Kingfishers Catch Fire [Unknown Binding]

Rumer Godden (Author)

Product Details

• Unknown Binding: 294 pages
• Publisher: Viking Press (January 1, 1953)
• ASIN: B001AGJL80
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clueless in paradise, April 16, 2003

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kingfishers Catch Fire (Hardcover)

If you haven't read Rumer Godden before, you're in for a treat. Many of her books are set in India during British rule, and the patrician tone may be off-putting to some. But she sees the comedic humor in certain British government 'types' as well as the stereotypical Indian servants, landlords, and petty town mayors.
Kingfisher's Catch Fire is a classic cultural clash in which a clueless but well-meaning English widow with two children goes to Kashmir where she can live cheaply on her widow's pension - and one of her children is nearly killed in the process.
She is, of course, defeated in her attempts to change or 'civilize' the natives and...well, read the book yourself and find out what happens.
A good read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kingfishers shine., October 7, 2000

By 

"absentwithoutleave" (melbourne, vic Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kingfishers Catch Fire (Paperback)

LOve this book and have read it many times, I enjoy the exotic geographical location and culture clash with the charming but ignorant and foolish Sophie. It is so obvious that she will come to grief. This book is a kinder, gentler "Ugly American" kind of story about cultural insensitivty in a well meaning person. The language is poetic and the story flows really well.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Coming to terms with Kashmiri culture, May 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Kingfishers Catch Fire (Paperback)

This novel is a most enjoyable story, an adult story, about a widow with young children learning to live in an alien, not always friendly place, a remote village in Kashmir, in the 1950s. It shows great understanding of the villagers, the children, and Sophie herself, headstrong, risking her own and her daughter's life because of her faith in other people, never giving up that faith. More than any other quality, it has enormous charm