A River Sutra (Paperback)

by Gita Mehta (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This deft and delightful novel depicts the life and culture on the banks the Indian river Narmada.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
A sequence of delicate, tragic stories by the author of Raj (S. & S., 1989) evokes the profound presence of tradition and desire along the banks of the holy river Narmada. A retired bureaucrat, initially ignorant of the river's bright and dark powers, hears these stories as he encounters their protagonists: a privileged young executive bewitched by a mysterious lover; a neophyte Jain monk moving from opulence to poverty; and an intense ascetic who resurfaces in a surprising reincarnation. For all the horror and passion of the tales, the bureaucrat remains little moved until book's end. Readers too may be more intrigued and edified than moved. As in folktale, the stories' dynamics dominate their characters, who serve primarily to illustrate cultural and religious forces. For public libraries, particularly where an interest in things Indian is strong.
- Janet Ingraham, Wor thington P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1993 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: 304 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (June 28, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679752471
• ISBN-13: 978-0679752479
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #147,596 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gita's Good, August 8, 2001

By	Richard Wells (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Rating = -1 star, June 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A River Sutra (Audio Cassette)

I would rate this book as -1 on a scale of 1 to 5. What tripe! What blather!

I can almost picture Gita Mehta going to her cocktail parties in the West and having friends and acquaitances coming up to her and saying, "Oh, Gita dahling, we just loved the River Sutra! Your vignettes are so charming, and your language so very poetic. There's a certain Indian mysticism about the book that just carries one away. I've never been to India but your book gave me a good picture of that great country". Indeed.

It gave a native of India like me also a good picture. Not of my country but about what Ms Mehta and others of her ilk are all about: a slighly more sophisticated exoticization of India than the average Western view (snake-charmers, elephants, swamis, mystics) with a veneer of literary attitude.

I can't help but think that this exoticization is not incidental or just a mere coincidence. Ms Mehta is probably well aware that she's no Rushdie or Seth. And makes up for that by peddling to the West the image of India that sells well. Surely we deserve something better.

For those of you looking for decent Indo-Anglian stuff, I would recommend Seth's A Suitable Boy, Rushdie's Midnight's Children or perhaps Upamanyu Chatterjee's English, August. Stay as far away from Gita Mehta as you can.

13 of 16 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

By	"zara_azari" (Seattle, USA) - See all my reviews

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!