The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Well. 

I have just finished reading Kiran Desai's second book - The Inheritance of Loss.

Set in India, it is the story of orphaned Sai, who is deposited on the doorstep of her grandfather. His cook is the one who cares for and nurtures her, although he is distracted by thoughts of his son in America. A violent political insurgency is set off, causing chaos and pain, and affects the characters - rich and poor alike - in unusual ways.

 

I have to say that although much prefer the author's first book, simply because the plot was lighter, this story had me riveted! She has a way of describing the cold, the wet, the smells, the darkness. I was completely sucked in to India. I absolutely love how the characters are so realistically self absorbed and how remarkable her observations are:

The insurgents: "The men sat unbedding on their rage, learning...that old hatreds are endlessly retrievable...they find the hate pure, purer than it could ever have been before because the grief of the past was gone. Just the fury remained..."

Proud mamas: "Perhaps England and America didn't know that they were in a fight to the death, but it was being fought on their behalf, anyway, by these two spirited widows of Kalimpong."

War: "But while the residents were shocked at the violence, they were often surprised by the mundaneness of it all...and found that it was possible, faced with the stench of unimaginable evil, for a human being to grow bored, yawn, be absorbed by the problem of a missing sock, by neighborly irritations, to feel hunger skipping like a little mouse inside a tummy..."

I will say, it does have quite a few moments that truly made me angry and sad, and I am a sucker for resolved happy endings. This doesn't end bad. It just ended. I would have like for an airplane to fall from the sky and give them everything they need for a happy ending and a "what-for" to those that deserved it. And for the pilots of said airplane to be okay....but it didn't end that way.

So basically, I probably won't read this again, but I did enjoy it very much. The descriptions and the narrative were definitely enjoyable and I really love her characters. All in all an excellent read. Once. ;)

Many a Pickle Makes a Mickle, or Show a Clean Set of Teeth

Drunk monkeys, a holy man that's not, and a confused ice cream boy.
I just reread a very funny, bizarre, but sweet story about a family in India.

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai is one of my favorite reads. It's been around awhile. This is the author's first novel, and it's a "whimsical" first novel!

                                                          
Sampah is a young man whose life is not going as it should. Fed up, he runs away to a guava orchard, climbs a tree, and refuses to come down. Very quickly he becomes the town's sage.


What makes this story so fantastic is that the absurdity of the situation is somehow familiar.

The author expresses so many insights into people, the private thoughts that we have and pretend to not.

The family of Sampah are delightfully odd - selfish and selfless, miserable and happy, all rolled into one - from his father whose love for his family drives him to greediness, to his angry, aggressive, yet sympathetic sister.

Don't these juxtapositions sound like real people?

The townspeople are equally enjoyable to read about, and the description of the countryside- the smells, the colors, and the foods - really make you want to visit this guava orchard, and perhaps stay there with Sampah.

Pick this up for a nice relaxing read, or to delve deepaahhh and deepaahhh into your soul. I'm not a deeeeep person, so I just enjoyed the hilarity of it all. Best reading, bookworms!

Traveling in place: India

First, thank you Man of La Book for giving me the courage to say I occasionally hate books and don't finish them. The last book I put down with irritation shall remain nameless, because someday, if I write a book and someone hates it, I don't want them to mention the title. Read it forward?

Instead of the karmically unmentionable book with an Indian theme, I read "Climbing the Mango Tree: A Memoir of Childhood in India, a biography by Madhur Jaffrey. and loved it from the forward to the last word so much so that I hardly know where to begin so I'll tell you how she began,
"I was born in my grandparents' sprawling house by the Yamuna River in Delhhi.  Grandmother welcomed me into this world by writing Om, which means, "I am" in Sanskirt, on my tongue with a little finger dipped in honey." You can't say enough about the upside to a really good grandmother.

 Jaffrey is a titan of the culinary world, was friends with James Beard to the point of having taught some his classes when his health began to fail and while she began as an actress she has become a prolific cookbook author, specializing in, get ready... Indian cuisine!  Shocking! I know!.   So why not one of her many cookbooks?  Well, I chose her biography because I'm trying to lose weight and just didn't think it would be a good idea to have any more reasons to want food.   My husband and I go out for India food. Fewer leftovers=smaller sit down ( optimally at least ).

Kakri cucumbers.  Seeds available from
Diamond Seeds

Needless to say, food is a main character in her biography from the honey on her newborn tongue to the summer cucumbers called kakri  hawked in the streets of Delhi by vendors crying out "Laila ki unglian hain, Manju ki pasliyan", "These are the fingers of Juliet, the ribs of Romeo"  though I'm not sure how you get either Romeo or Juliet from that.  She translated and I figure she knows more than I do about Hindi(?).   The book is a good read and a tour of India taken from your own cozy book nook.
Maybe you have the last few summer kakri sitting sadly on their withering vines and if so, though this isn't even remotely Shakespearean, maybe you'd like an idea about what to do with them:

Raita Salad

• 1 cucumber peeled, seeded and coarsely grated
• 2 cucumbers peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 cups non-fat Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup finely chopped mint, firmly packed
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne ( to taste and omit if heat isn't your thing )
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
• salt and pepper to taste

Hindu Temple, Calabasas, California.
Take off your shoes.. Thank you.

Combine all the ingredients and allow them to marry in the fridge for an hour or so. The Greek yogurt has a very high protein content and thus this is a good salad to pair with some steamed rice  as a meal.  This is also delicious served as a condiment to grilled meats and how much damage can you do with vegetables and non-fat yogurt?  I will tell you, using Greek yogurt makes a difference.