The Hero's Walk

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Summary: A Hero's Walk
Review: This book was full of wonderful imagery, and the themes were well-woven in this simple plot. As a reader, I really developed empathy for Sripathi, and admiration for Nirmala. The characters were life-like and this is what gave the story it's charm because we were able to also get a glimpse into the minds of the characters even for a fleeting moment. This is wonderful reading if you want to have a taste of India.

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Summary: Transported me to India
Review: This is a poignant look at the tumultous life of an Indian family; their traditions, joys and sorrows. The characters are wonderfully drawn, the story simple yet compelling. We are given an intimate look into the daily lives of each member of the family. Each character a marvelous study unto themselves. We feel the family's pain and small joys, as they try as best they can to exist in a society that seems to be falling apart around them. Unlike another reviewer who grew tired of the 'excessive' references to sights, sounds and smells, I was fascinated by these descriptions, even when reading about the family waking up to find their home flooded by raw sewage! A final note, if any of you think your mother-in-law is a pain, wait until you meet Ammayya! I would highly recommend this novel.

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Summary: Wonderful, wonderful!
Review: This is a wonderful book. I read it in one sitting and enjoyed it very much. Some parts of it were rushed and felt contrived but that's nothing compared to the entertaining read this is. Anita Rau Badami knows how to write and I will definitely pick up TAMARIND MEM as soon as I can.

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Summary: Excellent reading
Review: This is one of the best books I have read in the last year. Badami summons up India with amazing powers of description, and the characters are all drawn with a very fine brush. The story is one of heartbreak, love and redemption, and I read much of it with a lump in my throat. This is about an Indian family, but in a larger sense, it is about all families and the transforming power of forgiveness.

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Summary: touching, unforgettable novel
Review: This is one of the best novels I have read in a long time. The characters were compelling and authentic. While the setting was India, the range of human emotions portrayed was truly universal. The reader becomes absorbed in the family members and their interactions, with enough of a plot to make the pages turn. I saw so many familiar people in the characters, and I live in New Jersey, not India. The author is a true storyteller.

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Summary: A satisfying read !
Review: This is one of the most satisfying novels I've read in months. Anita Rau Badami is a first-rate writer and first-rate storyteller. Her novel is richly detailed, funny, and ultimately quite moving. I felt very much like I had been taken inside a culture that is foreign to me and made to feel very much at home. If you love a strong narrative, this is the book for you.

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Summary: A true depiction of India
Review: This is the most singularly wonderful book I have read in years. Others have reviewed the emotional/psychological aspects of the book, so I will address her depiction of India. I lived in southern India from 1996 to 1997 and Anita Badami's description of the area and the people of India were absolutely on the money. It was a sympathetic, if unforgiving, depiction of her homeland. When the monsoons hit, the streets do run with sewage. The electricity does go off many times throughout the day. The heat is brutal before the monsoons hit. There are scalper's selling tickets to the movies! And Deepavali is a festival of light and fireworks that I remember fondly, coming in the cool wet season of the year. I would read a passage and close my eyes and instantly be transported back to my room in Bangalore with the rumbling of the coming monsoon storm; the smell of dinner being prepared by Radha, our cook, who kept pictures and statues of gods and goddesses from every conceivable religion in the pantry next to our kitchen ("It is best, madam, to honor all the gods. You never know."); and the funny cry of those strange little squirrels with the two stripes down their backs. This book will forever remain on my shelf of favorites, to be read again and again in the future.

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Summary: Amazing book
Review: This was such a wonderful book to read. It's the type of book, that attracts your attention in the first page and you just can't put it down till the end. I am giving this wonderful book to my mother-in-law to read. I know she'll love it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Truly enjoyble. First time I ever read a book by Anita R. Badami, but I must say it was a real pleasure. The book is written in a very reader friendly pattern and as the characters are not too many one does not loose the complexities of all that are there. Though it can get a bit sad at times, but Badami helps the reader with the witty humour of her characters. I look forward to reading her other books.