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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gita's Good, August 8, 2001
"A River Sutra" is the third Gita Mehta book I've read. Previous to this I enjoyed "Karma Cola" and "Snakes and Ladders." As a non-fiction writer, Ms. Mehta is lean, sharp, caustic, and witty. She gets to the heart of the matter, and doesn't hold off on personal opinion. I didn't know what to expect from her fiction, but I was surprised. She seems like a different writer. A gentle side comes through "A River Sutra" that leaves you feeling deeply for the characters she's created. It's not that the stories are fluff, they're not; it is that she employs a lyricism that was unexpected. The river is the Narmada, one of the holiest in India; and, a sutra is both a thread, and a discourse that constantly unwinds. This aptly named book is a study of love, and another look at India - sometimes fanciful, sometimes frightening, but always warm hearted.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You read it over and over again and you want more...., March 25, 2000
I had to buy this book for my Asian literature class at the university. But when the quarter had come to its end, I did not want to sell it (which is what I do with so many other books). This book took my breath away, while I was reading it for the first time, and it still does, because I re-read it at least once a month. If I don't have time to read it all or when I feel down, I just open up any passage at random and read couple of sentences. The beauty of River Sutra is very much in the hands of its author, Gita Mehta, I must say. I have read many books about India (books, where India has been a subject of a fiction, as it is in this case), but River Sutra is not just another book that shows India in a hopelessly romantic way. At first, it may seem as such, because the author does employ magical realism and romanticism in her work. However, if you read it more than once, you will start feeling the power of the narration in a completely different way... You will realize that it is not JUST A ROMANTIC FICTION about oh-so-romantic country... For me, reading this book, in itself, sounds like a mantra (subject, touched on in the book, by the way). Stylistically, Mehta rises to the level of incomparable "1000 and 1 nights" and I have not seen too many contemporary Eastern authors being able to do that. But, what's even more amazing is, that she also manages to bring her work to a modern and a very universal perspective. I hope Mehta keeps writing, and I also hope that one day I have a full collection of her works!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful realistic fictional take on multireligious India, December 26, 2006
As an undergraduate student of comparative religions I've become gradually acquainted with the complex mosaic that is multireligious India. For an area that saw the birth of Buddhism, Vedic Brahmanism, Jainism and Classical Indian Theism (aka "Hinduism") as well as one that was historically also home to ancient Jewish, later Christian, and one of the largest populations of Muslims in the world, a lot of people in the west know very little about the rich cultural, religious and social history of the Indian subcontinent. This book is not only an excellent, accurate portrayal of the variegated cultural situation in India, it's also an engaging, well-written, compelling collection of short stories that stands on its own as a work of fiction. Mehta tells the story of a retired government official who now resides on one of the largest and holiest rivers in India. The official was never a religious man, but now that he has a chance to relax and observe his surroundings, he is able to take in the diversity around him and start his own query into the spiritual side of life. Using this frame, Mehta illustrates the official's encounters with numerous characters who, each in turn, tell their stories to the retired official. As the collection progresses, he encounters many characters, including a Jain mendicant, a Muslim music teacher, a wandering ascetic, a courtesan seeking her kidnapped daughter, a virtuoso sitar player, and a tea plantation official who has encountered Nagas. Throughout, Mehta uses each character to explore different religious themes that are represented in India and weaves them all into a cohesive search for spiritual truth, all with a surprising ending that will make you want to re-read the whole book just so you can try to understand. A River Sutra is easy to read and enjoyable too. I read this book as a culmination for a course on religion in India and found it to be an excellent fictional summation of different religious themes that I had already learned about. Although I already had read more "academic" and traditional texts about these subjects, this book was a welcome take on each religion interacting with others. Sure, there are more technically informing textbooks and religious texts you could read to understand beliefs and practices of Indians, but you won't get a more enjoyable and readable work of beautiful literature to start off your learning. I think this book will pique your interest in the different subjects and offer you a gateway into many wonderful religious literary and academic traditions (whatever interests you) that you may not have already known about. Out of all the books I've read in courses on religion, A River Sutra is the one I most often recommend to anyone and everyone who likes a good book.
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