A review by heidihaverkamp
Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India by Madhur Jaffrey

4.0

Jaffrey writes about growing up as a young, upper middle caste woman in India - mostly around Delhi and Kashmir - in the 1930s and 40s. I don't know a lot about Indian history or culture and this seemed like a good way to start, with a memoir. She's a great writer. The plot traces family, patriarchy, the amazing mixing of languages and cultures - Hindu/Muslim/British/Jain and even Persian, education, colonialism and post-colonialism. I learned a lot about the different regions and cities, too, which was helpful - I have been pretty ignorant. She's most famous as a cookbook author, so there's a lot of fun information and details about food too!