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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Masterful Story Teller,
By
This review is from: The Saffron Kitchen (Paperback)
I adored this story. Clearly, Crowther is a masterful story teller. I enjoyed the development of her vivid characters and her love of language. As I was reading this book I had a deep appreciation of how well sentances were crafted, so deliberately and selectively. In many ways I was enraptured with this story as I was with Kite Runner. This is a multilayered story infused with heart, sadness and hope. I would highly recommend it. My thanks to the author for a touching, lasting read that I will gladly recommend to others.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
mid twentieth century clash of cultures,
This review is from: The Saffron Kitchen (Hardcover)
In London, Iranian expatriate Maryam hits her nephew Saeed who lives with her and her husband Edward since his mother died. Saeed runs away to avoid a beating, but Maryam's pregnant daughter Sara chases him and then miscarries. While Sara despondently recuperates in the hospital, Maryam, feeling guilt, runs away to the village in Iran where as a child she spent the happiest moments of her life.
Maryam looks back to the moment everything changed for her. She and her two sisters enjoyed an upper class lifestyle due to their father being a General loyal to the newly installed Shah. Her sire hired a tutor Ali, whose teachings include Arnold's "Dover Beach", which led to the teen dreaming of far away places. However, her strict father catches her and Ali committing an unacceptable though innocent transgression; he throws her out. Maryam became a nurse, moved to Arnold's England, married kindhearted Edward, had a daughter while pining for her Ali, until she finally leaves behind those who cared about her. This is a wonderful character driven mid twentieth century clash of cultures. Edward is a stiff upper lip Englishman who knows his wife will never return to him; Sara cannot comprehend her mother's soul searching yearning for what she lost three decades earlier; finally Maryam is enigmatic with her need to go home even though her memories are no longer there. Though her desires are not fully understandable as a longing is different than a doing, fans will appreciate this deep look at a woman pulled by two cultures. Harriet Klausner
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mother's childhood is fascinating,
By algo41 "algo41" (philadelphia, pa United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Saffron Kitchen (Hardcover)
Crowther cleverly joins together two ideas: a marriage where one partner respects and likes the other, but cannot truly love him; a refugee who has a strong emotional attachment to her native Iran, and cannot ever develop a similar attachment to her new country, despite its greater comforts and freedom. Add in a daughter who only as an adult must come to terms with the true state of her parent's marriage.
The mother's childhood is fascinating, and is the best part of the novel. The daughter's changing emotions as she goes to Iran to bring back her mother are nicely depicted, as is her reactions to her miscarriage. Maryam and her father both confound our expectations. Maryam is more complex, and not as "good" as we might expect, while Maryam's father is less complex and more simply cruel and self centered than Maryam would like to think. Maryam says she loved her husband as much as two people from different worlds can, which is consistent with her character, but also self serving, and a terrible view of the limits of love. Maryam says (p.216) her father did not believe she was a virgin, and so she had to leave, but in fact he found out she was, and his vengeance on her can only be explained as rage. Ali is correct in his assessment of his character. Several of the secondary characters are simply role players: the daughter's loving husband, the understanding 2nd wife in the village; fortunately, Maryam's childhood nurse does not fit into this category, nor does her English husband.
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