Customer Reviews

Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India (Vintage)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have read her cookbooks and I have seen her act in movies. Both, I might add, have been virtuoso performances.
I bought this book for I was born in Delhi, India, around the time (give or take 10 years)that Ms. Jaffrey writes about.
It is delightful.
Not only the narrative, simple, unassuming but wonderfully evocative, but what she manages to put in between family reminiscences. All those wonderful food items and she describes them with mouthwatering adjectives.
Very enjoyble indeed.
I wish they'll bring out an audio edition, this is worth listening to and drool in a long car journey

My son bought me this lovely book for my birthday, and as always, the writing is seductive, and draws one in immediately. Jaffrey has a delightfully chatty and confidential tone when talking about family and friends, and it makes you feel you know them well. This is a fascinating book - well written, and one that lingers in the memory like a fragment of a dream: familiar, elusive, and haunting. My only complaint is that it wasn't longer, and didn't go much past early adulthood. I want to know more, and hopefully this talented actress, author, and raconteur will do just that. This is my 6th book by Madhur Jaffrey, and I am fond of them all. I recommend any and all to people willing to try something new. A personal favorite is Flavors Of India. Lots of great recipes and anecdotal information on the people and regions of India. If you are new to Indian cooking, you are in for a rare treat with her many cookery books. They do take some time and preparation, but if you can read, and are moderately adventurous, all will be well. Let me also recommend Indian CDs and Bollywood for the full experience. Bon voyage.

I have always loved Madhur Jaffrey's recipes and acting. This memoir, even for those who don't know her, is marvelous. She provides a beautifully-written glimpse of growing up in a large and well-to-do Indian family that mixed Muslim and Hindu traditions in an era that is now past. The description of family foods (and the recipes -- YUM)and the traditions of her family are wonderful. I was terribly sorry when I came to the end of the book, though I was thrilled to find recipes in the back. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in Indian food, Indian culture, or history -- and to anyone who just plain enjoys memoirs.

I just got this book after waiting for a few months and was quite thrilled to see familiar names and places mentioned. Being a distant family member, I am probably prejudiced but I think this book is a fascinating read, especially for someone brought up in Delhi. The book even has a family tree in the beginning, going back to the 1500s. As in all her books, Madhur Jaffrey manages to give her recipes a very easy to do feel and very helpful hints for people like us living in the US and I am dying to try out the recipes. Enjoy!

I love Madhur Jaffrey. I saw her on Sara Moulton's cooking show and she inspired me to cook the daunting cuisine I loved...Indian. Spectacular and very educating cookbooks she has written. Much to the delight of my family and friends.

This is a memoir of sorts but the whole time I was reading it (despite her delightful personality) I felt I was missing something. There were nice intermittent memoirs but not a real thread that wove it all together. And the ominous descriptions of her uncle terminated with a comment that he died one day after she left India.
hmm.
I think her story is lovely but it isn't what I expected of her. But maybe that's just a testament to her expertise as a cookbook author ( no small feat!) and a PBS TV personna..she is very charming and you wish she was your neighbor or friend!

So yes, I enjoyed this book but having seen her before on TV and in cookbook form, the story was loose and needed better editing and guidance with the plot. But I read it on a wine country escape and it did serve as a lovely counterpart to my experience.
If you are at all interested in Indian cuisine, please read her many Indian cookbooks which are all superb.

Madhur Jaffrey is a personal favorite - I loved her reading of Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance (Oprah's Book Club) & it's a delight to see her pop up unexpectedly in movies like Prime (Widescreen Edition) in small but juicy roles. So, it was a pleasure to read about the author's childhood in this enjoyable remembrance of an India past.

Ms. Jaffrey's family was obviously prosperous and privileged, as attested to by the grand house ("Number 7") that was the center of her early life. You quickly take that standard of life as a given. We get a look at the 'joint family' style of living - all the incomes pooled & the family living under the extended roof and paternal care of her respected and successful grandfather ('Babaji').

You'll want to rush out and order Indian food every night. Each remembrance is embraced with recollections of specific foods and the preparation that goes into making those dishes for a large family. There's a full 50 pages of family recipes that follow the Epilogue.

Madhur Jaffrey is one of the foremost authors of indian cookbooks. This book is a memoir of her childhood in northern India during the 40s and 50s. It is packed with all the joys and flavors of an extended family with liberal food descriptions and delightful flavors of multi ethnic indian cuisine. She obviously had a very rich, privileged up bringing which is perhaps not what every indian born child is privy to, but her writing is compassionate, mindful of the privileges she had in comparison to the rest of the country - and allows the reader to really travel visually and enjoy a taste of the same. One cannot help wishing though that she had dealt with, at some length, on some real struggles with a dysfunctional uncle (Shibbu dada), the changes in the family during the post independance era (all families went through a lot of struggle then, particularly privileged ones) or for that matter anything that lets the reader know that the journey was not always a happy or easy one. Read it anyway, and particulary if you are from India, it is truly a delightful nostalgic journey into the joys and flavors and family love that is so typical of extended family life in our homeland and sadly getting to be a rarity for even those who live there.

I know the author by her association with Said Jaffrey, an actor of some repute
in India, and her famous cookery show and books in the same domain.
Apparently, at one time the author was married to Mr. Jaffrey, but has since
divorced and is now re-married to a gentleman in New York and settled in the
same city. I presume she still writes books on Indian cooking. In any case,
the Jaffrey name and the title were enough of a ruse to get me to read the
book. What emerges is a tale of a priviledged childhood in pre-independence
India: her family traces its roots back to the time of emperor Aurangzeb
(the last Mughal ruler of India) in whose court Madhur's ancestors used to
ply their craft as writers. The emperor gifted land to her ancestors in what
would later became New Delhi, enabling Madhur a luxurious childhood by Indian
standards. Her family was well to do: grandfather was a barrister, father
owned mills, the family took trips to Europe and possessed two American cars -- and
this is in pre-independent India, mind you. The book itself is composed of short
chapters, each one detailing some memory of childhood: cousins, siblings, aunts and
uncles, grandparent, summer trips to Simla, train rides, traumas, first love, the
travails of a joint family, etc. A common thread that runs through all the chapters is
the association of food with the memories. Madhur (which means "sweet, honey-like" in
Hindi) draws upon her strength -- food -- to permeate each chapter. The writing
style is informal and colloquial, but enjoyable nonetheless. As an added bonus, the
last portion of the book contain her favorite recipes. (July 2007)

Any fan of Indian cooking well knows the name of Madhur Jaffrey: in addition to hosting a TV show she's also published numerous cookbooks - and acted in many major motion pictures. Here's something different for the Jaffrey fan: a memoir of how she came to be equated with Indian cuisine in "Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India". Her memoir blends food memories with overall impressions of India's social and political changes, making for a wide-ranging coverage recommended as a pick not just for cooks, but for anyone with an interest in India's complex history, culture, and cuisine.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I'm fascinated by anything India. Been there and want to go back. This book was such a good read and gave such a good history of the division of India, and East and West Pakistan - now Pakistan and Bangladesh. Some great pictures in it, and a deeper understanding of the older days of India. And of course - there is absolutely nothing sweeter on earth than an Alfonso Mango from Bombay! Nothing can compare.