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Evening Is the Whole Day

Preeta Samarasan (Goodreads Author)

3.64 · Rating details · 1,612 ratings · 352 reviews

Set in Malaysia, this spellbinding and already internationally acclaimed debut introduces us to the prosperous Rajasekharan family as its closely guarded secrets are slowly peeled away.

When Chellam, the family’s rubber-plantation-bred servant girl, is dismissed for unnamed crimes, her banishment is the latest in a series of recent, precipitous losses that have shaken six-y ...more

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Hardcover, 340 pages

Published May 15th 2008 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published 2008)

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The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Best South Asian Fiction

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Evening Is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan

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· 1,612 ratings · 352 reviews

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Dec 18, 2007 LA Brower rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novels-good-and-great, best-cover-art

I'm going to go ahead and call this my favorite novel of the decade. I've never, ever, EVER, believed in characters as deeply as I believe in the inhabitants of The Big House. You know what - forget the decade! This is as good a novel as I know of, and as intimate and moving a reading experience as I've had, and as rich and vivid a world as I’ve ever read my way into. I don't know if I've ever loved a character as much as I love Aasha. Love though, is not all I feel for this book – and this, I t ...more

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Dec 09, 2009 Kinga rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pub-2008, special-place-in-my-heart

Just when some thought it was impossible to please me...along comes this book. This deserves 5 stars without any doubt. It baffles me why the world hypes barely mediocre books like 'The Kite Runner' or 'Lovely Bones' when gems like this one go almost unnoticed. There is not a single thing that is wrong with this book. In fact, it is a textbook example of how one should write a novel. Reviving the true art of storytelling, it manages to be gripping, enthralling, and captivating. The novel reveal ...more

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Jan 05, 2014 Zanna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bechdel-pass

4.5 stars

The second law of thermodynamics is only true on average, only true on the immense statistical scale of beings made of billions of atoms. Life seems to violate it all the time via, for instance, the miracle by which plants release oxygen or the wherewithal of those (women, mostly) who wash dishes, rake leaves, stack dried and folded towels neatly back in the cupboard. Of course, you get tired doing it, so the law is really intact. If time flows in the direction of spill and shatter, it 4.5 stars

The second law of thermodynamics is only true on average, only true on the immense statistical scale of beings made of billions of atoms. Life seems to violate it all the time via, for instance, the miracle by which plants release oxygen or the wherewithal of those (women, mostly) who wash dishes, rake leaves, stack dried and folded towels neatly back in the cupboard. Of course, you get tired doing it, so the law is really intact. If time flows in the direction of spill and shatter, it flows in the direction of fatigue with equal certainty.

Preeta Samarasan has chosen to tell this story against the gradient, from spill and shatter and exhaustion back to hope and harmony and wholeness. The result is totally devastating, which shows me something about my relationship with time; I can tolerate the knowledge of past trauma better than of sad and certain prophecy; I am capable of living for the future. My culture is like this; our concept of history is a line leading somewhere. Thus we can tell those traumatised in their lives or histories to 'get over it' to 'move on', because the 'arrow' of time points, out of whatever devastation (we shrug off our responsibilities with weasel words and crocodile tears), towards glory. So I applaud this novel and its author for challenging me to think against my grain.

At the beginning-end it seemed I'd fallen in with a dismal crowd of unpleasant, selfish people with hardly any attractive qualities. As the past unfolds though, the narrative tenderly takes the part of each one of them, revealing the reasons behind every unkind cast of speech and thought, affording each soul the tragic sympathy Shakespeare gives Macbeth (though not his wife). By the time I reached the end-beginning, I'd forgiven all the characters I'd hated, and come to love those I'd liked from the start all the more.

The backdrop of Malaysia is evoked in its natural lushness and stained with multiple undercurrants of racial tension. The uprisings after the election are an appropriately jarring intrusion into the otherwise lazily unspooling narrative, but the conditions that produce these events are painted and played out in the daily drama of the street and even the household. Samarasan deals with race and class relations delicately through the framing of romantic relationships, personal grooming, religious practices and beliefs, and food in all its aspects. Aasha's friend, the half-white ghost, bears witness to a destructive colonial legacy. Her view from the pond is only one of this deceptively simple tale's many submarine shadowy silk spun depths.

