Like A Dry LemonDecember 22, 2008 This book had very intresting complex characters and plotline. However, the way it was written wasn't intresting at all. It was lengthy and overexplained without being vividly descriptive at all. This wasn't a well excuted idea at thats what makes it lack.
Cultural ImersionDecember 20, 2008 This book is an intriguing novel. It relates in exquisite detail the long and rich history of a family across several generations. It is rich with a variety of philosophical gems. At times the detail is almost excruciating, but at the same time, it is the relating of these details that gives this book the depth and substance missing from light reading.
Be prepared to invest more time that usual reading. In part this is due to the unfamiliar names and the eastern viewpoint. It took me a while to become comfortable with these things and a bit of review from time to time to keep all the characters straight.
But it's a rewarding book that was well worth the time I gave it. I came away with a better understanding of a magnificent culture that I still have more to learn about.
Breadth but no real depthNovember 1, 2008 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
While I sort of liked this book on the whole, I thought the characters were too one and two dimensional. But for Sivakami most of the portraits of the women in this story were pretty flat. In fact, I felt the author tried too hard to write a "sweeping" narrative and I found myself getting really, really bogged down by too much periphera. At the end, I felt like I had just read a travelogue.
Interesting Plot but Somewhat PedestrianOctober 14, 2008 Describing the length of this book generally ends in words like: "Epic" or "Sprawling," but The Toss of a Lemon is both of these, although perhaps not in the best way. "Toss of a Lemon" chronicles a family throughout an era, starting with a marriageable Sivakami at age 10, progressing through her children growing up, and ending as her grandchildren reach adulthood.
The best thing about this novel is that the cultural aspect is in full force. It takes its time to juxtapose a very traditional, upper-caste Brahmin (Sivakami) against the changing political and social eras of her children, as they deliberately mix and erode the idea of class. It tells an interesting story, although it can drag a bit. It was enough to keep me entertained on a 23-hour plane ride, but I don't think that I derived any lasting insight from the book. I like looking through books for thought-provoking passages and quotes, and this was more of a storytelling book with a somewhat pedestrian plot.
"Toss" was ambitious in scope, but the characters occasionally came off a little bit too unwieldy or simplistic (for exmaple, the Vairum character was immediately known upon birth to be weird, marked, and a dark soul; Goli is immediately made known to be a selfish lout), and they did not really complete any character development; they sort of just react to their surroundings. Otherwise, the story is filled with a motley assortment of characters - enough to take your mind off of the simplicity of the characters, and their backgrounds are all lovingly explained in detail.
While I enjoy reading books about different cultures, I was a little bit ambivalent about this book because of the partial lack of character development and the fact that Indian politics were alluded to, but never explored in any depth. Because the book promises "social and political upheaval," I was expecting more. However, if you liked "The Kite Runner," you will probably enjoy this book. "The Life of Pi" is also somewhat similar in lengthy narrative, but does a much better job being much more focused.
Anyway, I liked it overall, and thought that the story was compelling, but in the end, I only thought that it was an average novel. Would I read it again? Probably not, but it was worth reading once.
Readers Will Either Love It Or Hate ItOctober 4, 2008 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Toss of a Lemon will leave little middle ground with readers. Fans of the book will get swept up in the book's epic, yet intimate, scope and be transported to another world by the book's intricate descriptions. The book's detractors will only experience tedium after being exposed to over 600 pages of names and ritual titles.
Which side of the argument do I agree with? While impressed at the effort that it took to write the book, I find myself on the "tedium" side. The main reason why I feel this way is because the story, despite clearly being a very personal tale for the author, has a surprising lack of emotion. The entire story seems stultified by the very social structures that it portrays. Consequently, it is difficult to generate an emotional connection to the characters when those characters spent most of the book repressing their emotions for the sake of their social class.
Family stories set in other cultures can work (see The House of the Spirits). But, those works contain an emotional center to which readers from other cultures can relate. Such a center isn't present in The Toss of a Lemon. Thus, while the book is an impressive achievement, the story itself is not worth the effort needed to read the book.
