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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
* This is going to be long. Brace yourself or skip it *
I finally finished this. Thanks to all gods. I'm not trying to be grumpy about this, but I'm a 19 year old reading a children book just for school. No offense, but I have come across an interview of the author herself saying that this book is actually for children, and that's why it ends with a happy ending. But yeh, if this is for adults, I'd say, this book is a complete lie. Why?
Because, life doesn't suddenly go from the bottom to the top (or middle) that fast. Life doesn't instantly change from bad to good that quickly. C'MON.
I would say again that this book is unrealistic. If it's for children, then the child who is reading this would come up with some impossible nonsenses that " good things will always happen " or " u can try something new, depend on luck, and u will be successful." I'm so offended, and angry that this book turned from one thing to another so fast. Half of the book is about the hardship that the children were going through, and suddenly 5 strangers came out and everything got better. It's just impossible.
The pacing is crazily fast. Suddenly 9 months have passed. And can i mention that the author probably got the time wrong. Here's my note
* spoiler alert*
- In chapter 12, It clearly stated that Hari (12-year-old boy; MC) had been in Bombay for 9 months.
- In chapter 13, It stated that their mother had been in the hospital for only 7 months.
So what happened in that 2 months?
- In chapter 7 when Hari cowardly ran away to Bombay, leaving his 3 sisters who had no job and no income, to take care of their sick mother whose condition got worse that day. It was the same day when Lila, his 13-year-old sister(the protagonist) found out her mother was so ill that she needed to go to the hospital immediately. Simultaneously, she found out that Hari had gone to Bombay. So, think about it, there is no time indicators that 2 days had passed or anything. At most, it would be just a day. That leads us to the next event. That night, Hari went to the De Silvas (a family that gives Hari works when they went to Hari's village). Unfortunately, Mr. De Silva had already left for the village. Then another day passed. The next day, we see that Lila saw the De Silvas' car coming, and decided to try and ask them for help. And it happened the same day. Proof is in Chapter 8, Lila found out the family would stay for 2 weeks. So, Everything happened in two days at most.
Then, finally, our last event, Mr. De Silva took Lila's mother to the hospital, and let her stay there since.
In conclusion, 2 days after Hari had gone to Bombay, his mom ended up in the hospital.
So what's left of those 58 days?
No idea.
Yep.
The pacing.
No time indicator.
Nothing even happened chronologically.
I hate this.
*end of spoiler review*
Okay, now I'm done talking about the pacing, Can i talk about how limited the author's idea is? This is a bit rude, but man , i had a hard time reading this. (again, it's for school or else i would never read it).
Okay! By that, I mean, We never get to know Hari and Lila's parents' names. And I'm so pissed about this. Every time, I have to refer to them as Hari's mother or Hari's father, or Lila's mother, or Lila's father. This drives me crazy. It annoyed the hell out of me. And they are related to the main characters.
Another name: Hari ~ Hira.
Is this name popular in Indian?
I do not know.
But, Can we not get the characters to have such similar names? It confuses the readers. Or is it only me? I don't care. It is just that there are millions of names in the world, yet the author had to choose Hira(reverse of Hari)?? I actually had to read that part twice or more to understand. LoL
And guess what? there's actually two characters with the name Hira. Okay! I'm speechless. But nothing surpirsed me as much as the fact that we didn't get the name of the parents. I mean, even dogs, in the story, had names. E.g. Pinto, Misha. How cool is that?
There are a million thing I can rant about this book. But I'mma talk about 2 more.
The writing.
How? How on earth can anyone say that this is a simple and easy read?
I struggled so much. The sentence structure is one of the problem. As I was reading, I noted that the sentences are way way too long, or is this how you write an advanced-looking sentence? I'm not an expert, so I'll say what I think.
The book constantly has sentences that are 7-8 lines making it 70-80 words. Can u imagine reading such a sentence? It's not even necessarily long. Whenever there's a long sentence, it's always describing stuff that don't really matter, but was just there to confuse us. There's a sentence in chapter 6 that is 10 lines long. How many words? 97!! NINETY FUCKING SEVEN !!! That's almost a full paragraph. And it didn't stop there. There are constantly long sentences here and there, everywhere. When I was reading it, i was like " wait what, what's this about? " The sentence just goes on and on about stuff that don't really matter. Meh. And One more thing that I'm super annoyed at.
