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Summary: A look into the lives of women in the Indian culture
Review: The Mango Season provides the reader with a facinating journey into the life of Priya Rao and the trials and tribulations in her life as she is faced with the task of telling her family that not only is she engaged to a man not of their choosing, but an American man.
I highly recommend The Mango Season to women who have interest in the female culture of a most facinating country.
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Summary: Another great book by Amulya Malladi!
Review: This book is a can't-put-down book. I read it in one sitting. I am not an indian but can totally relate to Priya's experience. I now can say that Amulya is one of my favorite writers.
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Summary: Good read but not so true
Review: This book is about Priya, an attractive indian girl with a successful career in the silicon valley and AN AMERICAN BOYFRIEND.
The author has a very interesting way of developing the story.But, the story in itself is not very creditable. The author definately handles the Indian families pretty inaptly. Priya is continously disrespectful of all her elders and no one says a word to her. In fact by the end of the story, almost every younger member in the family ends up insulting the elders.
I belong to a traditional brahmin hindu family myself and all this continous outrage did not make any sense to me. Family structures in India are much stronger than what the author depicts them to be.
Also, the book had a major technical flaw. Priya's mail to Nick bounces back 'coz Nick's laptop is stolen. Well, the emails are stored on the servers and then delivered to individuals. Hence, loss of a laptop does not make a mail bounce.
Overall, the book makes interesting one time read.
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Summary: Desi chicklit!
Review: This book is in the trend of the regular chick lit, only it's about Indians and is set in India. I enjoyed the book very much, especially all the scenes in the kitchen with the cooking and smells. Can't wait to eat south Indian food!
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Summary: Priya's in a pickle....
Review: This book was a good read, and the recipes had me curious ("can I make that?" "where can I get those ingredients?").
Priya is a native of India and moved to the United States when she was twenty. During her seven years in the States, she fell in love with, horrors, an American. Now she returns home, during the mango season, to inform her very traditional family that the man she loves and is going to marry is not Indian. How does she inform this family that believes in and has survived through arranged marriages? How does she tell this family while they are planning her first sitting with a prospective groom? How will she be able to tell them during their hustle and bustle of arranging her marriage, arranging a marriage for her aunt Sowmya, and preparing mango pickle? Priya approaches these landmines as only a strong-willed daughter can: sometimes she walks around them, sometimes she steps on them full-force. Like most of us who are daughters, she learns that some things in the family will never change, but we can sometimes voice our opinions in opposition and be heard, even if the opinion is not accepted. Like some of us who are daughters, Priya found out what family, love, and support really are and that they don't always come in the expected form. I appreciated the surprise Ms. Malladi gives the reader at the end, and I cheer her for giving Priya's two aunts Sowmya and Lati their unexpected voices.
This was the first book I read by Ms. Malladi. I am inclined to read others, as well as revisit two Indian films (Mississipi Masala and Monsoon Wedding). In a twist of my life, a co-worker invited me to an Indian restaurant the day after I finished "Mango" and I approached my first taste of Indian food with a good background.
In all, I liked "The Mango Season," although I was thrown by her usage of some English words. I grabbed my dictionary a couple of times to see if a certain word had a meaning I am not aware of. Also, I wondered if Priya's family was as globally knowledgeable as the author depicted them; it seemed odd that Priya would refer to American cities and not states when speaking to her family. Does everyone around the world know about Memphis? Read the book, go to the grocery store.
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Summary: Something was definitely missing
Review: This book was an easy read, the characters were easy to follow and identify but I just felt cheated after reading this book.
I hate to compare books of similar themes; however, For Matrimonial Purposes by Kavita Daswani was a much better book.
Mango Season seemed so repetitive. I often found myself wondering why Ms. Malladi mentioned Nick, the great american boyfriend, page after page without really giving him life. At one point I was ready to throw the book after she mentioned yet again how great he was. Enough already! We know he's great, tell us something else.
The recipes were a lovely Like Water for Chocolate touch. If you can't find the ingredients in your local market, try the internet.
I felt cheated after reading this book. Something mentioned at the bottom of page 224 really ticked me off.
I wouldn't recommend this book unless you are looking for a frivolous, quick read that is at times quite boring and redundant.
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Summary: Very, very tasty!
Review: This is a great book. I picked it up after I saw a review in Woman's Day magazine and I am glad I did. The book pulls you in with its first sentence: "Don't kill yourself if you get pregnant, was my mother's advice to me when I was fifteen years old and a classmate of mine was rumored to have committed suicide because she was with child."After reading that sentence, I had to read the whole book. The protagonist, Priya has issues and big ones and it is fun to see her deal with them. I loved meeting her family and loved seeing India. A wonderful book!
