Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating Tale of an Immigrant Girl from India.
Review: 'Jasmine' captures the attention of an average American reader for its captivating subject matter as well as the engrossing style. It is the poignant story of Jyoti the daughter of a Hindu family in Hasnapur in Punjab, India, a family driven out of Lahore during the partition of India-Pakistan in 1947, who ends up in the farm lands of Iowa at the age of 24 along with a banker in wheelchair much older than herself and an adopted Vietnamese boy. Bharati Mukherjee through her characteristic prose narrates the moving tale of this courageous woman who, resigned to her fate foretold by an astrologer in India, journeys through life with determination as the young wife of a promising engineer in Jallundar, an illegal immigrant in Fowlers Key, FL, a maidservant in Flushing, NY, the 'day-mummy' for a little girl in Manhattan and the 'wife' of a banker in Elsa County, Iowa. For the sake of survival Jyoti the village girl of Hasnapur successively transforms herself into Jasmine, Jase and Jane. A misguided young follower of Bhidranwalle in Punjab and the 'Half-Face' in Florida take the roles of the villains. Mukherjee's superb writing skills with great sensitivity to the tensions and thrills experienced by an immigrant from India makes this book a fascinating reading.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Tale of an Immigrant Girl from India.
Review: 'Jasmine' captures the attention of an average American reader for its captivating subject matter as well as the engrossing style. It is the poignant story of Jyoti the daughter of a Hindu family in Hasnapur in Punjab, India, a family driven out of Lahore during the partition of India-Pakistan in 1947, who ends up in the farm lands of Iowa at the age of 24 along with a banker in wheelchair much older than herself and an adopted Vietnamese boy. Bharati Mukherjee through her characteristic prose narrates the moving tale of this courageous woman who, resigned to her fate foretold by an astrologer in India, journeys through life with determination as the young wife of a promising engineer in Jallundar, an illegal immigrant in Fowlers Key, FL, a maidservant in Flushing, NY, the 'day-mummy' for a little girl in Manhattan and the 'wife' of a banker in Elsa County, Iowa. For the sake of survival Jyoti the village girl of Hasnapur successively transforms herself into Jasmine, Jase and Jane. A misguided young follower of Bhidranwalle in Punjab and the 'Half-Face' in Florida take the roles of the villains. Mukherjee's superb writing skills with great sensitivity to the tensions and thrills experienced by an immigrant from India makes this book a fascinating reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissappointing..
Review: After a long time I read a book by an Indian author and it was really disappointing. Initially, the characters are not described well, there are too many of them, and it seems like it's all over the place. There is no constant train of thought and it's very confusing to follow the book in the beginning. The book is about a girl, who travels to America after the death of her husband and meets people while she lives in America. Its does not show the true picture of ones struggles and suffering - she seems to meet someone all the time that is willing to take care of her and help her. I think the author was not able to get the message across to the readers, if there ever was one. I would not recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: An amazing read that pulls you in from the start and doesn't let you go. While the beginning can be slightly confusing, as characters are introduced by name but not full context, continuing on in the story neatly and dramatically reveals everyone in their powerful places they play in the story. A story that stays with you and really opens a window to an experience not all native-born Americans are even aware of. Very moving and compassionate. Very real.
Rating: 
Summary: The Many Lives of Jasmine
Review: An astrologer tells Jasmine at the age of seven that she is going to be widowed by the time she is fifteen. After the astrologer's prediction comes true, Jasmine decides to move to a small city in Iowa. Coming from India, she refers to Iowa as the new "Third World". During her lifetime, Jasmine travels to many places where she is given different names. These various names identify her as a new person by the influential men of her life. For example she is given the name "Jase" from her professor and the name "Jane" from her husband. This helps Jasmine to conceal her ethnic difference, and it enables her to survive in this strange, new world. Jasmine believes she is born more than once. Thus, her changing names reflect her rebirths. Jasmine's journey serves as a metaphor for the ever-moving, regenerating process of life itself. Overall, this book forces the reader to see America from a different point of view as a "Third World".
Rating:
Summary: strength beyond words
Review: An incredible story of life as an immigrant among rural mid-Western America, Mukherjee elaborates on not simply the difficulties, but the intricacies that make up farmers' lives in America from an Indian perspective. With an unbelievable sense of purpose, pride, dignity and perseverance, Jasmine moves into the America she wants to see rather than the one that is shown to her. Take your time reading this one, each description adds commentary to the events that swirl around this young 24-year old bride of a paralyzed banker.
