I had the pleasure of getting to conduct an interview with Cheryl Snell. Thank you, Cheryl, for your time.

Proud Book Nerd: My understanding is that your inspiration for Shiva’s Arms was your own experience. How closely does Alice represent you?

Cheryl Snell: I always say that Alice is not me, but I know her very well. Beyond the fact that we are Americans married to Brahmins and have long hair, there is no resemblance. She is a lifelong depressive, I’m relentlessly cheery; she needs to belong, I’m suspicious of any club that would have me as a member (apologies to Woody Allen); she’s capable of losing herself in a relationship, I’m a big fan of boundaries.

PBN: How close is this story to your own experience? Did you put some specific personal experiences into this story?

CS: After molding the narrative in revision after revision, there is little overlap between fiction and reality. I never met my mother-in-law, for instance, and by all accounts she was much sweeter than Amma. Shiva’s Arms draws on events and “types” familiar to us all, but it is literary fiction, and a work of the imagination.

PBN: What was your favorite scene to write in Shiva’s Arms?

CS: I came to love the ending. It was arrived after many attempts to thread through the symbolism of the central message in a fresh but resonant way. When I finally got it right, a lump rose in my throat.

PBN: What was the hardest part for you to write?

CS: Alice’s breakdown. I had to get inside Alice, and try to feel what she felt at the moment of her greatest vulnerability, like an actor does with a role. I wonder if it can be dangerous, to get so close to a character? What if you never snap out of it?

PBN: I love that you have the recipes in the back of the book. Which recipe would you say is your favorite or the one you’d recommend someone make if they could only make one?

CS: I like the coconut dumplings. I’ve got such a sweet tooth! And every time I make them I think of the story that Amma tells at the dinner party about koyakkattai. That story is the same one my husband’s grandmother told him as a child, by the way.

PBN: Speaking of the back of the book, I also love the glossary at the back. It’s proven quite helpful! There have been a couple of times, though, when I looked for something that wasn’t there. How do you determine what to put in the glossary and what to omit?

CS: If the definition could be intuited from the context, I left it out. I didn’t want to insult my readers. Also, most Indian novelists include glossaries, and I didn’t want to be redundant, especially since my readers would likely have read those works.

PBN: How different was the experience of writing a novel for you, compared to writing stories and poetry?

CS: It’s image vs scene, destination vs journey. I pull the poetry into the language of the novel, and I distill the essence of my characters for the poems. I switch back and forth, letting one genre feed the other.

PBN: Please tell us something about yourself that isn’t in your author bio.

CS: I only began publishing those ten books and 400+ journal pieces after I turned 50.

PBN: What are you reading right now?

CS: Some science, actually.That’s another one of my interests, and two of my poetry books and a new novel are awash in it.

PBN: Who is your favorite author?

CS: I can’t pick just one! Munro, Tolstoy, and Flaubert would be at the top of a long, fluctuating list, though.

PBN: Finally, what’s next for you? Do you have another novel in the works? Are you working on more poetry?

CS: All of that, always.

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And now, the review:

Title: Shiva’s Arms

Author: Cheryl Snell

Summary: Shiva’s Arms is about what happens when cultures collide. Alice meets Ramesh, and they fall in love. She’s American; he’s Indian. His family does not approve – especially not his mother, who is named Shiva but goes by Amma. Amma basically does what she can to make Alice pay for ruining her son’s life. When Alice succumbs to clinical depression, things get further complicated. The relationship between Amma and Alice is nothing but negative. Then Amma falls ill, and Alice is forced to help bring Amma back. It’s a story about cultural differences, love, and reconciliation.

My Thoughts: There are things I liked about this book, and things I didn’t like. But, I guess that’s something to be said for just about every book. Usually, I can rate a book pretty easily. Not so much with this one. On one hand, it was OK. On another, I liked it. So, I’ll break it down into what I think is good and bad.

Didn’t like: Transitions were often poorly handled. One paragraph, they’re in India and the next they’re in America. It gets confusing at times. No, it doesn’t need to be written out, “And now back in America …” or anything like that. But, something as simple as extra space between the last paragraph in India and the first in America would suffice. It is a device used in many, many books to denote change of scene, change of perspective, or something else that doesn’t merit a new chapter. Some books have just extra space, others put squiggles, stars, or other graphics between the sections within a chapter. Something like that is needed in Shiva’s Arms. There weren’t transitions, but just abrupt changes. Sometimes it took me awhile to figure out that we’d changed places or focus.

Liked: The struggle that is clashing cultures is very well depicted in Shiva’s Arms. While I was better able to relate to Alice, I could see both sides of things. That said, I couldn’t agree with much of anything that Amma did. Taking a new baby to INDIA without even discussing with the baby’s mother? So NOT cool. And, while I hated a lot of things Amma did, said, and stood for, I can’t count that against the book. And don’t get me started on Ramesh. Torn between two cultures, his inner struggle was evident.

Didn’t like: Some of the terminology and reference to Indian culture were things I didn’t understand. I found the Glossary at the back very helpful, but occasionally I was frustrated for lack of definition for something that wasn’t in there. Yes, a lot could be guessed at based on context, but not all of it. I agree with not talking down to readers, but giving them too much credit isn’t necessarily a good thing, either. Some readers might be picking up this book, not having read others like it. They are the ones who need the additional help. And, with those things in the Glossary (rather than explained in the text of the story), I don’t think it would’ve been talking down to the reader. Someone who doesn’t need it defined simply wouldn’t look for it. Someone who did would be grateful to find it there.

Liked: The recipes in the back. What an excellent touch! I might have to try some of the sweets!

Bottom line: I have decided to give this book 3 stars because of how well it shows the clash of cultures. How well it shows the struggle, and how well it shows Alice’s extra struggle with depression, too. Yes, there were some things I thought that could’ve been handled better, but overall the book was quite interesting. It wasn’t riveting; it wasn’t something I couldn’t put down. But, it held my interest and I was intrigued to see how things would play out.

My Rating: 3 stars

Source: This was book was sent by the publisher for an honest review.

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