- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; 1st Edition edition (4 May 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571193366
- ISBN-13: 978-0571193363
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.2 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,099,772 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Born during a torrential rainstorm, in Shahkot, India, to a mother whom the neighbours find distinctly odd, Sampath Chawla is a disappointment to his family. Nothing but trouble from the start, he disgraces himself at a wedding party, loses his job at the local post office and runs away from home to take refuge in the guava orchard, at the top of a guava tree. There he is mistaken for a holy man and seer when he reveals intimate secrets about the local inhabitants (gleaned from reading their mail in idle moments at the post office). His father can see there is money, at last, to be made from his idle son and sets about doing so with determination. A local journalist, however, is equally determined to unmask him. Although Desai writes with considerable flair, employing an inventive style of English reminiscent of a line of Indian authors from Salman Rushdie to Arundhati Roy, there is something tiresome about this relentlessly perky comedy, and one has a slight suspicion that the European reader is being hoodwinked with fashionable pastiche. Midnight's Children has a lot to answer for. -- Lisa Jardine
Product Description
After years of failure at school and work, and of spending his days dreaming in the tea stalls and singing to himself in the public gardens, it doesn't seem as if Sampath Chawla is going to amount to much. But then he climbs a guava tree and becomes unexpectedly famous as a hermit.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
fine first novel, but usual first novel flaws...,
By James M (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (Paperback)
Bought this because I'm too stingy to buy her Booker winner till it comes out as a paperback. She's a very talented writer - natural comic writing, very gentle humour. I fear this book paints a picture of a lagely imaginary India, or an India long since passed, but I greatly enjoyed the characterisations and the situations. The first 50 pages in particular are first class. Thereafter her focus slips a little and we get into first-novel-it is. I suspect The Inheritance of Loss is a fine book - she's taken 7 years to write it, and all the signs of an exceptionally talented natural writer are there to be seen in Hullaballoo
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A delightful novel,
By
This review is from: Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (Paperback)
This is the story of Sampath "Good Fortune" Chawla, an idle young man who spends many hours dreaming in the tea stalls and singing to himself in public gardens of Shahkot. At the post office he spends time reading the mail instead of working and soon loses his job. Then he decides to take permanent residence in the fork of a guava tree in a marvellous orchard upon a hillside and become a hermit. Unfortunately his family quickly realise that Sampath could make their fortune and so a stream of worshipers start visiting Sampath's tree, asking for blessing while his parents, in a nearby tea stall, sell flower garlands, fruit, incense and souvenirs.In a witty and sharp prose Ms Desai mocks pious devotion, official incompetence, domestic tiffs, young love, marriage customs, sacred monkeys and the novel is a delightfully funny satire of the customs of India.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An absolute and utter delight,
By A Customer
This review is from: Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (Paperback)
One of the nicest books I have read in years. Beautifully written and utterly compelling. I was genuinely upset when I reached the end - I just wanted to have more; to spend more time with the delightful characters that Kiran Desai has created. I'm buying it as presents for loads of folk this Christmas - it's a real treat.
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