I rarely give just two stars. The setting and details of life in India is very descriptive and visual. I enjoyed that. The story itself pulled me along but I was disappointed in the end. Some of the events seemed inevitable. The book jacket calls it a "satire." I just don't "get" it as such. Perhaps I'd have to have grown up in India.

Here is my biggest problem with the book (besides plot), there are endless references to specific things in India that are not commonly known by an American. These words are not italicized, nor is there a glossary. One could assume some general meanings. I found this disconcerting to the flow of the book.

It is written in English, I presume, as there is no translator. However, when I want to read with a red pen in my hand, it is not a good sign. This could have been much tighter.

If you love India, well, I still can't recommend it. There are so many beautifully written books about it. I'd say, pass. As I will pass along this copy to a friend who is so called to return to India, that I suspect she will overlook all of the picky details I have mentioned.

This book with a 'sari-wala' (a shop assistant at a sari shop) as the main character has me googling many unfamiliar Indian terms. The writer occasionally makes me smile with sentences like this - describing an old fan. "The regulator however, was old, and had a happy disregard for the five neat markings. It swivelled around freely when touched and had no effect on the speed of the fan. Anarchy reigned in more places than one in Ramchand's room."

I finished this book later today and in just a few words on the last page, was struck with the hopelessness of the very poor.

Good writing.

A sad tale about economic and social injustice. The ending left a lot of loose ends, but I suppose that was the point.

Took me a minute to get into the story. I'm glad I stuck with it.

Rupa Bajwa makes her debut with a haunting story set in Amritsar. It is a quintessential Indian story, but one that diverges from the usual existential woe stories of the Indian middle class.
This one goes a bit lower, in terms of the protagonist - a sari shop assistant, and through his eyes paints a miniature picture of 'the other india'. In spite of a troubled childhood, he lives an uncomplicated home-shop-home life, until one trip outside this routine, changes his outlook. Thus begins a journey - a search for a meaningful existence, which brings with it an empathy for others.
Juxtaposed with him, is another character, who hasn't had a great childhood herself, and manages to fall deeper into the morass of her life, when she tries to rebel against the unfairness of it all. Their meeting brings about the next turning point in the story.
Throughout the story there are several instances that show the superficiality of the people around him, especially the upper classes, and their innate selfishness. The climax has been treated extremely well - closing the door to the larger world. Tragic, but realistic. And it is perhaps that streak of realism that runs through the book, that forces the reader to feel for the characters, and their pain.
Meanwhile, I think the author has managed to be a part of the novel too, literally, through the character of Rina Kapoor. (at least in part)
A very good read, especially if you're into Indian fiction.

The Sari Shop is a simply-structured story offering considerable insight into contemporary Indian society.


It is also very affecting because we expect our hero, Ramchand, to rise to the moral challenge he is confronted by and we are disappointed when he does not.

The Sevak Sari House provides the environment for the events and the observations of the story. It is a particularly good choice because the business is well-established, selling a pre-industrial product of exquisite beauty, largely beyond the means of the people selling them. By way of parenthetical anecdote, I have bought saris, with my family, from sari shops in India - in air-conditioned comfort assisted by regiments of smiling male and female assistants. Outside these tiled, impeccably clean shops are broken pavements, noise and quite a bit of rubbish. At building sites throughout the city (Kochi) women labourers carried dirt and rubble about in what looked like big woks on their heads. They were often dressed in saris.

Back to the Sevak Sari House. Social hierarchies are reflected in the layers of people who work in the shop: owner, manager, senior assistants, junior assistants. Ramchand is only 25, but already a ten-year veteran, poorly educated (through the parsimony of the relatives who brought him up) and very limited in his exposure to the world. What he does know comes through the customers he sees in the shop, who are predominantly wives owing their status to their husbands' wealth and /or position; their idle, frivolous and shallow daughters and the people who hang on to this class of wealthy women, like Mrs Sachdev, the teacher. Ramchand makes the mistake of thinking that her education and position as a teacher means she is also a good person who will stand up for what is right and help him fight an injustice.

