Breakfast With the Nikolides [Paperback]

Rumer Godden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1980

A story of childhood set in the hot and turbulent Indian plains. Louise sets out to India with her two daughters to stay with her estranged husband. They arrive at his farm in the vast and unstable plains of East Bengal and almost immediately the fragile relationships between the four family members start to break down. There are fierce tensions between Louise and her husband Charles which are echoed in the cracks and holes in the fabric of the house, and between Louise and Emily, her eldest daughter. These strains erupt into outright war after the death of Emily's beloved spaniel Don, a gift from her father, at the hands of her mother. This is an intense and passionate novel about growing up in India.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Compassionate wisdom and serene understanding... with each book she writes Miss Godden's position as one of the finest of living English novelists becomes more secure' - Orville Prescott; 'One of our best and most captivating novelists' - Philip Hensher --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Rumer Godden was one of Britain's most distinguished authors with many justly famous and much-loved books for both adults and children to her credit, including Black Narcissus. The Greengage Summer and The Peacock Spring. She was awarded the OBE in 1993 and died in 1998. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon (June 1980)
• ISBN-10: 0380005360
• ISBN-13: 978-0380005369
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,356,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetic, unforgettable, July 28, 2005

By 

Sam Yeo (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakfast With the Nikolides (Paperback)

"Breakfast with the Nikolides" is undoubtedly an unusual book, but in a very good way. Rumer Godden has a gift of prose, and of imagery. She may not, perhaps, be Thomas Hardy or David Mitchell, but she is undoubtedly a writer whose works remain with you a long time after they are read.

Our story opens with the arrival in the East Indian town of Amorra, of Louise Pool and her daughters Emily and Binnie. It is early WWII, and they are returning to Louise's estranged husband (the girls' father) Charles, from years living in France. Charles, the Government overseer of the town, is a mysterious man, whose coldness toward Louise seems at first justified. Godden allows us to see Charles and Louise first from Emily's point of view: her father being a gallant, tall dark hero, and her mother being a cold, bitter woman. As the story progresses we are given insighg into each of them that suggests otherwise. Around them, the town itself is seething with unrest and, in typical Godden fashion, the unrest explodes just as the characters' personal matters do, in a masterly poetic fashion.

On first reading, elements of the book did confuse me, partly because of Godden's subtlety, I assume. However, I now know it like the back of my hand and appreciate each time more little links and themes that she places throughout.

I highly recommend this book, and other Godden works along with it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mystical, October 15, 2004

By 

Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakfast: 2 (Hardcover)

This is a small, strange book, filled with Indian mysticism that I feel is beyond my plebian mind.
Charles Pool is an Englishman who runs a government farming project in Bengal, teaching local agriculturists soil and crop management. He has lived there alone for many year when he is joined by his wife Louise and two small daughters who are fleeing the German occupation of Paris. There is an obvious hatred between them which is eventually explained, with his totally neurotic wife determined to keep a distance between him and their daughters. The elder girl, Emily is driven even further away from both her parents when she discovers that Louise had her pet dog needlessly put down.
M/s Goddens prose is undeniably beautiful and she has the gift of painting pictures, not only of the scenery and surrounds, but also of sounds and emotions. Such an abundance of raw feelings were just too much for me to enjoy the book properly.