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Jul 05, 2008

booklady rated it:

http://okie-booklady.blogspot.com/2008/0...

At its heart, Nectar in a Sieve is a story about suffering and our response to it. The protagonist is an aging Indian woman looking back over her long life and reflecting on her fate as well as her choices. Much that happened to her, she had no say in. She was a child bride of an arranged marriage. In some respects, Providence was kind to her; in many others cruel.

But it would spoil the book to tell Rukmani’s tale before you read More...

6 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2008

Brooke rated it:

Nectar in a Sieve, written by Kamala Markandaya, is a wonderful novel that lets the reader peek inside the heart of Indian culture. Markandaya, the author of A Handful of Rice and
Some Inner Fury, is actually named Kamala Purnaiya Taylor; she was raised in Mysore, India but she later moved to Britain after India declared its independence. Nectar in a Sieve follows the life of an average lower-class Indian, looking at the effects of globalization and the conflict between traditional and rur More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2008

A Don rated it:

I just finished reading the novel, Nectar in a Sieve written by Kamala Markandaya. The author, born in the highest caste in India but lived mainly in England, writes about the tale of a family's struggles with poverty and globalization. Being Markandaya's first published novel, Nectar in a Sieve is a worldwide best-seller and has been translated into seventy languages. Markandaya takes us to rural India set in mid-1900's, with the reflection of main character, Rukumani, taking the reade More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 14, 2008

Sonali added it

Death, theft, prostitution and tenant farming. How could these elements be woven into a tale that inspires, evokes sadness, and creates pathos? Only one tale, spun so well, could this be made possible; that book is Nectar in a Sieve. Kamala Markandaya, authoress extraordinaire, can create emotions no one knew they could feel for written text and hardback cover. Markandaya lived no hard life herself, so the way she weaves a tale with such authority, such knowledge, and such passion about a family More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2007

John rated it:

A tale of utter hopelessness in the face of colonial or capital evil. The only inspiration one could draw from this is to hate to hate economic development, hate outsiders, or become determined to not be like these people, who can't or won't do anything to prevent ruin. Unfortunately in this desperation there is also little sense of love or bonding, such that the reader can only understand that it is terrible for people to be torn apart or turned against each other, rather than feel it as they r More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 27, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

Oh, man, talk about grimsville!! I think I'll just run along now and lay my head on that old railroad track!

These characters are just born to suffer and endure and work their tails off and all for what? Nothing, because they get screwed every time they start to get some hope back. Screwed either by Mother Nature or by their fellow human beings. Imagine seeing your child die from starvation and feeling relieved because you won't have to watch him suffer anymore!

Grimmest More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 04, 2011

Diane rated it:

What's a person to do when she has to spend 4 hours on an airplane? It's the perfect time to fulfill a promise made to her students -- read a novel from the "summer reading list". :)

I had never read Nectar in a Sieve either in high school or college. Perhaps it was because I had not been exposed to any literature from the Indian sub-continent. The only Asian literature I can remember reading was The Good Earth, although I'm sure War and Peace was on some recommended rea More...

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Jan 20, 2011

Laura rated it:

Ruku, from the age of twelve, has had to learn how to run a household, along with being a supportive wife and mother. One of the various trials Ruku and her family had to face was the sudden death of Raja, one of the youngest. Her husband Nathan is a farmer who strives to be a good father and head in his family. Ruku's daughter Irawaddy sacrifices her dignity and that of the family in a most desensitizing manner.

When looking at this title, one wouldn't be able to discern the intense More...

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Nov 20, 2010

Tina added it

I found this book to be moving and lyrical, sorrowful and yet hopeful. However, I think to fully appreciate the book the American reader to place it in historical context first. Rukmani marries Nathan in 1930’s rural India. This is a time and place where there is no such thing as adolescence. The poverty stricken Indian people have to make choices that provide the highest chance of survival to the highest number of people. So, when Rukmani’s parents contract her marriage when she is only tw More...