Rating:
Summary: A Novel of Ideas, And It Shows
Review: Bharati Mukherjee's 1988 short story "Jasmine" is a gem. It tells the story of Indian woman from Trinidad who enters the U.S. illegally and ends up working in the household of a liberal academic family in Ann Arbor. Mukherjee employs a light touch in her portrayal of the differences between the savvy Jasmine and her well-intentioned but naive employers. The story steers clear of sentimentality while still making you acutely aware of the precariousness of an illegal immigrant's life and the yawning gulf of power between the rich and poor parts of the world. The novel "Jasmine" is an expansion of that short story. Here, Jasmine is from an impoverished family in India proper, and we get a tour of subcontinental politics, Sikh separatism, and the mechanics of immigrant smuggling before she even makes it to the States. Though Jasmine ultimately lands in a liberal academic household, along the way she moves to Iowa, gets married, and becomes embroiled in a subplot reminiscent of the save-the-farm movies that enjoyed a brief popularity in the late 1980s. (For long stretches of the book you keep expecting Sally Field to show up.) This structural shagginess is the story's growing pains. Whether it's worth it depends on how compelling you find the themes "Jasmine" has been expanded to address. Given a bigger canvas, Mukherjee takes on bigger ideas. The novel depicts not just the differences between the first and third worlds, but also their interconnectedness. Most interestingly, Mukherjee undermines the notion that immigrants flee pre-modern homelands in search of modern sanctuaries. In her novel, both are equally modern: the former is just modernity of a rougher sort. At one point during her sojourn in Iowa, Jasmine and her adopted Vietnamese son Du (things get awfully shaggy) fix a VCR together. In Mukherjee's world, the west is no longer the locus of technology: there's nothing more natural than for fellow third-worlders to bond over a soldering gun. Themes like this make the novel "Jasmine" compelling on an intellectual level, and I'd be surprised if it's not a darling of undergraduate seminars. (Where the engagingly hard-to-classify Mukherjee is no doubt pigeonholed as a "woman writer of color.") Still, there's a grace missing from the novel. Though the shagginess of the plot may be forgivable, the neatness of the prose strikes a false note. In going from short story to novel, Mukherjee shifted from the third to the first person, and she can't quite pull off the change in perspective. Jasmine is supposed to be a fiercely intelligent but largely uneducated woman, but her voice in the novel has a sanguine, middle-class ring to it. It's oddly at ease, and too indulgently comprehending of the little absurdities of the liberal academic lifestyle. The short story's Jasmine sounded like a woman from Trinidad; the novel's Jasmine sounds like Bharati Mukherjee. As a meditation on what it means to be an immigrant and what it means to be an American, the novel "Jasmine" is a worthwhile read. To see art trump ideas, however, check out the anthology "The Short Story and Its Writer" (Ann Charters, editor) and read the seed from which it grew.
Rating:
Summary: A Novel of Ideas, And It Shows
Review: Bharati Mukherjee's 1988 short story "Jasmine" is a gem. It tells the story of Indian woman from Trinidad who enters the U.S. illegally and ends up working in the household of a liberal academic family in Ann Arbor. Mukherjee employs a light touch in her portrayal of the differences between the savvy Jasmine and her well-intentioned but naive employers. The story steers clear of sentimentality while still making you acutely aware of the precariousness of an illegal immigrant's life and the yawning gulf of power between the rich and poor parts of the world. The novel "Jasmine" is an expansion of that short story. Here, Jasmine is from an impoverished family in India proper, and we get a tour of subcontinental politics, Sikh separatism, and the mechanics of immigrant smuggling before she even makes it to the States. Though Jasmine ultimately lands in a liberal academic household, along the way she moves to Iowa, gets married, and becomes embroiled in a subplot reminiscent of the save-the-farm movies that enjoyed a brief popularity in the late 1980s. (For long stretches of the book you keep expecting Sally Field to show up.) This structural shagginess is the story's growing pains. Whether it's worth it depends on how compelling you find the themes "Jasmine" has been expanded to address. Given a bigger canvas, Mukherjee takes on bigger ideas. The novel depicts not just the differences between the first and third worlds, but also their interconnectedness. Most interestingly, Mukherjee undermines the notion that immigrants flee pre-modern homelands in search of modern sanctuaries. In her novel, both are equally modern: the former is just modernity of a rougher sort. At one point during her sojourn in Iowa, Jasmine and her adopted Vietnamese son Du (things get awfully shaggy) fix a VCR together. In Mukherjee's world, the west is no longer the locus of technology: there's nothing more natural than for fellow third-worlders to bond over a soldering gun. Themes like this make the novel "Jasmine" compelling on an intellectual level, and I'd be surprised if it's not a darling of undergraduate seminars. (Where the engagingly hard-to-classify Mukherjee is no doubt pigeonholed as a "woman writer of color.") Still, there's a grace missing from the novel. Though the shagginess of the plot may be forgivable, the neatness of the prose strikes a false note. In going from short story to novel, Mukherjee shifted from the third to the first person, and she can't quite pull off the change in perspective. Jasmine is supposed to be a fiercely intelligent but largely uneducated woman, but her voice in the novel has a sanguine, middle-class ring to it. It's oddly at ease, and too indulgently comprehending of the little absurdities of the liberal academic lifestyle. The short story's Jasmine sounded like a woman from Trinidad; the novel's Jasmine sounds like Bharati Mukherjee. As a meditation on what it means to be an immigrant and what it means to be an American, the novel "Jasmine" is a worthwhile read. To see art trump ideas, however, check out the anthology "The Short Story and Its Writer" (Ann Charters, editor) and read the seed from which it grew.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book...
Review: Excellent book that will get to your heart. I bought it using a coupon from UnderTag.com, so it was almost free for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Dreadful
Review: Frankly, 'Jasmine' is one of the worst books I have ever read...
I cried, from boredom.
Many characters names pop out of no where, and the author does not explain who they are and where they came from. You are left hanging, trying to figure out what is going on.
In addition, random words are capitalized and it is written using short sentences, like that in some childrens' book or something.
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