I am not Indian. This book is not written only for Indian right? Because it's in English, for people who can speak English to read!! And I, being a non-native English speaker, had a very very difficult time reading this. There were mentions of Indian words everywhere without any explanation. I wonder if the author expected us to go to google every time we see an Indian word. Because, man, there's no elaboration to what the words mean. At first, I was trying my best to understand, I googled everything. I wanted to understand. But man, there were way too many. I give up. I just assumed or ignored those words.
The long sentences + The random
Indian words + no meaning nor elaboration ~ Really, I really wanted to cry while reading this book. It was just so FRUSTRATING. One more thing. I felt bored the whole time. Nothing surpirsed me besides the unexpected luck that is constantly happening at the later half of the book.
One last thing, really. The characters.
I do not like any of them. I do not feel sympathetic. (maybe u r saying I'm not poor, and never experienced that hardship. But I grew up listening to my parents stories of their lives, of how hard it is, of how long it took them to get here.How long? 30 years or even longer, man! 30 years. Not 9 months)
So I don't feel pity for them. Hari was a complete coward who doesn't deserve any kindness from any strangers. He literally ran away. 9 months later, he showed up, and no one, no one was mad at him. He disappeared for 9 months, yet his father, (a drunkard before) didn't do anything, not even lecturing him or whatsoever. They just carried on with life as if nothing happened. Lila? I felt bad for her, yes. But I felt so distanced from her and all the characters. They didn't seem so fleshed out, and I'm utterly disappointed. I could have cried For Lila and Hari, but I ended up feeling nothing for them. The drunkard father?. No real reason why he became a drunkard in the first place. One moment, he's a good father, the next thing you know he's a drunkard. And then he's a good father again. LoL ( spoilers: I don't understand how his wife being in a hospital actually caused him to stop drinking. She was ill the whole time. She was emaciated. She was there for him to see, yet he didn't feel anything nor do anything besides drinking. And suddenly, her being in a hospital changed him back into a decent person. It just doesn't make sense ok?) These are my thoughts on the characters. Some of them are too dumb. Sometimes, the characters don't act their age.
The plot? Really! If i go on, it will probably never end. It's just that the ending doesn't make sense. But really nothing made sense. The entire book just doesn't make any sense. Apparently, there is no cause. Something just happened. It's like the author sprayed magic on them and they became better. LoL.
And There's no further mentions of other characters. It would be a bit better if there was a 5 year later epilogue about how their lives changed.
To sum up, This book is very disappointing. It didn't tackle the most important subject as good as it was supposed to. And I don't understand why anyone would rate this 5 stars.
I finally finished this. Thanks to all gods. I'm not trying to be grumpy about this, but I'm a 19 year old reading a children book just for school. No offense, but I have come across an interview of the author herself saying that this book is actually for children, and that's why it ends with a happy ending. But yeh, if this is for adults, I'd say, this book is a complete lie. Why?
Because, life doesn't suddenly go from the bottom to the top (or middle) that fast. Life doesn't instantly change from bad to good that quickly. C'MON.
I would say again that this book is unrealistic. If it's for children, then the child who is reading this would come up with some impossible nonsenses that " good things will always happen " or " u can try something new, depend on luck, and u will be successful." I'm so offended, and angry that this book turned from one thing to another so fast. Half of the book is about the hardship that the children were going through, and suddenly 5 strangers came out and everything got better. It's just impossible.
The pacing is crazily fast. Suddenly 9 months have passed. And can i mention that the author probably got the time wrong. Here's my note
* spoiler alert*
- In chapter 12, It clearly stated that Hari (12-year-old boy; MC) had been in Bombay for 9 months.
- In chapter 13, It stated that their mother had been in the hospital for only 7 months.
So what happened in that 2 months?
- In chapter 7 when Hari cowardly ran away to Bombay, leaving his 3 sisters who had no job and no income, to take care of their sick mother whose condition got worse that day. It was the same day when Lila, his 13-year-old sister(the protagonist) found out her mother was so ill that she needed to go to the hospital immediately. Simultaneously, she found out that Hari had gone to Bombay. So, think about it, there is no time indicators that 2 days had passed or anything. At most, it would be just a day. That leads us to the next event. That night, Hari went to the De Silvas (a family that gives Hari works when they went to Hari's village). Unfortunately, Mr. De Silva had already left for the village. Then another day passed. The next day, we see that Lila saw the De Silvas' car coming, and decided to try and ask them for help. And it happened the same day. Proof is in Chapter 8, Lila found out the family would stay for 2 weeks. So, Everything happened in two days at most.