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Jun 26, 2011

Scott rated it:

Wow. Powerfully written. What love they had for each other! And to take in an orphan in their state. Yet it was Puli who led them to provision, despite all their hopes in their "real" children. Hope, beaten down many times, persistently struggled back to its feet. Wow!

"I will repeat it again: you must cry out if you want help. It is no use whatsoever to suffer in silence. Who will succour the drowning man if he does not clamour for his life?" (p. 111) Kenny's rebu More...

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Jan 09, 2010

Ryan rated it:

readingformysanity.blogspot.com

Set in rural India at the dawning of a new age, Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve tells the story of one woman's quest for happiness and peace amidst heartache and hardship. Despite attempts to ignore comparisons, one is indelibly reminded of Pearl S. Buck's classic The Good Earth. The heroine, Rukmani, is a sort of female Wang Lung, who narrates the rise and fall of her family as India grows and changes around them.

The story beg More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2009

Bonnie Jeanne rated it:

Beautiful writing and the book is worthy of the praise heaped upon it. I didn't particular enjoy reading this as there was no tension. Life was dismal and just got more dismal. Not that I wanted a "happily ever after" ending because I despise contrived, neat endings. For me, this was a very, very long short story. [return][return]The title is just so amazingly perfect, though. The people in the story always know the sweetness in life will seep out and be gone. So very sad. I wonder how More...

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Apr 03, 2011

Julia rated it:

I really enjoyed this book that gave me a different perspective of life from a point of view that I've never heard from before. I've read about the hardships or village people, people going hungry, change in 3rd world countries, but reading this book through the eyes of someone actually experiencing those things was a completely different experience. I think this was a good book to read for history about imperialism because throughout the book I found myself making connections and relations betw More...

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Jan 01, 2011

Efox rated it:

I picked this book up off my bookshelf to see if I would find it enjoyable not as a college required read. While not necessarily enjoyable at all parts, this is afterall, the story of an extremely poor woman who goes through unbelievable hardships in her life, I did find it vastly more powerful than I did when I first read it for my Third World Class.

In college I think I found the never ending cycle of poverty most powerful. This time I found the profoundly loving relationships betwe More...

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Dec 11, 2011

Stephanie:) :D :P loves COOKIES! rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Nov 21, 2010

Amanda rated it:

Meh. Whatever. The husband dies. Who cares. He cheated on her a zillion years ago and I won't forgive him. The End.

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2011

Diana rated it:

3 stars because it's an interpretation of a highly plausible reality for a woman of such time and place. Which makes it more valuable, to me, then some Cinderella type story. Beautiful in a way that leaves you a bit depressed, all too real and the human suffering factor unrelenting, it felt frustrating, the want to reach in the pages and change events.

I wanted to like this book, maybe too much. In the end I just felt obligated to finish it. If someone described the story to me I More...

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Jan 26, 2010

Sapphire rated it:

This was such a beautiful story which, with its cruel words of love and happiness, sadness and hardships, pulled me in and possessed me to sit and read such a wonderfully beautiful yet tragic tale. Told from the words of a woman, written by another, this story made me smile when the characters laughed and played, exuberant and unyielding, or literally brought tears to my eyes when they grieved for their losses. In this story love is given to all in one way or another and it really makes you thin More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 06, 2009

Tom rated it:

I really liked the simple style in which this book is written. The story is anything but simple, and the primary character continues to call herself simple. The travesties through which her family wades are fantastically portrayed. It's not a treatise on colonialism, or even the woes of poverty....just a look through the window at this woman's life.

The saddest part of the whole story, for me, is when she blew all their money in the market. The s and privations that came fr More...

