Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard

-
Hullabaloo in the Guava OrchardHullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This however is an ill-fitting finish to a marvelous masterpiece

Dear Kiran Desai,

This is by far, one the best hilarious books I have brought myself to read in a long time. I completely enjoyed it. Having devoured "The Inheritance of Loss" a long time back, I can't imagine why I procrastinated this long to lay hands on this chef-d'oeuvre

The work of fiction vaguely reminds one of RK Narayan's "The Guide", and briefly transports us into the pages of Thoreau's 'Walden', nonetheless, humor reigns supreme.

The true to life descriptions of the expectations from Indian bride's - to be able to sing and dance, but never to be practiced after marriage, or that she was expected to be always shy when talking of husband and children, are a few dew drops in the ocean of interesting facts laid down bare to the reader.

The invention of human bite is also note-worthy.

The story is well woven and interconnected, with many an impressive quotable quote, delivered by the Monkey Baba himself.

The initial reviews of the book made me look at Sampath as a sloppy creature, but once I read the book, I couldn't help but connecting every bit to his character.

Though at the finish, one finds the book grossly lacking in backbone, the actual reading experience in itself is unforgettable. I was seriously contemplating on giving the book a 5 star, pledging myself to become an unconditionally Desai fan, unable to fathom why the book has only a GR rating of 3.43, UNTIL the ending gave away, and I turned to head to other pursuits of paramount priority.

A beautiful satire on the life and families of self-proclaimed god-men, I am inclined to believe that the book is completely under-rated on GR, and beyond a shadow of doubt, deserves more than just a three point something.

Regards,
Nisha S


View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Depression? Fight it! Chapter 1 : Help Others

-
There are times when you feel like a failure.. the biggest failure, may be a love failure?? Bad scores in life?? Business out of order?? Someone around called you useless, or you always wanted to something but still haven't achieved it?? Feeling that you will never make it in life. Stop thinking so and come out ASAP. Getting nightmares by night and bad memories by day?? Change it .. here is the way to do Remember one thing. Thoughts make a person. If you think you are a success you are. If you believe that you are the biggest failure, you can undoubtedly get no better. Now the first task is to keep bad negative thoughts at bay. Don't expect to do it in 2 secs. Rome wasn't build in a day, neither is your will power. Put off bad thoughts. Think of something small you always wanted to do. May be help someone?? Yeh?? So every time a bad thought or memory  comes to your mind, flush it out and tell yourself "I am going to help someone." OK.. Start random. Go out a
Read more

சுடாதே...: Sudadhe... (Tamil)

-
Image
சுடாதே...: Sudadhe... by Maheshwaran Jothi My rating: 2 of 5 stars I volunteered to read this book and received it as a free copy, in exchange for an honest review. A typical mystery.. Three people get going in three different directions, and magically come together at the end.... But something is lacking.... The character development of the book was good but inadequate. All the characters were very interesting and entertaining. Sudadhe.. was an interesting page-turner. However, the ending let me down. I found the personality of the protagonist too haughty, and the investigation was not satisfactorily logical. View all my reviews
Read more

The Bell Jar

-
Image
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath My rating: 5 of 5 stars I felt the book as a whole was a little boring. But there are a few things that were really close to my heart.. Given the fact that she lived in the mid 1900s, I feel amazed at her way of looking at things: "I tried to imagine what it would be like if Constantin were my husband. It would mean getting up at seven and cooking him eggs and bacon and toast and coffee and dawdling about in my nightgown and curlers after he'd left for work to wash up the dirty plates and make the bed, and then when he came home after a lively, fascinating day he'd expect a big dinner, and I'd spend the evening washing up even more dirty plates till I fell into bed, utterly exhausted. This seemed a dreary and wasted life for a girl with fifteen years of straight A's, but I knew that's what marriage was like, because cook and clean and wash was just what Buddy Willard's mother did from morning till night, and she was the wife
Read more