Customer Reviews

The Saffron Kitchen (Ulverscroft Large Print)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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

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.

I found this immigrant story very satisfying. Being the grandson of immigrants I had marvelled at my grandparent's dual lives. This novel tells the story of an immigrant who never can fully assimulate into London's society. Maryam (the heroine of the story) has fought for the right to make choices her whole life. This fight has not been without consequences, some dire. Now Maryam must chose between East and West, her living family and her dying heritage. A very difficult choice, one that will cause heartache no matter what. The story is a beautiful reminder that East and West, while different culturally, are both peopled by real human beings, with similar hopes and fears.

I loved this book almost from page one. The writing was spell binding and the characters were engaging and not at all predictable. But what I will say next is that by the end of the book I ended up not liking the main character, Maryam Mazar, even if I did sympathized with her on some level. I felt that she was selfish in her final decision and that she thought more about herself than about the people who loved her. Maryam Mazar is a woman who at the inception of the story is a sixty something lady. She lives in London now but her country of origin and birth is Iran. Through some circumstances, she is forced to leave home and settle in London where she meets a wonderful man and has a lovely daughter. In the beginning of the book, there is a tragedy that sends Maryam reeling and she seeks out her home in Iran, retreating from the misery that unfolds in London. I cannot delve much more into the particulars of what happens but here is where I found her decisions hard to stomach. She makes a choice that to me was very selfish and somewhat immature. Why would you leave behind all the love and care that your husband and daughter have showered you with for a life that you have not known for more than forty something years? By the time she goes back most of the people that were key actors in her life in Iran are dead and only a few important ones remain. She discards her present happiness for a past that she has somewhat eulogized in her mind and in my opinion was not totally deserving of its praises. I totally understand that because of the way in which she was forced to leave Iran, she never made peace with certain aspects of her life but I believe that we can make choices as to who we love and the importance that that love will hold in our lives. What happened to her was a travesty as she was punished for independence and being a young woman far ahead of her time, born in the wrong country for an out spoken woman. But as much as my heart hurt for her past pains, I could not reconcile her heartlessness in her decision making. Not since McEwan's Atonement have I been so angry with a character and I know that there were legions of people who wanted to give McEwan a piece of their mind for that ending. For me such endings (when well done) actually makes me applaud cause there are not many books that can get your so invested that you get so emotional at the end. A total recommend.

I enjoyed the book, even though it was a novel. My background, born in Scandinavia and having grown up in Arabia is probably the reason for me choosing stories from that part of the world, as to me they are just more interesting. I can relate to being/feeling rootless and probably a longing for something that no longer is. The book, albeit being fiction, deals with aspects of how different we all are and how we long for what we had, even though its never the same and how second generations have adapted to their world. Very interesting read which I could relate to quite well. Highly recommended.

I read this one next for the book club. I have to say that although the writing was solid, the story just didn't grab me, and I wasn't totally sympathetic to the characters' actions. Granted, my frame of reference is American (the story takes place in the UK and Iran), but I had trouble understanding the mother's behavior, in particular--she came across as selfish and avoidant to me. I give it a B.

I liked the plot and the book well written except for the transitions between mother and daughter as well as past and present. They weren't all that smooth. I didn't like how Yasmin Crowther went back and forth between 1st person and 3rd person which also contributed to problems with the transitions.

If she wrote another book I'd read it and hope she's grown as a writer and executes it better.

I loved this book. I found the characters very interesting. You found yourself caring about them. After reading about the mother's past I could understand her decisions, but felt sadness for her and her family. The relationship between the mother and daughter (which is central to the story) was filled with love, anger and sadness, but was strong enough to withstand the decision the mother made at the end.

This book gives you insight into the culture of the Iranian people, a culture that did not give it's women a voice or freedom to be their own person and was not very tolerant of those that fought against the rules. This is also a story that illustrates that you cannot run away from your past and for some individuals, it is necessary to face the past to understand who you are or have become presently.

I actually really liked this book.

It gives an impression of simple writing but it touches mother/daughter relations and the often misundertood issues (and who doesnt have them!) and the intricacies of living in diferent cultures, i would say the no man's land syndrome!

Whilst reading this book, it almost felt like i was hearing out someone, just when you chat with a friend and hear their story.

Lovely book, i have decided that i will re read it again next year!