My favourite character is the sane, empathic witness Uncle Ballroom, who tells us "Attention is a perfectly valid thing to seek". Words of wisdom! ...more

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Dec 15, 2017 Zak rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

This is a fascinating tale which takes place in the 'Big House' of an idealistic hot shot lawyer. The setting is in Malaysia, at about the time she gained independence from the British in 1957. The story has many layers, which unfolds in a non-chronological manner. There are many questions begging to be answered, like what made a doting elder sister suddenly turn cold and indifferent to her 4-year old sibling? What 'crime' did the servant girl, Chellam, commit to cause her to be dismissed under This is a fascinating tale which takes place in the 'Big House' of an idealistic hot shot lawyer. The setting is in Malaysia, at about the time she gained independence from the British in 1957. The story has many layers, which unfolds in a non-chronological manner. There are many questions begging to be answered, like what made a doting elder sister suddenly turn cold and indifferent to her 4-year old sibling? What 'crime' did the servant girl, Chellam, commit to cause her to be dismissed under a cloud of shame and disgrace? What did the previously beloved wayward 'Uncle Ballroom' do to cause him to no longer be welcome in the Big House? What caused the previously close relationship between a father and daughter to disintegrate into a situation where they can no longer look each other in the eye?

More importantly, who is Preeta Samarasan and why have I never heard of this writer before?

The over-arcing theme of this book is 'change'... change in individuals, familial relationships, fortunes and ideals. Mistakes are made, hopes are dashed and one watches these changes like an inevitable, slowly unfurling train wreck. Against the backdrop of the disintegration of this family is the disintegration of the founding ideals of the nation itself. The initial hopes of an independent new state comprising disparate ethnic groups, working hand-in-hand towards a bright, promising future, only to let brooding suspicions, envy, jealousy, greed and avarice of the political classes creep in and slowly wreak their insidious effects, culminating in the race riots of 1969 which tore the young nation apart, never to be the same again. For as much as the author unveils the family's sad story in tantalising prose, filled here and there with dark humour, stinging observations and colloquialisms, one gets the idea that she is really writing about the tragic stillbirth of an entire nation.

Final rating: 4.5* (minus half a star as some of the colloquial dialogue comes across a bit stilted).

N.B. If you have not read and decide to pick up this book, you might find things a bit confusing sometimes, due to its non-chronological structure. My advice is not to worry about it, you didn't miss anything, just read on. All the 'missing' parts will be filled in in due course. Also, colloquial and native terms are used liberally throughout the book. If you need help understanding the meaning or context of certain words or sentences, feel free to message me. I would be glad to help in any way I can.
...more

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Apr 08, 2008 britta rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Every single person.

Shelves: all-time-favorites

Holy cow. I have NEVER, EVER had a reading experience like this one. Rich and sad and confusing and rewarding. I need a thousand more stars to even get close to how I feel about this book. From the first sentence (oh, that gorgeous sentence!) I knew it was going to be one of those books that would change my life. And it did. I was hurt and in love and sad for and just bowled over by the characters in this book, wanted to curl up with Aasha behind the PVC settee and and watch and wonder and talk ...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Alan rated it really liked it

Recommended to Alan by: Kinga

Shelves: novels

good but slow, more later..
OK,catching up. Trying to.. this book is a wonderfully calibrated family saga, encompassing such delights as Uncle Ballroom (he’s good at dancing), ghosts, gossips, postcolonial Malaysia, servants badly treated, adultery, snobbery, race riots, and food - Chinese, Malaysian, Indian (I really wanted to tatse those curry puffs). It has a focus on bodily functions: shit, piss and snot drip from its pages. It's quite useful Appa (the house's patriarch) has no sense of smell good but slow, more later..
OK,catching up. Trying to.. this book is a wonderfully calibrated family saga, encompassing such delights as Uncle Ballroom (he’s good at dancing), ghosts, gossips, postcolonial Malaysia, servants badly treated, adultery, snobbery, race riots, and food - Chinese, Malaysian, Indian (I really wanted to tatse those curry puffs). It has a focus on bodily functions: shit, piss and snot drip from its pages. It's quite useful Appa (the house's patriarch) has no sense of smell or he might never have married Amma. They have three children, Aasha who converses with ghosts, the jokey brother (name?) and Uma, the scholar, who as a young girl entertained company by declaiming Tennyson and Shakespeare, [and] followed this with her fourteen times table, and rounded off her performance with an up-to-date listing of African capitals in alphabetical order.

People are portrayed in fully rounded terms, the servant Chellam, for example, although she is beaten by her father, all her money taken from her and is snubbed by the family, is no saint herself, given to pinching the thigh of her charge, the old woman of the house. She entertains the children with her film star posters and physical attributes like the white threads of grease that spiralled out of her pores like butter icing from a hundred tiny pastry bags when she squeezed the skin of her nose.

It's beautifully written with precise and lovely descriptions of butterflies, flowers, houses and skies. The relationships are complex and engaging, it's funny, and thought provoking. It interweaves history and poltics into the narrative but not with a heavy hand, the writing stays light and breezy even when dealing with, for example, the race divides between the Indians, the Malays and the Chinese.

