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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
What is it with me and "tear your heart out" books about India? I think I am both drawn to and repelled by India - much like the character Kenny in this book. It is a beautiful story of endurance and love, but it felt like someone was stabbing me in the heart some of the time. We, meaning the people I know, have no concept, none, of starvation level poverty. This author puts it right in front of your face.
Worth the read. But don't read it when you are already depressed or down. I don't think I could have taken it then.
Worth the read. But don't read it when you are already depressed or down. I don't think I could have taken it then.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
a beautiful, tragic, and enduring story — can’t wait to see what my students have to say about this one. teaching to IB english juniors at plymouth!
“Would you hold me when my time is come? I am at peace. Do not grieve.”
“If I grieve,” I said, “it is not for you, but for myself, beloved, for how shall I endure to live without you, who are my love and my life?”
“You are not alone,” he said. “I live in my children. . . .”
“If I grieve,” I said, “it is not for you, but for myself, beloved, for how shall I endure to live without you, who are my love and my life?”
“You are not alone,” he said. “I live in my children. . . .”
This was a very powerful and emotional book. The narrator stoically survives almost any tragedy imaginable, although its message is hardly optimistic.
I’m at a loss for words to describe this book. The story completely shattered me emotionally, yet left me feeling hopeful. The writing is quietly beautiful. And while the characters’ lifestyle and experiences are nothing at all like my own, they are completely real and relatable. I will be thinking about this book for days, and will be recommending it to all my reading friends.
A poignant book about a peasant family that takes place in India. I found this book to be compellingly written and haunting. As always, it is hard to live off the land..."This is one of the truths of our existence as those who live by the land know: that sometimes we eat and sometimes we starve. We live by our labors from one harvest to the next..."
Mother India was a powerful movie because it brought the truth and plight of India's agrarian community to our privileged urban eyes. Markandaya achieves the same effect in Nectar in a Sieve. The book is a short, simple yet captivating account of Rukmani's life, multifaceted as it may, capturing village ethos like no other.
Her metaphors are bound to make you smile, her imagery will draw the heaviest chills. The writing style is a little different, and will come across as a tad wordy due to the many 'fors' and 'buts', but one gets used to it by the halfway point.
Nectar in a Sieve doesn't disappoint, and will be ideal as your next Summer read.
Her metaphors are bound to make you smile, her imagery will draw the heaviest chills. The writing style is a little different, and will come across as a tad wordy due to the many 'fors' and 'buts', but one gets used to it by the halfway point.
Nectar in a Sieve doesn't disappoint, and will be ideal as your next Summer read.
Are you happy with life but really wish you could despair for humanity and grapple with unending loss that makes a desolation of human existence? Read this book.
If you asked me to sum up the moral of the story, I would glibly reply "mo' babies mo' problems" and seriously this short novel offers a painful iteration of what any specialist in international women's rights knows. Although the language definitely rings of an author who spent way more time reading English literature than planting rice in a village in India, what she does successfully do is portray the ebbs and flows of poverty and the unending loop of achieving just enough to sustain oneself, only to lose it through a larger family, acts of God, colonialism, and other massive economic forces that purport the greater good while trampling across the lives of the most vulnerable. The futile and hopeless journey is enough to send the reader hunting for those last few pills of Prozac that might still be hiding in the bathroom cabinet.
The character of Kenny, who portrays the white savior in this narrative, is so weirdly constructed that I don't think I have anything to say about him, other than every page with him on it is terrible and I cringed with every line he spoke. I'm not sure that's what Markandaya intended, but I'm honestly not sure what she intended through his narrative, so have little to offer.
Other than that unfortunate character, every other person on the pages is real, is tragic, is beautiful, is flawed and joyful. That is part of the visceral experience of this book; you truly believe each one of these people lives and breathes and is suffering through the events found herein. I even found the portrayal of Kunthi, although harsh through the eyes of the narrator, overall rather sympathetic. At all times there is an underlying understanding embedded within the text that everyone is doing what they must, that starvation clouds morality, that one is only as good as their ability to survive. Despite an otherwise stilted tone and high language that rings false in the mouth of an illiterate rice farmer, the beauty of the writing lies in its willingness to show the characters as they are...or as they would be if all the circumstances were true. Which, I am sad to say, I have every reason to believe they are. This is less fiction than an amalgam of factual narratives. It is not for the faint of heart to read, but rather for those ready to encounter the rawness of poverty of the cycles of despair it brings.
If you asked me to sum up the moral of the story, I would glibly reply "mo' babies mo' problems" and seriously this short novel offers a painful iteration of what any specialist in international women's rights knows. Although the language definitely rings of an author who spent way more time reading English literature than planting rice in a village in India, what she does successfully do is portray the ebbs and flows of poverty and the unending loop of achieving just enough to sustain oneself, only to lose it through a larger family, acts of God, colonialism, and other massive economic forces that purport the greater good while trampling across the lives of the most vulnerable. The futile and hopeless journey is enough to send the reader hunting for those last few pills of Prozac that might still be hiding in the bathroom cabinet.
The character of Kenny, who portrays the white savior in this narrative, is so weirdly constructed that I don't think I have anything to say about him, other than every page with him on it is terrible and I cringed with every line he spoke. I'm not sure that's what Markandaya intended, but I'm honestly not sure what she intended through his narrative, so have little to offer.
Other than that unfortunate character, every other person on the pages is real, is tragic, is beautiful, is flawed and joyful. That is part of the visceral experience of this book; you truly believe each one of these people lives and breathes and is suffering through the events found herein. I even found the portrayal of Kunthi, although harsh through the eyes of the narrator, overall rather sympathetic. At all times there is an underlying understanding embedded within the text that everyone is doing what they must, that starvation clouds morality, that one is only as good as their ability to survive. Despite an otherwise stilted tone and high language that rings false in the mouth of an illiterate rice farmer, the beauty of the writing lies in its willingness to show the characters as they are...or as they would be if all the circumstances were true. Which, I am sad to say, I have every reason to believe they are. This is less fiction than an amalgam of factual narratives. It is not for the faint of heart to read, but rather for those ready to encounter the rawness of poverty of the cycles of despair it brings.
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Infertility, Grief
Moderate: Infidelity