Mango Season [Paperback]

Amulya Malladi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2003

Priya Rao left India when she was 20. Seven years later, she returns to find her parents are intent on arranging her marriage to a suitable Indian boy. Priya can only guess at what their reaction would be if she were to reveal she has a fiance in America, a fiance of an entirely different religion.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

All the commonplaces of culture clash are on display in this second novel by Malladi (A Breath of Fresh Air), about an Indian woman who hides her engagement to an American man from her traditional Brahmin family. "I had escaped arranged marriage," begins Priya Rao, "by coming to the United States to do a master's in Computer Sciences at Texas A&M, by conveniently finding a job in Silicon Valley, and then by inventing several excuses to not go to India." At 27, having run out of excuses, she returns to her home city of Hyderabad and runs headlong into a dizzying array of parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Tormenting Priya is a secret: Nick, her American fiance. She is afraid to tell anyone about him, fearing she will be disowned, and even agrees to meet an Indian man her parents would like her to marry. Malladi succeeds in giving a vivid sensory impression of the south of India, its foods and climate and customs, but Priya's family falls neatly into stock types: the overbearing mother who wants Priya to marry within her caste; the hip younger brother who represents the next, Westernized generation of Indians; the catty aunt who constantly criticizes her niece. Awkward prose ("lethargy swirling around her like an irritating mosquito") is a distraction, and melodrama takes the place of nuanced plotting-a final twist is particularly egregious.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Teens will identify with the family dynamics portrayed here, but those from foreign cultures will be most affected by this story of love and family. When she returns to India after seven years, Priya Rao, 27, faces the harsh reality of prejudice and culture clash. Besides religion, caste, and financial status, there is the matter of skin color. Lighter is better, and Priya is considered "dark." Hyderabad seems hotter and dirtier, and her family as intractable as ever, but mango season, the frenetic preparation of pickles and other delicacies from the fruit that ripens in southern India's midsummer, is her favorite time. Ma, a "super nag," quickly makes clear that it is time for her daughter to marry a "nice Indian boy," best of all, a Teluga Brahmin from a family they have chosen, though Priya has veto power once the two have met. How can she tell them that she is engaged to her American lover? She has returned for that purpose, and to reconnect with home and family. [...]
Molly Connally, Chantilly Regional Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Piatkus (October 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0749934093
• ISBN-13: 978-0749934095
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,850,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in 1974 in a small town, Sagar in central India. I grew up in India and left for the United States when I was 20 years old armed with a bachelor's degree in engineering. My first stop was Memphis, Tennessee and I absolutely loved it there. Despite personally knowing people who got mugged around campus, I don't remember being afraid, and remember that time as a fun one. I got a master's degree in journalism and found myself in the bustle of Silicon Valley with a job as an online editor with a start up in San Francisco. I had fun! I lived in the SF Bay Area for several years before moving to Denmark in 2002. My husband is Danish, so wanted to give Europe a try once we had children. I live near Copenhagen with my husband and two sons; and recommend the city in the summer and fall...okay, maybe not the fall...just for the summer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ethnic Foods, Ethnic Tension, Well Seasoned, June 15, 2003

By 

Louis N. Gruber "Author of Jay" (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mango Season (Hardcover)

This is the story of Priya, an attractive, assertive, intelligent young woman who just happens to be from southern India. As the story begins she is returning to India for the first time in seven years, and she will have to tell her family about her American boyfriend.

As expected, it doesn't go well. Priya's family are deeply set in traditional (Hindu) values--daughters are supposed to be submissive, they are supposed to marry nice (Indian) boys, and produce nice male heirs. Marriages are supposed to be arranged by the family elders, and love doesn't have much to do with it. While Priya is working herself up to tell the family, and dreading the moment with all her being, family life goes on, with its tensions, rivalries, acceptance, rejection, and--most of all--cooking. Cultures are clashing like great tectonic plates below the earth, while on the surface the women are busy chopping and slicing. The book is full of interesting, spicy recipes, too--one of the most gastronomical novels I have ever read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Author Malladi has a deft way with characterization. You will quickly connect with her characters, their inner turmiol, their struggles, their subtle ways of communicating, and their drive to express and fulfill themselves. So will Priya marry the American boyfriend? Or will she succumb to the marriage proposal hastily arranged by her parents? Will the family finally reject her? Or will she come to her senses and forget her American boyfriend? You will just have to read the book to find out. One small criticism: the book includes a number of words and phrases in the local language, not always clearly explained. A little glossary might be helpful. Still, a delightful book. I heartily recommend it. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening about Indian culture, August 6, 2006

By 

Alabama Reader (Deep South) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mango Season (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book and will read the author's other book, Breath of Fresh Air.

By the way, there is a review here that contains a major spoiler for The Mango Season. I hate it when people give plot twists away so if you want to avoid this, don't read the review entitled "Obnoxious and unrealistic at times". I should've known better because it was rated very low in the "helpful" scale. Figured I'd at least warn others.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mango Season - great book, great recipes too!, October 17, 2004

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Mango Season (Hardcover)

THE MANGO SEASON by Amulya Malladi
October 17, 2004

Amulya Malladi's second novel, THE MANGO SEASON, takes the reader back to India with Priya, who has a great career in Silicon Valley and lives in San Francisco with her boyfriend Nick. What her parents do not know, is the fact that Priya HAS a boyfriend, and he is not Indian. They are under the assumption that she is currently single, that she is going to eventually marry a nice Indian boy that is arranged by her parents and his parents, and will live happily ever after. Priya's mission: to return home to India to announce her engagement to her American boyfriend.

Telling her family is a lot harder than she had expected, and Priya procrastinates telling them the truth. In the meantime, she gets involved with the goings on of her family, takes part in the mango season, and finds herself getting back into every day life in India. She's been away for many years now, and realizes that she no longer feels comfortable in her homeland, but would rather be "home" in America.
She fights with her mother every day, and misses Nick with a passion.

Unfortunately for her, Priya's parents decide that she was getting too old to be single with no marriage prospects. Before she can tell them about her engagement, they arrange for her to meet a nice Indian boy from a good Indian family, to see if they will agree to marry! Things had gotten bad to worse.

For those readers who have read Malladi's first book A BREATH OF FRESH AIR, THE MANGO SEASON is quite different in tone and in setting. Her first book was about Indian people during the time of the Bhopal disaster, and how it affected one couple that lived during that time in the 1970's. THE MANGO SEASON deals with Indians who have moved to America and are living a multi-cultural existence, which goes against what their parents' generation believe. Priya has a hard time accepting that her parents will never understand her desire to marry Nick, or to have anything to do with people that are not from India. A BREATH OF FRESH AIR was serious in tone, while THE MANGO SEASON is a light comedy, but filled with enough tension to keep the reader going. It also deals with the mother-daughter relationship, which many will relate to, regardless of ethnic background.

I am recommending THE MANGO SEASON for being a fast read, filled with interesting characters and a lot of drama. It was yet another good book from Ms Malladi, and I will definitely be reading more by her.