So it sounds close to perfect and it is. But as I said sometimes it gets a bit slow. It goes back and forth in time, and often this gives a fresh angle on something we know about: usually this is good, a further revelation that might make us change our minds about a character or situation, but occasionally, just occasionally, I thought OK, can we move on now (eg when the matriarch dies) and instead found the narrative going backwards again. But don't let that put you off, this is a fab book. ...more

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May 21, 2018 Jaanaki rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, anaquarianslibrary

The story is set in Ipoh in Malaysia and it follows the domestic drama that unfolds in the family of Lawyer Rajasekharan who live in the Big House located on Kingfisher Lane.The lawyer lives with his wife Vasanthi,his mother, children -Uma,Suresh and Asha and a maid Chellam who is the same age as Uma.The story begins a week after Uma has left to the US and the family is in the process of kicking Chellam out of the house.And thus begins the narrative that goes backwards to tell the reader what ha The story is set in Ipoh in Malaysia and it follows the domestic drama that unfolds in the family of Lawyer Rajasekharan who live in the Big House located on Kingfisher Lane.The lawyer lives with his wife Vasanthi,his mother, children -Uma,Suresh and Asha and a maid Chellam who is the same age as Uma.The story begins a week after Uma has left to the US and the family is in the process of kicking Chellam out of the house.And thus begins the narrative that goes backwards to tell the reader what happened within the four wall of the big house that leads to the Exodus of Chellam.
Preeta's Samarasan prose is descriptive and beautiful. The narrative is intimate and after the first few pages , we are part and parcel of the Rajasekharan family. This is essentially a story about family and the mean little games the members play with one another because I think most of us know that poisonous feelings in a family generally don't disappear overnight .They may be camouflaged with flattery,unexpected good deeds and false words of kindness with an inner urgency not to
spoil family functions.But these poisonous unspoken vibes sit quietly in a corner like a tiny snake feeding on every unkind word ,action ,and jealousy ,where it grows and grows into a huge serpent unable to lie quietly in the corner which strikes and brings down victims usually the innocent ones who don't know how the game is played . Preeta Samarasan has done justice to all the characters and you can feel Pati's shrewdness ,Vasanthi's helplessness and Uma's disappointment and anger .All embittered women as correctly declared by Asha.Oh, but Asha 's yearning for love and a mother replacement is the saddest because she actually suffers for no fault of hers and she has no route to escape like Uma.The way Preeta has discussed the Malaysian riots in 1969 and integrated it with the story is exceptional and she brings out the cultural disparities and differences in Malaysia ,a country that is a pot of different ethnicities blended together in striking fashion.Don't miss this if you love good writing ,a domestic drama and a story set in Malaysia. ...more

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Dec 23, 2008 Andrew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book grew on me. At first I found the amount of detail overwhelming, and thought the pace was too slow. Gradually, though, I got used to the style. By the end, I thought it was one of the best books I’ve read in quite a long time.

It’s an interesting book in that it illuminates the politics of post-colonial Malaysia and the tensions of race and class, and yet the action takes place almost entirely inside a single house. It’s called the Big House, and the family living in it is wealthy but ab This book grew on me. At first I found the amount of detail overwhelming, and thought the pace was too slow. Gradually, though, I got used to the style. By the end, I thought it was one of the best books I’ve read in quite a long time.

It’s an interesting book in that it illuminates the politics of post-colonial Malaysia and the tensions of race and class, and yet the action takes place almost entirely inside a single house. It’s called the Big House, and the family living in it is wealthy but absolutely dysfunctional. It’s dysfunctional, though, in subtle ways – this is not a book of beatings and rapes and other traumatic events. It’s a book about slower, more corrosive forms of abuse: secrets, lies, pretence, bitterness, the absence of affection or, perhaps worse, its sudden withdrawal.

Not a huge amount happens in the book, and what does happen is described in minute detail from the perspectives of each different member of the family. Although this tried my patience early on, the effect towards the end of the book was astonishing. I felt as if I knew every character inside-out, and understood their motivation for being the way they were. Although the members of the family do some pretty horrible things to each other, we come to understand exactly why, and so nobody is portrayed as a villain.

Not too many characters are sympathetic either. For me (although I suspect this will be different for different readers), the servant girl Chellam and the occasional visitor called Uncle Ballroom are the ones I sympathised with most. As relative outsiders to the family, they were at first welcomed as providing an alternative to the bitterness and hatred within it, but then resented for speaking the truth in an environment where fragile lies are what life in the Big House is built on.

