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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
The delightful story of Sampath Chawla, bored post-office clerk and dreamer, who takes to the branches of a secluded guava tree in search of the contemplative life - only to find something rather different . . .
'Hullabaloo is delicious: with kindness and humour Desai describes a magical world full of eccentric characters that, at the end of the book, one is sad to leave.' Daily Telegraph
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format: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
Format: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.
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
Format: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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Most Recent Customer Reviews
pleasure to read
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard is the first novel by Kiran Desai. In the town of Shahkot, in the shadow of the Himalayan foothills, lives Sampath Chawla, a bored, dreamy Post... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Cloggie Downunder
Where do I begin....
In year 10 we were introduced to this book by our english teacher. In analytical terms it is packed full with culture, hyperbole, and Desai's unique writing style, but this does... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Twist
Hullabaloo in the guava orchard - the worst story ever written
The book Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard - if it is possible to refer to this as a book (something that I believe should be read for pleasure) rather than a piece of condensed, and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by mtw
A delight to savour
A first class book: wonderful gentle humour. As others have said, a book that leaves you wanting more as it is so delightful.
Published 12 months ago by Drapes68
Immensely enjoyable
I read this book all in one go one weekend, I just didn't want to put it down. It tells the wonderfully humorous tale of Sampath Chawla and his rather peculiar life. Read more
Published on 29 Mar 2010 by Jennifer Malsingh
fantasy?
This book was a joy to read. I lived in India for a while in the late 60s and the atmosphere came flooding back. Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2009 by palace pier
Happiness Comes in Doing Your Own Thing
Happiness Comes in Doing Your Own Thing, April 15, 2008
By Donald Mitchell "a Practical Optimist" (Boston) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)... Read more
By Donald Mitchell "a Practical Optimist" (Boston) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)... Read more
Published on 15 April 2008 by Donald Mitchell
Very funny, light easy read
This is a very funny book indeed. I agree with "James M" review below and also found the first half of the book to be far superior to the second half. Read more
Published on 18 July 2007 by anon-london
This one earns a place on anyones bookshelf
This is one of the best books I have read in the last year. Kiran Desai's beautiful style of writing captures each moment and describes every setting with such vividness that you... Read more
Published on 19 July 2000 by Mr. Paul J. Sargeant
Intelligent, laugh out loud funny!
I aven't read a book I have liked so much since Annie Proulx's Shipping News. This is a very funny story about a family in India, whose son goes slightly off the rails. Read more
Published on 19 Aug 1999
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