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Summary: Ethnic Foods, Ethnic Tension, Well Seasoned
Review: This is the story of Priya, an attractive, assertive, intelligent young woman who just happens to be from southern India. As the story begins she is returning to India for the first time in seven years, and she will have to tell her family about her American boyfriend. As expected, it doesn't go well. Priya's family are deeply set in traditional (Hindu) values--daughters are supposed to be submissive, they are supposed to marry nice (Indian) boys, and produce nice male heirs. Marriages are supposed to be arranged by the family elders, and love doesn't have much to do with it. While Priya is working herself up to tell the family, and dreading the moment with all her being, family life goes on, with its tensions, rivalries, acceptance, rejection, and--most of all--cooking. Cultures are clashing like great tectonic plates below the earth, while on the surface the women are busy chopping and slicing. The book is full of interesting, spicy recipes, too--one of the most gastronomical novels I have ever read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Author Malladi has a deft way with characterization. You will quickly connect with her characters, their inner turmiol, their struggles, their subtle ways of communicating, and their drive to express and fulfill themselves. So will Priya marry the American boyfriend? Or will she succumb to the marriage proposal hastily arranged by her parents? Will the family finally reject her? Or will she come to her senses and forget her American boyfriend? You will just have to read the book to find out. One small criticism: the book includes a number of words and phrases in the local language, not always clearly explained. A little glossary might be helpful. Still, a delightful book. I heartily recommend it. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
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Summary: A Beautifully Told Story --- Highly Recommended
Review: Twenty-seven year old Priya returns to her native India for a visit during the season that mango fruit ripens, a treasured memory from her childhood. It is then that Brahmin caste women churn into frenetic activity. Mango fruit must be pickled, a chore involving women, gossip, intense physical labor, and talk of marriage. For Priya and her brother, Nate, sucking on a mango stone recalls a feeling they term HAPPINESS. The succulent flavor evokes abject pleasure. Priya, now a resident of Silicon Valley, carries with her to India the knowledge that she has fallen in love with an American. Steeped in old family tradition, her parents and grandparents put pressure on their unmarried daughter to wed, saving them from bitter embarrassment. Arranged marriages are the norm --- with a suitable mate from one's own caste. Priya's dilemma becomes personal torment when she cannot tell her family that she is engaged to an American. THE MANGO SEASON is a panorama of Indian tradition. Malladi artfully places Priya in a situation between two opposite worlds. She reverts to childhood when faced with the knowledge that she will break her grandfather's heart with the betrayal of loving a foreigner. Unable to shake the strong yoke of her domineering mother's demands upon her, she gives in to the idea that she will meet a young Indian man who desires a wife. The young woman must ultimately decide between dogmatic tradition and heartfelt emotion. Malladi uses the mango as a symbol of the disparity between two traditions. She intersperses recipes throughout her chapters for delicacies like Avakai (South Indian Mango Pickle), Mango Pappu (lentils), Rava ladoo and Aloo Bajji. Sanskrit ceremonial words of enlightenment are quoted to emphasize religious traditions that guide the family, and numerous Indian words are used in italics. An occasional peek backwards is necessary to refresh the reader's memory about terms quoted. THE MANGO SEASON is a dramatic portrait of a modern woman's anguish over her inability to blend her two worlds. The story is told with beautiful word pictures. Malladi's imagery makes one thirst for a juicy topping of HAPPINESS to end the story, a rich ripe mango. For insight into the Hindu world, THE MANGO SEASON is highly recommended. How one's place in a caste society dictates his or her entire future is depicted well in this dramatic narrative. --- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad
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Summary: A delightful read
Review: What a delight to read Amulya Mulladi's "Mango Season." As with her previous, "Breath of Fresh Air," Mulladi's prose is stimulating, and her ability to show us a different culture is fascinating. But with "Mango Season," we are treated to a ligther fair. Priya Rao has returned to her home in India to tell her family about her American fiance. She knows they will not be happy about her decision; they want her to marry within her own caste, and they have already chosen the prospective groom. Through Priya's eyes, we learn about her Indian culture, we meet her relatives, and we learn that family is alike the world over. Priya endures the frustration of family attitudes and long-held beliefs, yet she also sees the love that only family can offer.
Mulladi skillfully weaves Priya's tale in a way that allows us to understand and sympathize with her unique dilemma, while seeing our own families in the process. We struggle with Priya's anger and discomfort, and in the end, we are surprised at her final omission. "Mango Season" is well worth the read.
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