I did not find this book incredibly memorable.

Loved the book. Being of the same ethnic background as the author i loved seeing my language peppering the pages. The family and relationships are utterly recognisable. What may be troublesome for non malayalees is the familial terms used to denote relatives (not by name).

one of the most hauntingly beautiful books I've ever read... evocative, laden with imagery that causes sensory overload, made me laugh and made me cry. It mostly made me cry. I love it!

very amazing....!!!love it so bad but i lose this book , anyone want to give me this book as a present for me??

The book where I first came upon a passionate love-making scene as well as a description of child abuse, not quite getting one and recoiling from the other; the book where I learnt the trick of using Capitalization for effect; and in which rain-soaked, pickle-flavoured, left-leaning Kerala came alive forever. On the other hand, there is something pretentious about the writing, something laboured, perhaps the travails of a first fiction book. Read of you like but there is better stuff on Kerala and India.

I loved this book. So refreshing, original, and moving. Seeing adult things from a child´s perspective. So well written.

It took me a while to get into this and after reading about 30 pages I put it down for a week. The narrative goes back and forth in time plus there are a lot of names in their extended family, which I found a bit confusing.

However, it had been chosen for my book club and I thought I really should finish it. So I picked it up, determined to forge on and then got hooked.

The story centres on a set of twins and their family and upbringing in India in 1969. It then jumps to 1993, and that story is interspersed with the 1969 saga.

We find out early in the book that one character in the family dies young but we don't know what happened. Therefore, as the book progresses, we read about their lives, loves, plots, interactions and history. It isn't until the last chapter that we actually find out the truth behind the character's death and the tangled web that surrounds it.

I ended up really enjoying it. The writing is beautiful, and I could feel myself in each of the settings she describes, in spite of my never having been to India. The author conveys the horror and destructive nature of the caste system, infecting all aspects of Indian society and psyche.

It's a provocative book - and I look forward to my book club discussion.

2.5

although it's only a reader's guide, almost all of the users who commented on this book here mistook it for the novel itself.

the book is alright as an introduction which touches upon some prominent themes in and criticisms of the novel. since i had no special interest in the novel's reception and performance (which chapters three and four present us with), i wished the commentary on the novel was longer and more in-depth.

I loved this book.

I think it's about how history creates politics that ruin peoples lives in tragic and disturbing ways. She also has a way with words. I remember the end of the book made me squeamish.

hiiiiiiiii