| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Observer
Booklist
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
As the story moves from the stench-filled air of Calcutta to the busy streets of Ratnapur, Badami paints a fascinating picture of the life of an officer’s wife and her family as lived behind fenced-in gardens and shuttered windows. This is the story of a woman and a mother, forced into the world of loveless marriages and of keeping up appearances. At the same times, it is the story of dormant desires which, when unleashed, change and scar lives forever.
Particularly profound is the way events in the book are narrated first through the eyes of Kamini, the daughter and then though the words of Saroja, the mother, beautifully demonstrating that no matter how thin you slice it, there are always two sides to a story.
The one shortcoming of the book is its ending, abrupt like a train stopped mid-journey. Despite this, Tamarind Woman is a fine book, poignant and honest – a journey well worth undertaking.
The novel is about memories of two Indian women - a daughter Kamini and a mother Saroja. It begins with Kamini phoning from "The North Pole" (Canada) to her mother Saroja in India and having a conversation which soon turns into an argument. The book has two parts - Kamini and Saroja where each woman narrates their memories and draw two autobiographical pictures of woman's place in Indian society at different times.
Saroja belongs to Brahmin caste family that comes from the Southern India. Very active, clever and curious girl is not allowed to continue higher education by her elders and as the eldest of 5 children is hurriedly arranged to marry a 15 year older man "without a horoscope". The husband has responsibilities other than his new wife and seems to be a totally quiet and calm person who works in railways and is out on trips most of the time. Saroja's dreams and expectations appear to be far from reality and astrologer's guessed "great match" doesn't seem to be great at all.
Kamini - Saroja's elder daughter is similar to her mother when she was young and she can't understand why her dad is always leaving and why her mother is much happier when he is not at home. Kamini narrates her story in a way of "I remember when..." and her memories stretches as far as her childhood and her grandparents' ancient photos.
"Tamarind Woman" is full of India's daily life details, images, expressions, sights, smells, sounds and everything that India involves. It was "the living India" with it's noisy haths and bazaars, jewellers' shops and vegetables vendors, a Christian ayah Linda telling ghost stories to children and mysterious neighbour (supposedly a beauty princess) wearing burqa...
Reading the novel there was the feeling of someone actually narrating their life story while sitting on a train on a long trip and snacking roasted cashiew nuts.
The book is written in an extremely witty manner and is greatly entertaining. I also loved the way the idea was passed to the reader and the writing style was absolutely amazing. It was a big pleasure to read and I wanted it never to end. Very much recommended.
And as I started reading the book at their store, I just couldn't stop it....It was absolutely riveting....I had finished more than half of the book, before I realized that they were going to close the store in 10 minutes or so !!
This book is an absolute page-turner, if you are from India....The attention to small small details, from an Indian childhood are just amazing.
For instance, the author talks about the frequent transfers that many families of banks/railways/govt officers have....and all the accompanying problems of being a child in desh - frequent fights between parents, too much emphasis on God & religion, awkward circumstances of even getting an oil bath.....
This author has a remarkable memory and wraps it around the basic story of the daughter (in Canada) walking down her memory lane....at the same time, the mother (in Madras) has an entirely different view of the same circumstances !! (which you realize after completing the book.....)
Anyways, I would rate it as a must-buy, if you are an desi immigrant to North America....check it out.... and you realize that an author like Anita can package all your desh experiences in one nice book. (it also gave me a new insight of taking that package and stop worrying about all the awkward things of childhood....can press the delete button on the package!!)
Regards,
The author skillfully weaves the present and different versions of the past together. Aunty Vijaya from the book remarks that memories are never the same between two people--"They are pictures we create in our hearts you see...and each of us uses different sticks of chalk to colour them." The dialogue is excellent. The characters and relationships are varied and interesting. The descriptions are vivid--"...the tree was covered in blossoms, fiery with colour sucked from the sun."
As I was skimming the book to include a couple of my favorite sentences in this review, I caught myself re-reading it! I had to make myself stop. I'll recommend Tamarind Woman to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and I'm going to add Badami's second book The Hero's Walk to my wish list right now. If you enjoy learning about other cultures or if you're just interested in human relationships, you'll enjoy this book.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
