of the gods. After the British came, they were regarded as common (temple) prostitutes. To be a devadasi is a sacred thing – as it was in ancient times." Parvati’s fate includes attracting the affections of the son of the Maharaja Narasimha Deva as a temple dancer, and her ascendancy in society through her beauty and skill.

This book opens up a different world perspective for its readers. Much of the plot is predictable, and the author doesn’t delve deeply into reality but balances the old plot of Cinderella in the clothing of ersatz Indian culture and Hinduism. Shiva’s Fire ends in Parvati’s spiritual enlightenment, when she hears the voice of the Lord Shiva with a positive message of her self-actualization.

Shalin Hai-Jew