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Under The Lemon Trees (2009)

by Bhira Backhaus(Favorite Author)

3.18 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0312379536 (ISBN13: 9780312379537)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Thomas Dunne Books

review 1: This book stood out the most to me among the dull coloured books. I admit I wanted to read it because it has a pretty front cover, it's so simple yet it gives off the feeling that the book has so much to tell. For the first two chapters or so I couldn't put the book down, I wanted to know more and more about the characters. After a while the book became boring and slow, and I found myself reading the same line several times because my thoughts had drifted. When I finished the book, I realised the title is a bit misleading. The book mentions trees a lot, but never specifically talking about lemon trees. 'Under The Lemon Trees' completes the category of "a book that teaches you about a culture other than your own." This books teaches you the basic hospitality rules of Sikh c... moreulture. Its pretty similar to my own culture but the difference I guess would be that instead of just having your daughters making all the food for the guests, as a mother you would be in the kitchen while your daughters help you. There are so many little rules to follow,rules that someone would have to pick up on without someone voicing them. I wonder how someone would remember them.I couldn't decide on who is my favourite character from this book, but after giving it some thought I have chosen Jeeto as my favourite character. Although she is my favourite character, I disliked her the most. Her inner angst made me roll my eyes at times when she made a big deal of out nothing. I thought after seeing what happened when her sister, Neelam, had fallen in love with someone her parents didn't approve of, she would have realised not to follow in her footsteps? I couldn't understand why she decided to get involved with Pritam, he didn't treat her as if she was the only girl he liked. I definitely didn't understand why she still had feelings for him after he ran off with her best friend. I didn't see any reason why she would have daydreamed about getting married to him and having children with him when she knew her mother would arrange her marriage or even when Pritam become distant every time they had an intimate moment or made love. My favourite quote from this books is "I would do it, I told her. I would forget, I told myself. Forget Pritam, everything. I would trust in something new, strange and his name was Ameer." I love this quote because this is where we see Jeeto starting to change. This also ties in with something new I learned from this book. Some times you just have to put your family before yourself. After thinking of yourself for so long, maybe its best to put your parents' wishes before yours.I didn't hate this book, but I didn't like it either. At times, I felt that there were too many details, too many similes and metaphors. After a few chapters, the plot became predictable. I also felt that the ending was a bit rushed.
review 2: There were a lot of different characters to keep up with in this coming of age story primarily about Jeeto, a young Sikh-American who wants to escape her small Central Valley, California community to attend college instead of being married off by her parents to a "suitable" Indian man. The parts of the story I enjoyed most were when the focus was on Jeeto's story. The transitions between the current story (hers) and the story of her uncle, Avtar as a young immigrant thirty years earlier. I'm still not clear on why Avtar and his brother don't speak. I felt a little let down by the ending. There were no big revelations. I like the writing and look forward to this author's next book. less

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