House of Blue Mangoes, The - Softcover

Davidar, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060936789 ISBN 13: 9780060936785

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2016

Synopsis

In 1899, in the south Indian village of Chevathar, Solomon Dorai is contemplating the imminent destruction of his world and everything he holds dear. As the thalaivar, or headman, of Chevathar, he seeks to preserve the village from both catastrophe and change, and the decisions he makes will mark his family for generations to come.

A gripping family chronicle, The House of Blue Mangoes spans nearly half a century and three generations of the Dorai family as they search for their place in a rapidly changing society. The novel brings vividly to life a small corner of India, while offering a stark indictment of colonialism and reflecting with great poignancy on the inexorable social transformations of the subcontinent.

About this title

Review:

To the reader prepared to enter the intoxicating and all-encompassing world of David Davidar's The House of Blue Mangoes, a memorable experience is in store for some books require a certain application on the part of the reader before they reveal their secrets. And (like so many hard-won things in life) the subsequent rewards are infinitely more gratifying than the "quick-fix" novel that throws its thin appeal in your face. In a similar fashion to Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, Davidar's ambitious Indian-set novel relates many stories in one, each ineluctably merging into the other. We are shown three generations of an old family in the village of Chevathar by the ocean. The patriarchal Solomon struggles to maintain equilibrium as caste struggles begin to create harsh conflict in the village. And we are told the story of Solomon's sons, their triumphs and disasters as India inaugurates its struggle for independence. There is the story of Solomon's grandson who may be the last of the line, undertaking his own bid for independence. All of these are drawn with a mercurial vividness, but Davidar has a Tolstoyan sense of the larger canvas: among an army of other characters, we are given Father Ashcroft, an English priest cast up in an unregarded fragment of the empire, and the beguiling Anglo-Indian Helen, who will play a key role in the rush-to-destruction of the family. Davidar's epic covers the spectrum: heroes and rogues, clans and dynasties, the ugly and the beautiful.

The narrative, alternately measured and hectic, enfolds assassinations and passionate affairs, exorcisms and beggars' banquets--all are incorporated into a rich weave. Davidar's models are often stories from India's great epics, but (along with the tracking of tigers) the fascination of the everyday is never overlooked, from making a perfect cup of tea to whipping up a flavoursome biryani. Behind the struggles of the protagonists, we are shown the various strategies Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill used in their battles, and we see how the English memsahibs played their part in the downfall of the Raj. The mangoes of India, a key image in the novel, suggest the heady, ripe taste of this baggy, engrossing and thoroughly individual novel.--Barry Forshaw

Review:

"Page-turning readability ... manifests the graces and attractions of a lost time."--San Francisco Chronicle

"The book is huge in scope but intimate in detail . . . there are some magnificent set pieces"--Daily Telegraph (London)

"Riveting ... thrilling ... exploding with brilliant, polished passages."--Seattle Times

"Lush, densely detailed, sweeping family saga ... a tale of grand scope."--Time

"Thoroughly engrossing ... Davidar's rich debut ... offers a sweeping and generous view of India's fractured history."--Publishers Weekly

"The House of Blue Mangoes is a perfect body of work, honed and polished to a high gloss"--London Times

"Lush prose ... [Davidar] tells a fine, true, accurate tale with vividness and verve."--Baltimore Sun

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0060936789
• ISBN 13: 9780060936785
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432