Customer Reviews

The Flower Boy: A Novel

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

 

 

I loved this book! It was such a fascinating book that made you think about the past and what life must have been like back then. It also took you away to a time of innocence and simplicity. I absolutely loved the book.

I found this story of childhood innocence to be enchanting. A perfect story for summer reading. I look forward to seeing what Karen Roberts will give us next.

What a treat it is to read a book and really resent getting to the end! Karen Roberts has written a little gem, and we await her next work with great anticipation.(and hope,against hope, that she will deal with the same characters) The story is a touching one of friendship and family love - a friendship that crosses all boundaries, and family love that is as volatile and enriching as any we have experienced. I don't like to use the word "sweet" in any review, but that is what- in the most positive sense- describes this first effort by Ms. Roberts. May she pen many more for our enjoyment!

A truly delightful tale of a little boy, Chandi, growing up during the 1930's on a Ceylon tea plantation. It plots his growth from child to young man - relating his hopes and dreams of one day going to 'his' beloved England where he will be educated.

This is a beautifully crafted and well written book. I just loved it and would really like to see a sequel. Highly recommended.

I don't want to give anything away, but this novel is great. It literally transports you in to a tea estate in Sri Lanka if you have the tiniest bit of imagination. The characters are wonderful and the environment is described in detail. At the end, I had to go back and read the first few pages just to see again where the lead character (Chandi) begain his journey that ended so tragically. The book is easy to read and leaves the reader begging for a sequel at the end. I recommend it with all I have.

All you people who gave this book 4 stars and more...and likened it to "The God of Small Things"......obviously haven't read much quality literature.

I found this book quite readable.I didn't hate it..but I certainly wouldn't put in in the same category as 'The God of Small Things". It started off quite well, but dwindled into nothing more than soap-opera set in the tropics.

Unlike 'The God of Small Things"...or even "Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard"...the characters in this story had no depth...and were quite wooden.

Nothing but a mere romance novel...set in an usual setting.

Flower boy is predominantly set in the homestead and surrounds of a Ceylon tea plantation, run by an expatriate English man and employing and housing many local Ceylonese families. One woman and her three children move into the home and the interrelations of the occupants begins it's evolution from unfamiliarity and dominance to intimacy and mutual respect. Some characters never need to fully develop, others we connect with completely. The main characters are warm and real - never entirely predictable yet somehow we know where they are heading and how they will get there.

Chandi, the son of the house-keeper, is playful and oblivious to the hardships of life, yet by the end of the book he has learnt many unpalateable lessons and is changed by his experiences. Chandi's mother is a paradox of what a good Ceylonese wife raising three children in difficult circumstances should be and what a generous and giving spirit needs to be. We never really know this woman intimately yet her choices are always fully understood and difficult to fault.

Lizzie, the daughter of the English plantation manager, is rebellious and headstrong and her ambivalent mother does nothing to help guide Lizzie to be the English Rose that she is expected to be. Lizzie develops into a character who has very real flaws and sensitivities and her father, a kind and tolerant man, helps her overcome many of the obstacles life throws at her, though not all are within his power.

The setting of the story is brilliantly conveyed - I can picture the homestead and the garden, the road up the mountain and the creeks and streams around the plantation, the picnic ground and the townships they visit. I can see the dense jungle and the howling monkeys as well as I can see the incidental people and the less defined characters. All of these things are made integral to the various aspects of the story and we are left feeling like we were there when it happened, not outside looking in.

I loved the 2 main characters, Chandi and Lizzie - they were tangible with real human qualities - both good and bad - and I especially felt a connection with Lizzie who reminded me of me.

This is not to say that the book is perfect. There are certainly instances where I am left wondering who some people are, which person some of the lengthy Ceylonese names belong to, and why some relationships are developed as much as they are (eg: Sunil). Indeed, it took me ~70 pages to work out how Ammi and Premawathi relate to each other and that Appuhamy is neither of these people. The style of prose is free flowing and easy to read but there are some examples of bias toward particular words or expressions which recur with uncomfortable regularity and the book would be enhanced by substitution with unused alternatives.

I enjoyed it, it compelled me to keep reading and I felt that I had been on a trip worth going on by the time I had finished. It reminded me of 'The God of Small Things' (Arundhati Roy) in it's character development and cultural setting and also of 'Like Water For Chocolate' (Laura Esquivel) although no-where near as dark.

It is an excellent first book, I am glad I took the opportunity to read it, and I would be proud of this product if I were Karen Roberts.

...The recent wave of South Asian writing hasn't been restricted to the
Indian subcontinent. Sri Lanka, too, has recently contributed its share
of gifted storytellers (most notably Romesh Gunesekera and Shyam
Selvadurai). Alas, this first novel from Karen Roberts, who was born in
Sri Lanka and now lives in California, suffers from some of the
weaknesses of the region's more overwrought fiction. In terms of plot,
''The Flower Boy'' resembles Arundhati Roy's shimmering novel ''The God
of Small Things''; the story revolves around the sheltered world of two
precocious children in Ceylon in the 1930's. On a remote tea plantation
called Glencairn, Chandi, the son of the housekeeper, and Rose-Lizzie,
the daughter of the English planter, grow inseparable despite their
extremely different circumstances. Their idyllic friendship, however, is
tested by tumultuous events both within Glencairn and without: the death
of Chandi's sister, Rangi; a complicated romance between Chandi's mother,
Premawathi, and Rose-Lizzie's father, John (their lovemaking is ''not
born of mutual love, but of mutual fear''); the distant echoes of the
world war across the seas; and, finally, the rumblings of self-rule
coming from Colombo, the capital city. The illusions of happiness and
transcendence -- for both families -- at Glencairn will be fleeting. ''We
belong in separate worlds,'' Premawathi tells John. ''The time we have
spent together here, it's not real. It's not permanent. It's only
borrowed.'' Unfortunately, like the old estate itself, Roberts's novel
can feel creaky, and the her characters too often seem more wooden than

real.

All you people who gave this book 4 stars and more...and likened it to "The God of Small Things"......obviously haven't read much quality literature.

I found this book quite readable.I didn't hate it..but I certainly wouldn't put in in the same category as 'The God of Small Things". It started off quite well, but dwindled into nothing more than soap-opera set in the tropics.

Unlike 'The God of Small Things"...or even "Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard"...the characters in this story had no depth...and were quite wooden.

Nothing but a mere romance novel...set in an usual setting.

THE FLOWER BOY is overwhelmingly poetic, lyrical and hauntingly beautiful. It transports the reader without hesitation to a world of lush gardens and the heat of the Sri Lankan tea plantation. Unfortunately, the lives of the residents are far from tranquil and we are privy to each & every private misery. At no time is there respite from the intrusions of evil, sorrow and secret, forbidden longing.

THE FLOWER BOY is so much more than a romance and deserves to be read by anyone interested in this part of the world and this particularly troubled time in the history of Sri Lanka. The yearning and heartache of each character is palpable and leaves the reader wishing for a peaceful resolution with everyone living happily everafter. Instead, the author resorts to allegory by enhancing the inequities of life between the master and his "subjects" and leaves the primary character asserting her freedom and, in the bargain, destroying the happiness of all those around her as well as the hopes of her dearly beloved son, the flower boy. In the end, everyone loses and the pain is exquisite and horrible. Still, it is worth the time & effort.