Then, finally, our last event, Mr. De Silva took Lila's mother to the hospital, and let her stay there since.
In conclusion, 2 days after Hari had gone to Bombay, his mom ended up in the hospital.
So what's left of those 58 days?
No idea.
Yep.
The pacing.
No time indicator.
Nothing even happened chronologically.
I hate this.
*end of spoiler review*
Okay, now I'm done talking about the pacing, Can i talk about how limited the author's idea is? This is a bit rude, but man , i had a hard time reading this. (again, it's for school or else i would never read it).
Okay! By that, I mean, We never get to know Hari and Lila's parents' names. And I'm so pissed about this. Every time, I have to refer to them as Hari's mother or Hari's father, or Lila's mother, or Lila's father. This drives me crazy. It annoyed the hell out of me. And they are related to the main characters.
Another name: Hari ~ Hira.
Is this name popular in Indian?
I do not know.
But, Can we not get the characters to have such similar names? It confuses the readers. Or is it only me? I don't care. It is just that there are millions of names in the world, yet the author had to choose Hira(reverse of Hari)?? I actually had to read that part twice or more to understand. LoL
And guess what? there's actually two characters with the name Hira. Okay! I'm speechless. But nothing surpirsed me as much as the fact that we didn't get the name of the parents. I mean, even dogs, in the story, had names. E.g. Pinto, Misha. How cool is that?
There are a million thing I can rant about this book. But I'mma talk about 2 more.
The writing.
How? How on earth can anyone say that this is a simple and easy read?
I struggled so much. The sentence structure is one of the problem. As I was reading, I noted that the sentences are way way too long, or is this how you write an advanced-looking sentence? I'm not an expert, so I'll say what I think.
The book constantly has sentences that are 7-8 lines making it 70-80 words. Can u imagine reading such a sentence? It's not even necessarily long. Whenever there's a long sentence, it's always describing stuff that don't really matter, but was just there to confuse us. There's a sentence in chapter 6 that is 10 lines long. How many words? 97!! NINETY FUCKING SEVEN !!! That's almost a full paragraph. And it didn't stop there. There are constantly long sentences here and there, everywhere. When I was reading it, i was like " wait what, what's this about? " The sentence just goes on and on about stuff that don't really matter. Meh. And One more thing that I'm super annoyed at.
I am not Indian. This book is not written only for Indian right? Because it's in English, for people who can speak English to read!! And I, being a non-native English speaker, had a very very difficult time reading this. There were mentions of Indian words everywhere without any explanation. I wonder if the author expected us to go to google every time we see an Indian word. Because, man, there's no elaboration to what the words mean. At first, I was trying my best to understand, I googled everything. I wanted to understand. But man, there were way too many. I give up. I just assumed or ignored those words.
The long sentences + The random
Indian words + no meaning nor elaboration ~ Really, I really wanted to cry while reading this book. It was just so FRUSTRATING. One more thing. I felt bored the whole time. Nothing surpirsed me besides the unexpected luck that is constantly happening at the later half of the book.
One last thing, really. The characters.
I do not like any of them. I do not feel sympathetic. (maybe u r saying I'm not poor, and never experienced that hardship. But I grew up listening to my parents stories of their lives, of how hard it is, of how long it took them to get here.How long? 30 years or even longer, man! 30 years. Not 9 months)
So I don't feel pity for them. Hari was a complete coward who doesn't deserve any kindness from any strangers. He literally ran away. 9 months later, he showed up, and no one, no one was mad at him. He disappeared for 9 months, yet his father, (a drunkard before) didn't do anything, not even lecturing him or whatsoever. They just carried on with life as if nothing happened. Lila? I felt bad for her, yes. But I felt so distanced from her and all the characters. They didn't seem so fleshed out, and I'm utterly disappointed. I could have cried For Lila and Hari, but I ended up feeling nothing for them. The drunkard father?. No real reason why he became a drunkard in the first place. One moment, he's a good father, the next thing you know he's a drunkard. And then he's a good father again. LoL ( spoilers: I don't understand how his wife being in a hospital actually caused him to stop drinking. She was ill the whole time. She was emaciated. She was there for him to see, yet he didn't feel anything nor do anything besides drinking. And suddenly, her being in a hospital changed him back into a decent person. It just doesn't make sense ok?) These are my thoughts on the characters. Some of them are too dumb. Sometimes, the characters don't act their age.