The novel spans decades of post-colonial Malaysian history, mostly from the 1960s up to about 1980, but outside events are touched on only briefly. This suggested a child’s view of the world to me, where the Big House is the centre of the world and outside events are an occasional interruption. Although the narrator is omniscient and gives the perspectives of all the characters at various stages, the claustrophobic focus on the house above all else made me see the novel more through the eyes of the children in the family, particularly the youngest Aasha (who, incidentally, reminded me a lot of Briony in Ian McEwan’s Atonement). Certainly the father, a lawyer and one-time aspirant to political office, spends most of his time outside the house, and yet we rarely see what he sees. There’s a short passage where he is with his mistress in her home, but mostly he is only ever seen where the children see him, sitting at the dinner table inside the Big House. Whatever the reason for this relentless focus on the house, it does succeed in creating a world with known parameters, a world in which the reader at the end feels as if they know and understand everything within that world.

Strangely, the political side of the book is effective too. Although I’m sure it’s not meant as such a crude allegory, the lies within the family do seem to parallel the lies within the country. The multi-ethnic cardboard cutout figures welcoming people to Malaysia in the airport scene at the end are wonderful symbols of a country in which truth can never be told for fear of unearthing painful memories, the same problem that imprisons the family. Nothing is said overtly in the novel about race and class, and yet the brief mentions of race riots and killings are enough to set the scene, and the treatment of Chellam is central to the dishonesty of the family.

I would highly recommend this book. Usually I prefer a more spare, ‘minimalist’ writing style (e.g. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road). This is the other end of the spectrum from that – very ornate, effusive, highly descriptive – and yet I am very glad I persevered. I think the characters in this book are among the most fully realised I’ve come across, highly nuanced and utterly believable. This is Samarasan’s debut novel, and I will definitely be reading whatever she comes up with next. ...more

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Jul 03, 2008 Jen rated it did not like it

Shelves: literary-fiction, gave-up-on

After reading rave reviews of this novel, I was just sure it was going to be fantastic.

I didn't even make it past the second chapter.

The language is beautiful, but it's written in a style that makes it difficult to understand at times. A lot of Malaysian dialect is used, which means the dialogue can be choppy when the characters are speaking. The style itself reminds me a lot of Faulkner with that same stream of consciousness flow. As I've never been a fan of Faulkner, it's not surprising that t ...more

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Apr 24, 2011 Jean rated it really liked it

Shelves: cross-cultural

The pain, the pain, the pain in this book. Some of it is brought about due to cultural traditions. A great deal occurs because of personality traits that won't allow the characters to move beyond forgiveness. although one must admit that most of the issues are those that would hamper anyone from easily forgiving. Thus, it appears to be pain that will go on forever.
With all of that said, I think that the biggest culprit it the silence among the family members. Samarasan, does an excellent job of ...more

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Jun 07, 2018 Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, malaysia, 5-stars, world-books-challenge, literary-fiction, southeast-asia, best-10-books-read-in-2018

“Why should I feel sorry for her when she doesn’t feel sorry for me? It could be the family motto, this question, something to emblazon on their coat of arms, except that not one of them has noticed how often the others ask it.”

This is a fantastic book with a tragic story, about a prosperous Indo-Malaysian family slowly tearing each other apart. Don’t be fooled by the simplistic design and bright colors of the cover; this is a dark and complicated novel that offers plenty of sympathy but little “Why should I feel sorry for her when she doesn’t feel sorry for me? It could be the family motto, this question, something to emblazon on their coat of arms, except that not one of them has noticed how often the others ask it.”

This is a fantastic book with a tragic story, about a prosperous Indo-Malaysian family slowly tearing each other apart. Don’t be fooled by the simplistic design and bright colors of the cover; this is a dark and complicated novel that offers plenty of sympathy but little hope for its damaged characters.

The book begins in 1980, with a teenage servant being sent home in disgrace with her drunken father. From there the book moves backward in time, tracing how events arrived at this point. Between the recently-deceased grandmother, the older daughter who has transformed from an exuberant girl into a withdrawn teenager interested only in going abroad for college, the younger daughter who talks to ghosts, the parents with their toxic marriage and the uncle who has been banished from the house, there’s a lot to unpack, and Samarasan does so slowly, layer by layer, with close attention to emotional detail.

The mysteries at the center of the story and the non-linear storytelling through which readers can piece them together are compelling. But the characterization – the complexity and psychological insight with which each character is drawn – is what really elevates this book above the rest. The book is full of flawed characters hurting each other, but the reader comes to understand where each of them is coming from and why they react the way they do. We get to know these people and their relationships with each other so well, and they are so three-dimensional and realistic, that it’s hard to believe they don’t exist in real life.

But the book goes beyond just the family’s life, delving into class divisions and racial politics in Malaysia, where ethnic Malays are privileged over the large Chinese and Indian populations. It is a history not without violence – though thankfully not overdone for shock value here, as some authors are tempted to do – and I learned a lot about Malaysia from reading this book. The author also shows a keen understanding of how money and social class influence people’s behavior.