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Nov 28, 2008

Gregg rated it:

A tale of an Indian woman's struggles to survive in colonial India. She's married off, struggles to bear children, watches her family rise and fall (mostly fall) yet ultimately holds on to her spirit, even in the face of utter loss. A blurb like this makes it sound like some cheeseball Lifetime movie, but it's anything but. The diction is matter-of-fact; the symbols are about as subtle as a cockroach on a white living room rug. But the tone and philosophy of the book, Eastern as it is, is what d More...

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May 29, 2011

Chuk rated it:

This book is really sad. It is about a girl who is married to a really poor farmer and how she always wanted a baby. After a few years, she had many children and her husband was happy with her. She has to make a living by growing her own crops and selling many things. There are lots of sad parts in this story like how she was threatened by her friend Kali, how she lived in a mud brick home that wasn’t any taller than half a foot, her sons died, and the most important of all, she has to feed her More...

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Oct 15, 2010

Cpryor rated it:

I picked up this book at a used book sale not realizing that it was originally published in 1952. The book is told in first person from the view of Rukumani, an Indian women who lives most of her life in poverty. She tells about the struggles of her family through good and bad times. She never really thinks of herself as unhappy, even through starvation and the death of some of her children. This story is a reflection of her life. I really enjoyed this book and found the message to be inspiri More...

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Mar 03, 2011

Bryan rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Mar 29, 2008

Wendell rated it:

I read this book in a Novel Class my senior year in High School. It is a beautifully written book and incredibly touching. It takes place in India.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 28, 2010

Elaine rated it:

I read this book when I was in high school. As an adult with more life experience I was able to glean so much more from the story. It is such a great story of survival and our life's journey. At the end of the story I cried. It made me a feel a little sad thinking of how my youth will pass and my children will grow and leave me one day. We have to bloom where we are planted and be thankful for everything that we receive in this life. In the end all that we have is our attitude and our loved ones More...

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Mar 18, 2011

Emily rated it:

Markandaya writes simply, but beautifully about the simply joys and the desperate pains of a impoverished woman and her family. Rukmani's life is what many would consider a tragedy, but this is the reality of thousands, if not millions, of the poverty stricken in India and all around the world. Having lived in India and seen this squalor myself, I found this work not only believable, put painfully accurate. I respected the author's honest portrayal of the conflicting values of traditional rur More...

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Jan 11, 2009

srdjan rated it:

I read this book twice - once in freshman year as part of an english class and once in junior year as part of an Eastern studies class. I took Eastern studies because I heard it was fun, easy, and it got me away from an awful Spanish teacher, the one who Naseem asked "when are you expecting?" (she wasnt pregnant)

In the first instance I hated this book. I found it confusing and frustrating. I couldnt understand the behavior of the characters, and could only relate to one More...

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Jun 01, 2011

Jennefer rated it:

This book was very depressing. It made me feel lucky with what I already have. It also made me feel guilty, because it made me think about wasting food that could have been used more resourcefully, or better yet, it could have been used to save a person from starvation. It is a tale about the protagonist, Rukmani, a child-wife to a tenant farmer she has never met. To make matters worse, she struggles through life raising so many kids on a small farm that they don't even own. It made me feel grea More...

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May 30, 2011

Elise rated it:

I've wanted to read this book for many years, and even after buying a copy, it continued to sit on my shelf for the past few. I wanted a fast read and at under 200 pages, I thought this would be a good choice, and it was. While this was one of the heaviest books I've read, I am so inspired. This is the story of a strong, unselfish woman who did everything she could for her family. Living though deaths, starvation, poverty, injustice after injustice, she never lost hope. She mourned and move More...

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Apr 03, 2011

William rated it:

I enjoyed this book. Reading it for history class was interesting as we viewed it through the lens of imperialism, tradition versus change, and worldview and perspective. The story follows our hero, Rukmani from the when she is a young girl, married at a young age to a man of lower class because her parents have no money for a dowry. We see her life in times of plenty and hardship, happiness and despair. Her family shrinks and grows, her perspective changing too as she learns to live in a ch More...

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