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59th out of 154 books
—
33 voters
Beggar's Feast
"Beggar's Feast" is a novel about a man who lives in defiance of fate. Sam Kandy was born in 1889 to low prospects in a Ceylon village and died one hundred years later as the wealthy headman of the same village, a self-made shipping magnate, and father of sixteen, three times married and twice widowed. In four parts, this enthralling novel tells Sam's story from his boyhoo
...moreHardcover, 311 pages
Published
2011
by Viking Canada
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Sam Kandy is at turns pitiful, endearing and entirely repulsive, but so deliciously real. In Beggar's Feast, Boyagoda also captures a perfect moving still of the post-colonial Asian world through his dip into trading hubs like Colombo and Ceylon in all their glorious filth and promise.
Boyagoda's poetic prose is also a defining feature. When his writing lapses smoothly into his run-on, stream-of-consciousness style, it just sucks you into the book and starts channeling wave after wave of raw emot...more
Boyagoda's poetic prose is also a defining feature. When his writing lapses smoothly into his run-on, stream-of-consciousness style, it just sucks you into the book and starts channeling wave after wave of raw emot...more
Nowhere near as bad as some Goodreads members make it out to be, and yet not amazing. I enjoyed Beggar's Feast for the most part, but Boyagoda has a tendency to get a little too in love with his own prose at times. It's like he's already painted a fine picture, but feels the need to slap on a few more layers for emphasis that at times isn't really needed. There are standout moments of true intensity for sure, but on the whole I was never completely engaged. Still quite a well written book, which...more
This book was hard to follow and sometimes a bit Joyce-like in its language, which was both a good and a bad thing. The main character, Sam Kandy, was creepy,mean, homicidal and sociopathic, and I didn't like him at all, but kept reading nevertheless. There was humour in the story as well, which I guess is what kept it readable. Not one I'd recommend though!
You can take Sam Kandy out of the village, but you can’t take the village out of Sam Kandy, whose life spans the 20th century and three marriages while taking him from Ceylon to New Zealand and back again. Often impressive writing and starts, ends nicely. In between a bit disjointed, uneven, and sometimes overwritten.
There are too many characters and terribly inadequate character development. Too much time is spent on descriptions rather than on moving the plot forward. The ending is unrealistic - A sixty-something year old man and a thirty-something year old woman manage to have 14 children together. All pretty healthy. Due to the poor character developtment, it's impossible to reconcile the inconsistencies in Sam Kandy's behaviour. His 'epiphany' moment toward the end feels contrived. A disappointment.
A very complex story. Sam Kandy becomes a memorable character. Filled with great descriptions, unusual word order and other complications. I must admit I took two breathers from reading the book but, in the end, I'm glad I went back to it.
I received this book as a gift from Penquin Canada after filling out a survey. I wasn't really sure how many stars to give this book and this is why. While I enjoyed the story, I didn't like how vague the story was if that makes sense.
I really tried, but couldn't get into this book at all. The writing just didn't flow and I was really confused. I kept thinking that it would get better after a few chapters, but it didn't....so it's going back to the library.
In exchange for doing an online survey for Penguin Canada, I was given a free book of my choosing (from about a dozen different novels) and I decided to give this one a try. "Beggar's Feast" is an intricately woven tale with brilliant writing and I must say that the author has an amazing way with words. The plot line is very imaginative, but I think gets a little far fetched in the last quarter of the novel. The story spans over 100 years and was well paced except for the last section which sped...more
Forced literary fiction is like bad dancing or mannerist painting- so utterly graceless and contrived it's painful all-round.
Didn't even make it all the way through.
Didn't even make it all the way through.
A colossal mess of a story plus a poor narrative style and underdeveloped caricatures of characters.
Pretentious crap.
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