So I have little criticism, except that I never quite believed the father’s choice of (view spoiler), and the book did take me around 50 pages to get into. The language is lyrical and seemed a little overly stylized until I came to trust that the author knew what she was doing. Once I finished though, I found myself flipping back to read sections of it again.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who loves reading about complicated characters and relationships and who doesn’t require well-defined heroes and villains. It was a treat to read, and I look forward to more from this author! ...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Manu rated it really liked it

Shelves: review

Preeta Samarasan's debut novel begins with the kind of prose that actually seems like poetry in disguise - with a description of a part of Malaysian geography. The narrative begins in 1980, on Kingfisher Lane in Ipoh, in the Big House, owned by the Rajasekharans - Raju (Appa) a leading lawyer and a pillar of the community, erstwhile socialist, Vasanthi, his wife, from circumstances far below his, their children Uma, Suresh and Aasha in that order, Paati, the matriarch whose disapproval of her da Preeta Samarasan's debut novel begins with the kind of prose that actually seems like poetry in disguise - with a description of a part of Malaysian geography. The narrative begins in 1980, on Kingfisher Lane in Ipoh, in the Big House, owned by the Rajasekharans - Raju (Appa) a leading lawyer and a pillar of the community, erstwhile socialist, Vasanthi, his wife, from circumstances far below his, their children Uma, Suresh and Aasha in that order, Paati, the matriarch whose disapproval of her daughter-in-law endures time, the servant girl Chellam brought in to take care of her. A wealthy, dysfunctional family, with each member fighting their own demons.
We see a lot of the story through Aasha's eyes in the beginning. Aasha, who talks to ghosts and will do anything to get back the affections of Uma. Uma, whose sole desire is to escape to the US. And in between, Suresh, who tries to make sense of the world with humour. The narrative then sets out to unravel layer by layer, not just digging deeper into what happened earlier, but also wider, giving the reader, through characters and events, a view of Malayan society, with its own undercurrents, ethnicity issues and rules that attempt harmony between the Chinese, Indians and the natives. A brief glimpse of a country coming to terms with its freedom, and the responsibilities therein.
As the layers unfold, the perceptions of characters and their behaviour that the reader has built up slowly begin to undergo changes, as the past - from a few days earlier to half a lifetime away - shows its influence on the present and future. We also see how the relationships between people change with time, sometimes over years and sometimes in a few minutes. There are some very interesting secondary characters too, like Uncle Ballroom who evokes a sense of poignancy, Vasanthi's mother whose sudden turn to asceticism makes you wonder about the nature of the human psyche, or Kooky Rooky, whose variations of her own past points us to stories that we build for ourselves. And then there's Chellam, whose past, and lack of future brings a lump to the throat.
Somewhere in the book and its use of words and the wit employed (brotheROARsister, Stopping At Nothing...) I could see Arundhati Roy. Somewhere in the way the human condition is expressed I could see Kiran Desai. But neither takes away from a distinctive style - vivid prose, edgy humour, and an ability to draw the reader right in. This one goes into my favourites. ...more

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Mar 01, 2016 Nyonie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, books-that-made-an-impression, debut, painting-with-words, 2016, malaysia

I cannot say that I love this book. The people living in the Big House— painted a ridiculously happy peacock color, were such an unhappy bunch that so many times I was forced to put it down. just to get away from them. It was painful to look at the meanness and unkindness of people from such close quarters. But oh for the writer to be able to write like this! I was compelled to read every word. At first I thought it was too slow, but glad I persevered, by the time I finished I felt it was one of ...more

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Oct 20, 2011 Suzanne rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, around-the-world-challenge

I chose this novel as my “Malaysia” book in the 52 Books Around the World Challenge. The author, Preeta Samarasan, was born and raised in Malaysia, but came to America in her teens and never looked back.

The story is about a dysfunctional Indian family and through their faulty relationships, we learn about the various cultures of Malaysia, the disparity of wealth, and the country’s own caste system. I appreciated learning a little about this country, but I honestly did not enjoy the book. In the ...more

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Jan 26, 2010 K rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to K by: Kinga

Shelves: intense-sad-dark-or-bleak, miscellaneousgreatbooks, southasia

I thought this book was fabulous.

The story begins at the end and basically works backward with a little back-and-forth within that structure, a device which would have been irritating and ineffective in the hands of a less gifted author but worked beautifully here. As a result of the structure, events which seem minor at first gradually take on a breathtaking symbolism and significance as you begin to discover their roots, and the story becomes deeper and deeper as you keep reading. The language I thought this book was fabulous.

