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The Toss Of A Lemon (2008)

by Padma Viswanathan(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0307356329 (ISBN13: 9780307356321)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Random House Canada

review 1: This is a fascinating, multi-generational story about a traditional Brahmin family in India who is tested and changed by the significant social and political changes that transformed India in the 20th century. The novel starts in the late 19th century in fictional village of Cholapatti, specifically its Brahmin quarter, which amounts to "a single street of some fourteen houses, ending in a Krishna temple." So much happens in this small village--more than any of its residents suspect--and even as the characters migrate to other parts of India and to other parts of the world Cholapatti remains the emotional center of the book. By no means does Toss of a Lemon try to be a political history of India, but reminders of the ongoing political and cultural discussions abound and... more intersect directly with important tensions between the protagonists. The book is an amazing feat. There are so many different characters to consider in this extended family that the novel threatens to become overfull--you'll be thankful, by the way, for the carefully delineated family tree at the front--but Viswanathan always remains cagily in control and wisely focuses on one character per generation, essentially telling the decade-long story through the eyes of those three or four people. At the same time so many of the other characters are colorful, fascinating people with seriously different ideas of what it means to be Indian and what it means to be religious. To the protagonists of Toss of a Lemon Brahmin traditions are an immense comfort and an important source of meaning; at the same time, it's hard to get around that some of those traditions amount to social prejudice and unapologetic haught. Is the decline of traditional caste-bound culture a sad, irredeemable loss to the people of India or a matter of leaving behind an unenable, oppressive social system? The novel does not provide a clear answer. Both sides of the tradition are true, and amazingly Viswanathan does not ask you to choose. She does not argue, she merely presents; a more honest approach, I think, for any fiction writer. The novel was inspired by Viswanathan's own family's history--she is Indian by ancestry, Canadian by upbringing, and American in citizenship--so her acknowledgments page makes for interesting reading, but by no means is this family Viswanathan's own just with diffferent names. What appears to be the case is that her own family suggested some ideas for a fictional family, a group of people that has been fleshed out of course with the writer's imagination but also by a serious amount of research into the traditions, suspicions, and everyday customs of the Brahmin culture. If you want to learn about that culture this book would be an excellent starting point, but it's no mere primer; it's a story with characters, a fact that Viswanathan never loses sight of even as she suggests so much turbulent history.
review 2: Too long and many characters.I chose this book as Sivakami reminded me of my mother's grandmother. she was a young widow, who shaved her head and wore white. We visted my mom's village house in a brahmin quarter along the river Kaveri in jeeyapuram. They had a dedicated servant called periyasami who took care of the lands. these similarities made me choose this book, however I really wanted to likethis but, but felt too much of a drag! less

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