Rupa Bajwa's storytelling has led to us to Ramchand's challenge, standing up against the injustice done to his colleague Chander and Chander's wife Kamba, who also represents the reprehensible treatment meted out far too often to women in India, by some husbands, some men and some police.

That Ramchand fails to meet his challenge is probably a more effective way of making the point about restrictive class structure in India than if he had been more heroic.

لم تكن لدي توقعات عالية و أنا أبدأ بقراءة الرواية و لكن الكاتبة الموهوبة خالفت توقعاتي بكل جدارة , تصحبنا رواية دكان الساري في رحلة إلى الهند و هي رحلة استمتعت بها كثيرا رغم قسوة بعض الأحداث , لنتعرف على رامتشاند العامل في محل الساري في مدينة آمريتسار و حياته التي يعمل جاهدًا لتحسينها و نتعرف من خلاله على زملاؤه و زبوناته و حياة كلٍ منهم لتبدأ الكاتبة في مناقشة العديد من القضايا بداية من الظلم و أكل الحقوق مرورا بمشاكل المجتمع الطبقية و الفساد و مشاكل النساء المختلفة و قلة الوعي و الجهل , مع العديد من المواضيع الأخرى التي جاءت وسط الأحداث بتفاصيل كافية تجعلك تتعايش معها .فقد أبدعت الكاتبة في سرد تفاصيل كل ما جاء في الرواية بداية بكواليس المحل و التعامل بين عامليه وصولا إلى أكبر الأحداث المطروحة.

حقيقة كانت هناك فكرة واحدة تسيطر على تفكيري بجانب كل ما سبق و هي أ، المجتمعات ليست حقًا بهذا القدر من الاختلاف , فيمكنني ببساطة تخيل هذه الأحداث في كثير من البلاد الأخرى إذا تم تغيير بعض التفاصيل الصغيرة المتعلقة بالبلد و عاداته و تقاليده , أما القضايا الأساسية و الشخصيات المطروحة في الرواية فجميعنا شاهدنا معظمها على الأقل من قبل و تعاملنا معهم .

في النهاية لا أملك إلا أن أبدي إعجابي بالرواية رغم عدم حبي لنهايتها رغم واقعيتها إلا أني أحسست أن النهاية ناقصة , أرشحها لكل من يريد التعرف على هند مختلفة بكل ما فيها من تفاصيل , لتحثه الرواية على التفكر في العديد من المشاهد التي نراها من حولنا كل يوم .

I enjoyed reading this book, I didn't think I would but it grew on me.

A nice read , narration is succinct and lucid . Rupa Bajwa is from Amritsar and this book also talks about the lives of people living in Amritsar . Rupa has brilliantly narrated the unfairness of life , the culture differences that exist between varied classes , the meanness , the cruelties and hypocrisy well portrayed. This book haunts the reader as the story unfolds layer by a layer, and leaves one ruminating , if the protagonist ( a young orphan man working as a salesman in a reputed sari shop) is right or wrong in doing , what he did ! A good one time read .

الرواية تتحدث عن رامتشاند الذي يعمل في دكان سيفاك لبيع الساري مايصدفه في حياته اليومي من حوارات والأحداث للنساء التي يأتين الدكان لشراء السواري الرواية تتحدث عن الطبقات المختلفة في المجتمع الهندي وفروقات العوالم في ذلك المجتمع رواية مؤلمة رغم أن مئة صفحة الأولى تخلو من الأحداث المشوقة وبعدها يدخل كثير من الشخوص دخل الرواية ونتابع سير حياتهم كلهم بجانب بطل القصة رامتشاند

I picked this book as I was looking for a light read.
The book surely began in a light manner but then the darkness of the characters crept in.
If probably I was in a mood for something heavier I would have enjoyed it more , yet at the same time I wanted to reach the end as I was keen to know the outcome, hence I can say that it is a well written book.

(Book TW: for SA and DV)
This was a really good book, which I was not at all expecting. It's funny, heartbreaking and real. It's a perfect portrait of what the rich are like - she totally nailed it. The ending also perfectly summarizes what humanity sadly is like.

The one thing that really bothered me is the line that says "Shipla fervently hoped it would be a boy. That would rover consolidate her position in the family" the word is "solidify", not consolidate!!!