The story begins at the end and basically works backward with a little back-and-forth within that structure, a device which would have been irritating and ineffective in the hands of a less gifted author but worked beautifully here. As a result of the structure, events which seem minor at first gradually take on a breathtaking symbolism and significance as you begin to discover their roots, and the story becomes deeper and deeper as you keep reading. The language is beautiful -- for once I found myself (mostly) thinking, "lyrical" and "poetic" rather than overwritten. The continually shifting viewpoints, something I usually dislike, actually served to make all of the characters three-dimensional and real.

At the beginning of this story of the unhappy Rajasekharan family, an Indian family living in Malaysia, we learn of three disappearances -- the dismissal of Chellam, a mysteriously accused servant, the departure of Uma, the oldest daughter in the family, for America, and the death of Paati, the children's grandmother. As we move back in time, we learn about the original mismatch of the two Rajasekharan parents, Amma and Appa, and their growing divide; Amma's ascent from her poor family of origin into the life of a rich socialite desperately trying to mask her unhappiness, constantly carped at by Paati, her superior live-in mother-in-law, and disconnected from her three children; Paati's increasing irascibility with old age leading to the family's hiring Chellam in the first place and then to Paati's mysterious death; Uma's increasing detachment from her family even before her escape to America; and eventually, the pivotal events two years prior to the end of the story which brought the family's unhappiness to the surface and served as a catalyst for everything that followed. Much of the story is told through the eyes of Aasha, the youngest child, who attempts to palliate her loneliness through richly imagined communication with "ghosts" (another device I usually dislike, but one which worked here because it seemed less about magic realism and more about an exploration of the inner life of a six-year-old) and who is tragically an important agent in the story as well as the one most deeply affected by the events.

Naturally, I have a few gripes. The story was a bit of a slow starter for me; I became captivated around Chapter 4 but was more ambivalent until then. Looking back, I don't know whether it could have been otherwise given the structure, as you don't really understand what's happening until you keep moving backward. My bigger gripe is with the incest/non-incest part of the plot -- I AM SICK AND TIRED OF DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY STORIES WHICH INEVITABLY CONTAIN AN ELEMENT OF INCEST/MOLESTATION! AAARRGGHH! There are dysfunctional families without incest! And they can be interesting too! It's become a cliche already. The only reason I didn't remove a star for that (and I was sorely tempted) is that, looking back, that's probably the only kind of event that could have facilitated everything that followed. I also had an issue with the ambiguity of the incest; if it wasn't actually incest but something like incest (which is what the book seems to imply), then why were the results so dramatic?

But I forgave that, because the book as a whole was so damn beautiful and well-done. I should add as a disclaimer that my sister and some other goodreads reviewers didn't like this book, but it certainly has my vote. ...more

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Sep 09, 2008 Faith Reidenbach rated it did not like it

This novel, which is told non-chronologically, assumes that the reader's interest will be captured because a grandmother has died by a means unstated, a servant has been sent away, and a young woman is leaving Malaysia for the US. I did not care. I knew nothing about these characters at the outset and still knew very little by page 100 or so, when I abandoned ship. In some other novels I have found that a non-chronological story line is an attempt to cover for weak plotting ability, but of cours ...more

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Apr 24, 2008 Celeste Ng added it

Shelves: debut-novels

You know how sometimes, people you know write things and when you sit down to read them, you wonder if when you're done you're going to have to pretend to LOVE them when really, you didn't like them at all? This is emphatically not one of those cases.

EVENING IS THE WHOLE DAY is bold, beautiful, and heartbreaking all at once. The tone is so confident and assured that it's hard to believe this is a first novel: from the first paragraph, it whisks you away into the vibrant world of Malaysia in th ...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Whirl Girl rated it really liked it

Shelves: grown-up-books, malaysia

I loved the writing style in this book. It was engaging, descriptive, and really transported me to another place and time. Peppered with Malaysian (and Tamil-Malaysian) slang and references, it offered a lyrical compliment to the more straight-forward nonfiction book that I read about Borneo this month. I also loved the character development. By the end of the book, the nuances and personalities of each of the main characters shone through, providing an explanation of their motivations. What I d ...more

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Jan 27, 2008 Charlotte rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: india, best-of-the-best

Oh, I just loved it so so much. All through the last 50 pages I kept thinking, how is this possibly going to end? And then of course it ended in the most perfect, heartbreaking way. If there is such a thing as a romp without the romping, this is it. Also, it is one of the only novels I've ever read to make me feel very very hungry one minutes and then very very not hungry the next. Most only do one or the other. The word bittersweet isn't bitter enough or sweet enough. And ghosts! Is it any surp ...more

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Sep 19, 2016 Lisa rated it liked it

Evening is the Whole Day" is mostly set in 1980s Malayasia. A family unravels through the eyes of the youngest daughter who hides and spies in the shadows. Although the dense, lavish prose and the over-stuffed sentences sometimes felt overpowering, I kept turning the pages, wanting to find out what happens.