The plot? Really! If i go on, it will probably never end. It's just that the ending doesn't make sense. But really nothing made sense. The entire book just doesn't make any sense. Apparently, there is no cause. Something just happened. It's like the author sprayed magic on them and they became better. LoL.
And There's no further mentions of other characters. It would be a bit better if there was a 5 year later epilogue about how their lives changed.
To sum up, This book is very disappointing. It didn't tackle the most important subject as good as it was supposed to. And I don't understand why anyone would rate this 5 stars.
Set in a village called Thul, which is about 14 km from Bombay, The Village By the Sea is the story of a family trying hard to make ends meet. The family consists of a perpetually drunk father, a chronically ill mother, and their 4 children. The 2 elder kids-Lila, 13 and Hari, 12-were the support system of the family, doing odd jobs and errands that fetched them a meager sum of money to feed the family. The younger kids, Bela and Kamal attended school, and at times, went to the sea with the other women of the village to collect the remains of the washed out conch as a source of dinner. Whatever money their father earned, he spent it on alcohol which led Hari to work double. But eventually, realizing that the village has very little to offer, he decides to leave for Bombay, and find some work there. Upon reaching Bombay, he is tired and confused about what lies next. He then comes across Jagu, a man who owns a small eatery, the Shri Krishna Eating House. He pities upon Hari and gives him a small job at the eatery, which is mostly visited by truck drivers and other odd workers. Though the place is dim, dingy and at times, smelly, Hari finds a certain warmth and comfort there, having befriended the other kids who worked there and maintaining a good relation with Jagu. When he wasn't at work, he would stroll on the streets, looking in awe at the magnificence around him. It is on one of this strolls that he met Mr Panwallah, owner of Ding Dong Watch Shop. He was a watch mender, and soon became his friend. When he wasn't busy, he would teach Hari the detailings and the precisions and the techniques required for repairing a watch. Hari keenly observed whatever Mr Panwallah taught him. Back home in Thul, the mother's health had gotten worse than ever. Lila felt distraught and helpless. But like a miracle, the rich De Silvas, who had a farmhouse, Mons Repons, next to Lila's hut, were visiting Thul, and decided to help them out. What turned out to be more surprising is that the alcoholic father was somehow back to his senses and had become a responsible man, and stayed by his wife's side throughout her treatment. Meanwhile, Hari gradually realizes his interest in repairing watches. He also thinks about taking it up as a career in his village. He talks about it to both Mr Anwallah, and Jagu, who happily accept and encourage his decision. Jagu even buys him a ticket to his home, and lends some extra money for his family. Hari, finally back in Thul, reunites with his sisters, and all of them share their stories. Hari tells his plan about opening a watch repairing shop. Using the money that Hari saved in Bombay and brought back home, they start a chicken business as a way to make money till they get enough money to open Hari's shop. As they gradually get their lives together, they find a hope for a better future in the village. While going to buy materials for his chicken business, Hari meets with a traveler, who starts talking with him. The novel ends with the traveler in appraisal for Hari's endeavors, and Hari and his sisters' trials to make a place for themselves in the fast-evolving world.
Although usually brushed up as a children's classic, The Village By the Sea offers a lot for a reader of any age. It shows us how even difficult times can be conquered with just the right opportunities. The beautiful and intricate details that Desai has provided will bring out vivid imaginations in your mind. Overall, the book is a pretty good read.
Although usually brushed up as a children's classic, The Village By the Sea offers a lot for a reader of any age. It shows us how even difficult times can be conquered with just the right opportunities. The beautiful and intricate details that Desai has provided will bring out vivid imaginations in your mind. Overall, the book is a pretty good read.
"The Village by the Sea" is a novel written by Anita Desai, which tells the story of Lila and Hari from a poor Indian family. The novel gives a clear picture of this family. Hari's mother is not well, father is a drunkard. So he needs to look after his younger sisters. By reading this novel I understood that "If you need to survive, you have to change. Learn and adapt according to the changes. Things change all the time. Nothing remains the same." like Hari did to survive.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
hopeful
informative
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Studied this book for OL literature. This is never a my type of a book. But studying this book left me with unique memories. Now I even have some nostalgia for this. Story has a very slow pace and that is something you can fell in love too.
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes