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45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary Cultural and Generational Experience, August 7, 2008
This review is from: The Toss of a Lemon (Hardcover)
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A Toss of a Lemon is an epic spanning 70 years of Indian life, in the Brahmin tradition. While it's fictional, it's unlike typical fiction in which the story builds towards an ultimate conclusion or climax. This story is simply a narrative, a chronicle that seems so lifelike that I would have believed it to be nonfiction. The language is largely informational, in contrast to dramatic or theatrical storytelling, and it carries the reader along much like a boat on a river. The narrator tells the story of the family matron, Sivakami, beginning at the age of 10, continuing through her marriage, the birth of her children, the death of her husband, her widowhood, her family and extended family, and her religious traditions and Brahmin ways. The author describes in matter-of-fact detail a family and social system ruled by religious observance and superstition that contrasts sharply to modern ways and progressive ideas as the story marches through the decades. Although I thought, at first, that this would be a dry narrative, I quickly identified with Sivakami as a woman bearing up under the strains of life, fiercely endeavoring to retain her dignity and hold her family together. Her Brahmin practices, complete with caste prejudices, dietary laws and purification ceremonies, make her who she is and are her only real support after the early death of her husband when she is only 18 yrs. old. The author does not interpret events for the reader, but simply reports the incidents as they occur, from the points of view of the various characters. An ingenious web of familial relationships is woven in which personalities and politics are all made plain without fanfare or needless drama. I feel that I know more about Indian culture and the politics of the caste system from reading this book of fiction than from any textbook I have ever studied on India and its people. The text is sprinkled with Indian words and phrases, briefly defined and then used repetitively throughout the story. Brahmin worship, beliefs and lifestyle practices are also used throughout and described only briefly or mentioned in passing, although they play a part in so many situations that the reader not only becomes familiar with them, but comes to expect them, even when not mentioned in the text. It is a near total immersion in Brahmin culture. I actually had a craving for lentils and curry. There is a portion of the book that deals with specific political struggles against the caste system and involving British/Indian relations. My Indian history isn't sharp, so I was lost in a couple of places, but the narrative carries the story along and I found that as I kept reading, a lot of my confusion was cleared up. I know a lot more about India's struggle for independence and the caste system than I ever knew before, as well. As an American, the caste system sets my teeth on edge, but in this story, it was the basis for the Brahmin's sense of belonging, security and order. Those who opposed the caste system and those who clung to it were portrayed in nearly the same light, neither side being right or wrong, simply opposite sides of an internal struggle. I loved this book. The characters were vivid and alive, the setting painted in readable detail. The culture came absolutely alive to me as the characters walked in and through it. I highly recommend this book.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rare and wonderful, July 29, 2008
This review is from: The Toss of a Lemon (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I am not sure I can adequately describe just how much I enjoyed this book. The story follows a family of Tamil Brahmins in India from 1896 through the early 1960s, beginning with the marriage at age 10 of Sivakami. We see her through her 10 years of marriage, and then through almost 60 years of orthodox Brahmin widowhood. She rears her own children, and then the children of her daughter, and then many grandchildren. What a remarkable woman! I loved this character. I loved how finely drawn, actually, each and every character was. The novel is so well done that I found myself rejoicing with each child's birth, and weeping with each character's death. I was totally caught up in the sweep of this multigenerational story, and also in the story of the changes that India went through during this time. In addition to telling a wonderful story, the author also has the great skill to keep this story going without faltering through 616 pages! This is a fantastic book that has passed onto my list of alltime favorites. I can hardly wait till it is formally released so I can get copies to give as gifts for my friends. How much did I like it? I sat down to read it and finished it in one day's obsessive reading. I couldn't put it down. I recommend this book without reservation.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent literary work - they don't often make them this way anymore., August 28, 2008
This review is from: The Toss of a Lemon (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I was surprised by the Toss of a Lemon in a number of ways. The first was sheer size. In a world of publishing quotas, you don't often see long books anymore - and for a first novel from an author, this is huge. Well over 600 pages. This can be an intimidating read, but I actually adored it. I miss books having heft in my hands. It's a quiet internal joy to know that I won't skim through it in a night or two, but have a nice month-long affair with it. This surely is not a skimming sort of book. The detail of the family it highlights, that of Sivakami, is complex and dripping in intricate stories. It's a culture that most people reading it probably aren't familiar with in general - that of post-colonial India, just as the new industrial age began to spread there after British influence. The book is heady with mythology and culture of all sorts, and this can indeed be overwhelming. If you stick with it, you shall be rewarded by more than you can imagine. It may seem daunting to most not accustomed to reading literary books, nevermind cultural references that take time to adapt to and understand. I will not go into great detail about the story, except to sum it up simply: the novel is about a family. It starts with the progenitors who are a part of the social system in India, the Brahmin caste, specifically, which is one populated by the educated and scholarly. All marriages are arranged, and moreover, matches are investigated by astrology as much as anything else. Sivakami marries an astrologer of note reputed to also be a healer, one Hanumarathnam, who has determined their future fate to be auspicious. This changes during the birth of his son. This is where the title of the book comes from - the midwife is told to throw a lemon from the window (due to purity and caste laws, the husband is not with the wife during birth, or may see her immediately after). With that simple throw, Hanumarathnam's life is forever changed. Time serves as a marker in astrology, and thus he does a reading of his son's charts, learning of a dire portent for his future. Ironically his son does not place much stock in superstition himself - or so he claims. He, too, is human...is Varium. Though diamond-hard like his name, he indulges when it suits him as well. Some of the cultural aspects are startling. Sivakami's ascent into widowhood for one, and the fact that widows are considered pure, but at the same time carry a strange and bizarre stigma attached to this. The caste system is alien to most people reading this surely, and sometimes the result of it horrifying (one example in the book of when a higher-caste woman had relations with a younger male from a lower caste which ended in a very sad, and rather horrible by western standards). You see the cultural divides defended, even by people who are taken advantage of and suffer by them. Despite having been raised american and very remote from this, I came to sympathize with Sivakami. Though some of the ideas were off-putting to be sure, such as people who were untouchable and impure to the point where if I was a Brahmin they could not even touch my food, I found myself entrenched in the story. It is written so well, you find yourself carried there, whether or not you mean to be, and sympathize with characters and plights that normally you would not. I'm trying rather hard not to reveal too many plot points, as while the book is endlessly complex, it relies on many for the "whole picture". At the end though it is a story ultimately about family, and how families are made - whether by blood or by association. Muchami was by far my favorite character, I think. In many ways I regret he was not Brahmin - for all the devotion he showed to Sivakami, he was her truest son.
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