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Apr 03, 2008 eb rated it it was amazing

This writer is going to be a big, huge deal. She seems to have invented a new kind of prose, mooshing together magical realism (barf, but in her hands non-vomitous) and Tolstoy. I wanted to steal my galley and write notes all over its margins.

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Oct 09, 2008 Gabriela added it

great book. really well written. the characters have dimensions! I didn't feel forced to identify or sympathize with anyone in particular. this is really one of the best books I've ever read.

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Jul 04, 2012 Rebecca rated it liked it

Shelves: read-chica-bookclub

This book is a difficult three stars, because I feel very rewarded by the book but even more disappointed by the larger story.

What I love about this book: the writing. The descriptions, the language, the way the author uses smell and sound, and some of her naked moments, telling us the audience directly that the story does not coming to a black telescopic end, like so many cartoons. Instead that telescope expands to a whole scene, a whole reality. I believed her, and I followed her. The vignette ...more

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Sep 09, 2013 Liam Wright rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, family-saga, malaysia, orange-prize

Occasionally you come across a novel that so accurately captures the human condition that it is impossible not to identify with some tiny fragment of personality or emotion.
This novel wove together both the story of a servant girl wrongfully accused and that of her employers lives, trials and tribulations, both internally and on the surface.
few books that I have read have portrayed such a raw and deeply flawed cast of individuals, I found it difficult to openly dislike any of them because each ...more

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Jan 17, 2009 Andrea rated it really liked it

Shelves: india

This book is actually set in Malaysia, but the main characters are an Indian family. The story involves the death of an elderly woman in the family, and the subsequent dismissal of a servant girl who is held responsible. Through the eyes of the six year old protagonist, Aasha, and occasionally other characters, the book swoops backward and forward through time to show the subtle and complicated threads that tie together families in love, loyalty, hatred and deceit. While the book particularly il ...more

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Feb 28, 2010 MAP rated it it was ok

Shelves: couldnt-finish, contemporary-fiction, fiction, other-cultures

I tried. I really really tried. But the ILL due date came up, and I was still only half way through. It wasn't that I didn't want to know what had happened to each of the characters, it was just that...I didn't actually want to have to read the book to find out.

I'm interested that so many people connected so deeply with the characters, because I found each one of them to be completely unappealing or just plain unlikeable.

If I'd had more time with this book, rather than being on a rather strict ...more

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May 12, 2017 Jayne Catherine pinkett rated it really liked it

This is the choice for May from Mel's Bookland Adventures around the world reading choice

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May 10, 2020 Magdelanye rated it it was amazing

Shelves: displacement, childhood, social-commentary, family-trauma, ethics, social-history

A tide of understanding washes through her; in that moment she knows...what it is to escape, though as soon as she moves from the window she will find herself searching, once again, for those answers. p333

Each of us possess the key to our own truth. Many of us lose that key, misplace it or throw it away; we may sidle away from our truth if it is not to our liking. Most often we can fool ourselves by creating alternative fictions. If we can collaborate our fictions, we can create a plausible trut
A tide of understanding washes through her; in that moment she knows...what it is to escape, though as soon as she moves from the window she will find herself searching, once again, for those answers. p333

Each of us possess the key to our own truth. Many of us lose that key, misplace it or throw it away; we may sidle away from our truth if it is not to our liking. Most often we can fool ourselves by creating alternative fictions. If we can collaborate our fictions, we can create a plausible truth. Yet there are the inconvenient truths that block our way, and there are misunderstandings. This book takes a kaleidoscopic view at how this can play out in the fortunes of one family.

Just because someone loves you, doesn't mean you love them. p294

The Rajasekharan family, having come from India, determinately upwardly mobile, are no longer refugees but living an affluent life in the Big House, with servants. Although they have not learned to speak Malay, they live in uneasy harmony with their Chinese and Malaysian neighbours, and each other.

We only pretend history matters; in the end, all that matters is money. p102

Gorgeously written, with stunning acumen, deep insight and remarkable subtlety, Preeta Samarasan has given us a vivacious, pulsating, panoramic yet intimate saga sprawling across generations.

Spiralling into the events leading up to the inevitable expulsion of Chellamservant, enough force is given to each character that we can see the world through their point of view. If the adults prove to tax the readers empathy, the children, desperately trying to figure it all out, might arouse such helpless compassion there is little to spare for the black sheep, Uncle Ballroom, who means well but slinks away from responsability, an adult child; and Paati, the arch dissembler.

