Nothing in Lakshmi's childhood, running carefree and barefoot on the sun-baked earth amid the coconut and mango trees of Ceylon, could have prepare...
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Sep 21, 2010
Chrissie
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Oct 09, 2011
Ricardo
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I loved this book. The way the story is told is really fantastic!
The main character, Lakshmi, is not the only one who narrates the events.
We have the opportunity to read some parts of the story narrated by various members of the family and it's amazing to see how Rani Manicka maintained the consistency of the plot from beginning to end!
I found this way of writting really cool and unique because not all characters had the same perspective of some of the events.
There are at More...
The main character, Lakshmi, is not the only one who narrates the events.
We have the opportunity to read some parts of the story narrated by various members of the family and it's amazing to see how Rani Manicka maintained the consistency of the plot from beginning to end!
I found this way of writting really cool and unique because not all characters had the same perspective of some of the events.
There are at More...
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Jan 04, 2009
Dana
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This book is about four generations of a family in Malaysia. Lakshmi, from Ceylon, is duped into marrying Ayah. He portrays himself as a wealthy man. But everything is an illusion even down to the borrowed gold watch. Ayah is a civil servant who while kindly and loving is a plodding unintelligent man. Lakshmi has 6 children by the time she is nineteen. She makes friends with the Chinese servant girl next door, Mui Tsai. Mui is forced to have sex with her master and each child is given to a diffe
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Dec 17, 2009
Yosita
rated it:
After two full days, I finally finished reading Rani Manicka's debut novel, The Rice Mother. So intense is the storyline, I found myself clenching my fist and gritting my teeth from time to time as I breathed in the wonderful storytelling. Love, betrayal, anger, sorrow, hope, denial, happiness, longing, despair, deceit, infedility, honesty, pain and a thousand other emotions are spun and woven beautifully in this 580 page work of art, spanning a period of 85 years over 4 generations. It's been a
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Oct 02, 2011
Nancy
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There were parts of this book I really loved - and occasionally parts that were confusing or not very interesting. There were also parts that I wish had been more comprehensive. In other words, the reader was left wanting more. Lakshmi marries her husband at age 14. Her family is led to believe that he is a well-to-do man, but once they arrive at his home she discovers this is not the case. The novel tells the story from various points of view about the children that Ayah and Lakshmi have.
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Apr 23, 2011
Felice
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There is nothing new about a storyline that takes a woman with no education, no experience in the world who winds up either a widow or with a wastrel husband, a brood and no means of support for her family. It's been done by male and female writers, it's been played out in every possible kind of setting and time period from ancient Roman households to Mayberry. So as an author if you're going to take that crumbly old plot and make it the center of your novel you had better be able to pony up som
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May 27, 2009
Sumita
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I picked this from the library just for fun, as i enjoy Indian readers -and never expected it to move me the way it did.
Superbly poignant. Being malaysian with similar ancestral history, it was like reading something about my own past - bits and pieces of memories of hearing similar things from the older generations.
This book really moved me beyond my imagination and experience. i'm still so overwhelmed.It has been some time since something caught hold of me the way this book did, i' More...
Superbly poignant. Being malaysian with similar ancestral history, it was like reading something about my own past - bits and pieces of memories of hearing similar things from the older generations.
This book really moved me beyond my imagination and experience. i'm still so overwhelmed.It has been some time since something caught hold of me the way this book did, i' More...
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Dec 16, 2009
Angela
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Lovely novel - I love to travel through my books...
When I don't have enough money to buy a ticket to a far away place, or when the times I wish to visit have already passed a long time ago, I open a book and read. This book took me to Malaysia, into the lives of three generations of women who struggle to make ends meet and raise their families. A beautiful story about love and war, mango trees and spiced rice.
When I don't have enough money to buy a ticket to a far away place, or when the times I wish to visit have already passed a long time ago, I open a book and read. This book took me to Malaysia, into the lives of three generations of women who struggle to make ends meet and raise their families. A beautiful story about love and war, mango trees and spiced rice.
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Aug 13, 2009
okyrhoe
rated it:
The story of the Rice Mother and her family is the kind of narrative I like to read. But the writing style is overly florid, and more often than not it competes for attention against the heart-wrenching plot. I couldn't resolve the contrast between these two elements.
It is regrettable that the author could not control her stylistic garrulousness. I so much wanted the characters to speak for themselves, but time and time again their humanity was drowned in the ocean of detailed description More...
It is regrettable that the author could not control her stylistic garrulousness. I so much wanted the characters to speak for themselves, but time and time again their humanity was drowned in the ocean of detailed description More...
