A deceptively simple second novel from author-filmmaker Mehta (Raj, 1989) that—with gentle good humor—addresses an age-old big subject: the workings of the human heart. The narrator here, a widower and former bureaucrat, has taken a position at the Government rest house, situated on the banks of the famed Narmada River, to become a vanaprasthi—``someone who has retired to the forest to reflect.'' Though he's always led a life undisturbed by passion, he now finds himself increasingly in contact with those whose lives have been dramatically affected by their emotions. The Narmada, a sacred river believed to have been created by the god Shiva, and rich in legends that celebrate pre- Aryan India—when the world was supposedly ruled by great serpents who lived in splendid underground kingdoms—attracts a variety of visitors. In self-contained chapters, the narrator recounts stories he's been told by the local mullah, or relates his own experiences as he walks through the forests, visits the local market, and takes care of the guests. He meets, for instance, a Jain priest who has renounced his great wealth, as well as his wife and children, because he realized ``that a man who cannot suffer is not alive''; the mullah tells him about a young Sufi singer whose throat was cut by a rich man who could not bear the beauty of the boy's voice; a troubled guest describes the profound consequences of his shameful treatment of a beloved peasant woman; and a woman musician, devastated by a failed love affair and feeling ``dead inside,'' hopes the river will give her back her music. Each story offers an insight, a process that culminates in the story of a local ascetic who left to seek enlightenment but returns years later as a famous professor because, he tells the narrator, only when a soul becomes a man ``can it reenter the world.'' Subtle profundity in a beautifully evoked setting—and powerfully understated.
Pub Date: June 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-385-47007-X
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