The only problem I had with this book was that it ended. Now that I know what happened before that and before that, I need to know what happens next. Let us hope that the long silence since this books publication in 2008 indicates that a sequel is in the works.

evening is the whole day for those without their lovers
from a poem by Kuruntokai quoted on the frontspiece

...more

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May 04, 2014 Paul rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A bitter, bitter-sweet book, this drew me in slowlyslowly, and engulfed me, leaving a sad taste in me that I’m not sure I’ll shake in a while.
At first I wasn’t sure, the story had possibilities, it was set somewhere I quite fancy travelling to, but while the dialogue seemed direct off the monsoon swept streets of Ipoh, the prose didn’t quite flow, it felt like Samarasan was trying too hard. Instead of flowing onto the page it was as if each sentence had to be creative, couldn’t sit on it’s own m A bitter, bitter-sweet book, this drew me in slowlyslowly, and engulfed me, leaving a sad taste in me that I’m not sure I’ll shake in a while.
At first I wasn’t sure, the story had possibilities, it was set somewhere I quite fancy travelling to, but while the dialogue seemed direct off the monsoon swept streets of Ipoh, the prose didn’t quite flow, it felt like Samarasan was trying too hard. Instead of flowing onto the page it was as if each sentence had to be creative, couldn’t sit on it’s own merit. Of course it could be me, and there were times when it worked. I continued on though, and was immensely rewarded, with a story that made me more emotional than any book has done in a while.

Where Samarasan has excelled is with the story’s construction, jumping back and forth in time, allowing glimpses into all the characters heads at various times, while never really leaving any doubt who the main characters are. Uncle Ballroom, one of the lesser featured but still significant characters is portrayed as a sponging vagabond by the family, yet when he appears, even through their relations with him, as well as the odd glimpse into his own head, a much better, deeper person is revealed, at odds with the family’s portrayal, and this for me is one of the books strengths.

The main characters are the family of Appa, an idealist, rebellious to his overbearing mother, who couldn’t reconcile what he thought he wanted with what he actually wanted, and when he does, it strains him to breaking point. Amma, his vacuous wife, drags herself up by her own sheer will and hatred of her mother in law to occupy a station in life she dreamed of but was little prepared for.
Out of the three children this ill matched couple bring into the world, it was Aasha who stole my heart, whose tarnished innocence is almost perfectly painted by Smarasan. While Uma withdraws from the games being played by her family that she has no interest in, and Suresh is the most boyish boy I have come across in a book, Aasha strives to recapture a happy family that never existed, and especially trying to understand and overcome Uma’s withdrawal from her and the family. Her relationship with Uma, with it’s unknown confidences and battles is the one of the most poignant I have ever read. Chapter 8 in particular is touching, the tension builds throughout the chapter and it is not the death which left me sad, it is Aasha’s failed attempt at reconnecting with her sister.

Upstairs, Uma hums “Mrs Robinson” and “The Boxer” and “The Sound of Silence” and goes on with her packing as if nothing happened, as if Aasha still doesn’t exist. Perhaps there’s no atoning for old sins after all. Perhaps it was already too late.

There are a few nods to the turmoil in Asia at the time, and the tensions between the Malays, Indians and Straits Chinese, as well as an oddball assortment of neighbours to the big house, but these merely enriched the story woven by Samarasan, allowing us to glimpse the main characters in a slightly different light each time.

Evening is the whole day made me think of A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, but whilst the latter jarred me at the end into releasing the sadness it had sown in me, Evening is the Whole Day filled me with sadness like a slowly filling bath, as Aasha tried to understand more and fix more, without realising she understood less and couldn’t fix anything, and Samarasan’s tale will stay long in the mind after the last page is turned.
(blog review here) ...more

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Feb 04, 2009 Madeline rated it it was ok

Shelves: 50-poc-in-2009, library-books, historical-fiction, socialism, ghosts, family, marriage-lets-you-down, magical-realism, novels, 2009

Comparisons to Rushdie are embarrassing, but Preeta Samarasan has a great deal of Rushdie in the twisty chiaroscuro style of her prose. Like Rushdie, she seems contemptuous of her characters, or anyway she seems incapable of knowing them and loving them at the same time. I'm not certain how she feels about Malaysia, but the desire to escape (rather than reform) makes the satire difficult to handle - I mean, really, do we need to Rushdies at once? What is the good in having simultaneous Nabokovs ...more

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About Preeta Samarasan

Preeta Samarasan

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Please see www.preetasamarasan.com for more about the book and a regularly updated schedule of events.

***

Preeta Samarasan has attended a lot of schools, and you should contact her to say hello if you knew her at any of them:

In Ipoh, Malaysia:
The Wesley Church (ACS) Nursery School;
The Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Kindergarten;
SRK Tarcisian Convent;
SM Convent, Ipoh (the Convent of the Holy Infan ...more