Aug 07, 2011
Anouska
rated it:
I thought this book was incredible hence the high rating. A sign of a good book in my opinion is one that teaches and provokes both emotion and becomes ingrained on your memory. This book delivers. The main character is fierce. Her determination and love of her family is absolute. Some will argue that the story isn't original as it's a woman's struggle to bring up her family through poverty, war and a forced marriage but this book is so well written that you feel like an observer and I was drawn
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Feb 14, 2011
Ashwini
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I'm left with an odd feeling for this book. There were several parts of the book that was riveting while at other times, you are frustrated with the pace and yet others where you are left hanging in the air for a long time. The Rice Mother's story had such a weird emotional impact on me that for a while I was in doubt whether I liked it or not! Except at certain points, where perplexing questions are abruptly left unanswered, I was enjoying the read. As I progressed, all questions that bothered
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Jan 13, 2012
Sophie
rated it:
I read this book about a year ago and I still find myself thinking and quoting itself. It's message is incredibly. It has intense subject matter but it is realistic and you think to yourself, "Wow, that stuff truly goes on around this world," in my safe little bubble of a small town it's hard to think of that. It has left an impression on me and I'm definitely going to buy a copy of this book, since the first time I read it it was a library book.
It is just so touching and poignan More...
It is just so touching and poignan More...
Sep 06, 2009
Ramona
rated it:
How to rate a book that I think I despised, yet also could not abandon. 1 star is indecent; yet 5 stars is scandalous to give to a book which provided me no pleasure.
Rani Manicka’s dark, complicated, and violent first novel, The Rice Mother, tells the story of a family living in 20th century Malaysia. Lakshmi, the “rice mother”, gives birth to 6 children by age 19. She is both chillingly fierce and sacrificially loving. Her children lead tragic, sordid, perverse lives after wit More...
Rani Manicka’s dark, complicated, and violent first novel, The Rice Mother, tells the story of a family living in 20th century Malaysia. Lakshmi, the “rice mother”, gives birth to 6 children by age 19. She is both chillingly fierce and sacrificially loving. Her children lead tragic, sordid, perverse lives after wit More...
Aug 06, 2011
I had a difficult time getting into this book. After several chapters written from the mother's perspective, it switches to the children, husband, grandchildren and other characters. It's a good technique to really get into everyone's head and see what they think about the other people, but it leaves you with a disjointed feeling. The action really picks up toward the end when the stories are being told by the granddaughter and great-granddaughter, but I wondered at the purpose of including t
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Jan 19, 2012
Andrea
rated it:
I struggled with this book, it was extremely well written, but so sad. The characters are frustratingly flawed they constantly make terrible choices even after being warned by multiple sources not to make certain choices. Also the rice mother herself is hard on her children even before the drama that unfolds during World War II that changes her forever. I don't mind reading books with sad endings, but I have a hard reading books with characters that seem intelligent, yet continually make self
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Nov 05, 2011
Kavanjit
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Wow!!! I was amazed with they way this book was written because I can spend hours reading it without getting tired or sleepy. Alot to learn and appreciate for what we have today. The shattered dreams, poverty, the snake charms, brutality during world war II, the incarnation, to live luxuriously although there was very little money.... Every chapter is so mysterious, I love this book so much. Lakshmi has proven that although she felt she was cheated at marriage but she had made the best out of he
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Apr 09, 2011
Christina
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This book is beautifully written, heart wrenching account of the impact of arranged marriage, the persevering strength of one woman in the face of poverty, Japanese invasion of Malaysia and their immense cruelties, the loss of a loved one and a way of life....It is a book about survival and strength. However, it switches characters frequently, and in the onset of the book I didn't mind that, but it seems like it could have easily concluded several chapters prior and done so with more grace. The
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Nov 08, 2010
Sarah
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Jan 25, 2011
Shauna
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I really felt I could empathize with all the charcters in the book. Manicka made it very easy to relate to all her characters. Her style of writing was interesting in that it was told from many perspectives. For instance, you learn about Laksmi, her background, her feelings, why she made certain decisions, all from her perspective. Then the book turns to another woman, Anna for instance. You then learn about Anna's perspective on herself and Lakshmi. So, you will love and hate each woman i
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Nov 01, 2010
LemonLinda
rated it:
I could not believe that this one is a debut novel. This author has quite a promising career. The book gripped me from the beginning and never let go.
The family saga spanning about 80 years in time beginning in the 1920s is told from the perspective of many different family members spanning four generations. I loved that way of telling the story of this family set in Malaysia dealing with all of their adversities (and they had many) including the Japanese occupation during WWII. But More...
The family saga spanning about 80 years in time beginning in the 1920s is told from the perspective of many different family members spanning four generations. I loved that way of telling the story of this family set in Malaysia dealing with all of their adversities (and they had many) including the Japanese occupation during WWII. But More...
