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Read Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard (1999)

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (1999)

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3.4 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0385493703 (ISBN13: 9780385493703)
Language
English
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Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard (1999) - Plot & Excerpts

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 Office clerk distinguishing himself with lacklustre career ambitions. When he manages to lose his job, his father, Mr Chawla, despairs that his son will ever amount to anything; his mother, Kulfi, says little, but then, she did come from a mad family; his sister Pinky finds him irritating and exasperating; his paternal grandmother, Ammaji, however, is convinced he will come good. Overwhelmed by the attention, Sampath decides to climb a tree in the Guava Orchard to be alone, to clear his thoughts, a deed that, unfortunately for Sampath, has quite the opposite effect. Convinced he is a hermit, people gather to hear his thoughts: this sets in motion events that will affect not only Sampath and his family, but the people of the district, the Chief Medical Officer, the Superintendent of Police, the Army Brigadier, the University researcher, the District Collector and even a spy from the Atheist Society. This novel has a cast of amusing characters, a plot with a few surprises and is filled with wonderful prose like: “A passing car sent its searchlight-glare crazy and liquid over the sides of the buildings and into the trees, revealing not the colours, the daylight solidity of things, but a world of dark gaps cut from an empty skin of light”. Desai is skilled at creating atmosphere and this novel has a uniquely Indian feel. This novel was a pleasure to read and it is easy to see why it won the Betty Trask Award in 1998.

this book was rather entertaining... it helps the mind look beyond the obvious and try to make sense of little details that at first one would consider insignificant. it certainly changed my perception of the world or any other piece of literature for that matter... Miss Randa if you're reading this, then yes i have become under the influence of over analytical thinking thank you :P the book asks of each person what he/she might consider the meaning or purpose of their life, and as odd and strange as it might seem i think the author meant to tell us that we can't pin point the meaning of life as a general or internationally known concept for it might differ for each person and that's why this story highlighted different parts of different character's lives. Any person can make sense of the world, it's the person who questions that sense who is really thinking of his purpose in life and is attempting to live it like any other person. Eventually we all ask ourselves weather to live fully we must put our personal desires ahead of societies expectations. Well there can never be a definite answer for that because society is made up of different individuals and its our ability to live and cope with each other despite our differences which actually makes us humane. So perhaps what the author really is trying to say is that everyone should live his life as humanely as possible with everything god has given him... a natural world, and the ability to build another world around him.

What do You think about Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard (1999)?

since the book was set in shahkot, north india(the capital of divine religious cultures and morals) one would expect the book to be have a wide range of religious themes, settings etc however desai employs a much different setting. she completely turns around and lowers the prestige pattern of hinduism as a religion and culture that was set in books known for this such as 'a passage to india'. the book's main genre is comedy and that is the device she uses in potraying the indian beliefs. the author potrays them as corupt and totally commercialised people not the simple non-buereaucratical peopole. desai openely says this; " how many hermits were secretly wealthy? how many holy men were not at all the beggers they appeared to be? "to turn around a corrupt and illegal act of reading through peoples mail as a spiritual proclaimation conveys the insatiable appetite for gurus when she turns around the religious theme. it is quite predictable since the title itself speaks about what one would expect before reading thus no criticism should be put on its religious setting
—Kara

Fairly amusing and fairly brief novel about Sampath, an Indian adolescent, who really does not want to work hard and who would rather laze around. One day he suddenly decides he would like to sit at the top of a guava tree. He stays there and refuses to come down. He begins to be mistaken for a wise man. There is an air of predictability about this and some of the characters are very formulaic. There are some very funny moments though and the saga of the drunken monkeys is hilarious. Desai also very neatly dissects bureaucracy and the inability of local dignitaries to make decisions. She also sends up the role of the guru mercilessly and some of the sayings Sampath passes on to those who visit him in his tree are close enough to the sort of things you read in books of wisdom/proverbs to be convincing and amusing at the same time. Desai must have had great fun making them up: Remember "If you do not weed your tomato plant will not flower".The plot is a little thin at times and some of the interesting side stories would have benefited from expansion. The ending doesn't work, but on the whole it is enjoyable and doesn't stretch the mind too much; which is sometimes a good thing, especially as I'm going to read Middle C next!
—Paul

From the beginning of the book to the middle I found the book boring. However as I continued to read the book, it slowly but surely became interesting. To be honest if I was given this book by a person and they told me to read it, I would have put it down by the first chapter.I think that the monkeys getting drunk was nothing big but just an idea to add a bit of humor into the book.No one believes the grandmother when she tells them that Sampath will be successful but he is taking a bit more time than everybody else.She was able to prove her point when Sampath climbs the Guava Orchard looking and hoping for peace and all of a sudden out of the blue he becomes famous as a Holy Man. The ending was unexpected and I didn't think I would enjoy this book but I was proven wrong. I'm glad you made us read this book because now I know to have patience while reading a book.
—Natasha Ghawi

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