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Nov 25, 2010
Glenda
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Lakshmi's mother arranges a marriage with what she believes to be a wealthy man. Lakshmi, a child bride, is soon ripped away from mother and home to live with an older man she neither knows nor loves. Far from home she soon discovers her husband is not wealthy, he is very much in debt and denial. She finds satisfaction in making the most of what she does have, and in the children that begin to come.
Giving birth to a child every year until she is nineteen, Lakshmi becomes a formidable matr More...
Giving birth to a child every year until she is nineteen, Lakshmi becomes a formidable matr More...
Jul 29, 2010
Karla
rated it:
In the land of far away exotic Malaysia lives the beloved and hated Indian Rice mother named Lakshmi seeming IMO to be some sort of human deity. struggling to raise a family trying to be protective but losing the grip on her her inner demons. Her family fights an unyelding curse she refuses to believe. Through unrelenting frustrations, failures, tragic loss and horriable atrocities from the Japanese brutality during WWII you would think that if any of them survived it, they could face anything t
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Sep 30, 2008
Rafael
rated it:
What led me to this novel is the author's second novel, Touching Earth, which I had read first. Like Touching Earth, The Rice Mother engrossed me with the author's description of things so lush I could almost taste every food mentioned in the story. Manicka also ingenuously weaves plot twists.
It could also be I share something with the author, that is, the horrors of Japanese occupation. I come not from Malaysia but from the Philippines and am too young to have experienced World war More...
It could also be I share something with the author, that is, the horrors of Japanese occupation. I come not from Malaysia but from the Philippines and am too young to have experienced World war More...
Sep 06, 2011
Cheryl
rated it:
Rice Mother is a beautifully written novel set in Malaysia. Fascinating from a cultural point of view, Manicka tells her story through the voices of a progression of characters who find that the consequences of some choices to satisfy momentary desires lead to extremely disastrous consequences for generations to come...the sins of the fathers (and especially the mothers)fall upon the children. It was a spellbinding book that I had a hard time putting down.
Feb 12, 2008
Abigail
rated it:
I liked this book because the author had a colorful way of describing life in Malaysia. She did such a good job that I imagined myself there, watching the characters interact with each other.
I also liked the way the characters were presented, how their stories were told in the first person and what other characters thought of them. This gave you both sides of the story without hitting you over the head with it.
The one thing I felt the book needed more of was character d More...
I also liked the way the characters were presented, how their stories were told in the first person and what other characters thought of them. This gave you both sides of the story without hitting you over the head with it.
The one thing I felt the book needed more of was character d More...
Apr 02, 2011
Lynne
rated it:
The story of an incredibly strong matriarch, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchild. After a disappointing marriage at age 14 to a man who turned out to be poor and unattractive, despite her earlier expectation that she was marrying a rich and handsome man. In spite of this, she endeavors to make the best of her situation, having 6 children, and pouring her efforts into making a better life for them. Despite her drive and perfectionism, she drives them away from her and they have tr
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Jul 14, 2009
Jen
rated it:
This book is a bit slow to start, but the author weaves a deep tale of love, betrayal, hatred and sorrow through the voices of four generations of an Indian family living in Malaysia. The characters are at the same time, despicable, caring, selfish, vulnerable and haunting. It is a worthy read if you like character-driven novels with plenty of voice.
Nov 08, 2010
Tara
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This is the story of a family in Malaysia, spanned over 4 generations. The story starts with Lakshmi, and ends with her great-granddaughter, Nisha. Lakshmi was a child bride, married to a man from another country with promises of riches and a grand life. This story tells of the family's hardships, temptations, of happiness, sadness, and everything in between.
I'm torn between giving this book 3 and 4 stars. 3.5 would be good for me. I found the book interesting, but it didn't really suck me More...
I'm torn between giving this book 3 and 4 stars. 3.5 would be good for me. I found the book interesting, but it didn't really suck me More...
Jul 29, 2010
Stephen
rated it:
Told from the point of view of various family members - even the same events told about from various people's perspectives. Basic story is a family history starting in 1917 in Malaysia, and continuing through the generations and marriages. Definitely intense at times and sad. A hecka messed up family and tragedies they encounter.
Jan 03, 2010
Carol
rated it:
so much drama! so true to the sagas of so many lives of migrant Indians to Malaysia. Manicka created a page turner for sure. With very vivid, visceral details of the hard and often tragic lives of her cast of characters, set in the backdrop of World War II. I loved how Rani Manicka has woven our country's history into the tragic and complicated account of the generations of characters in the book.
The content is often violent and choices that characters make distasteful -- which may More...
The content is often violent and choices that characters make distasteful -- which may More...
