Rating: 
Summary: Steve Abel
Review: As the other reviewers have described, this is a family saga like The Glass Palace or A Suitable Boy. It does an excellent job of setting the family story within the historical context of colonialism and nationalism.For me, however, the beauty of The House of Blue Mangoes is in capturing the texture of the deep South, an area that is much neglected in Indian literature. Mr. Davidar's evocation of the food, the vegetation and landscape, and the people of Thirunelveli and Kanya Kumari is a valuable addition to Indian literature. I must admit to a certain prejudice in that I served in the Peace Corps near Nagercoil many years ago.
Rating:
Summary: A good first
Review: Davidar is the President of Penguin books in India and this is his first novel, which he supposedly submitted to another publisher anonymously. Similar to Vikram Seth (Suitable Boy) and Amitav Ghosh (Glass Palace), the story follows the lives and generations of a Indian family. The story is centered around southern India, which gives it a very different feel compared to most other books which are set in the north. In fact, reading some of the Tamil was fun. I had a bit of difficulty getting into the book at first, but by about a quarter of the way into the story, I was hooked. The characters are very vivid and likeable and Davidar's ability to intertwine current events and Indian history into the lives of his characters is uncanny - withouth sounding like a history lesson. I was also interested to find out after I had read the book that Vikran Seth had edited it. I found the ending a little bit abrupt, but overall enjoyed the book very much.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet Sensation
Review: Family sagas are the form of fiction I like the most so I was expecting a lot from this novel and I'm glad it didn't let me down. I was happily engrossed in the travails (and occasional joys) of the Dorai family for several days. This is not to say this is a depressing book, on the contrary you come away from it feeling pretty good, not least because the author writes wonderfully well.
Rating:
Summary: FABULOUS READ
Review: I took the House of Blue Mangoes with me on vacation to Hawaii and was transported instead to India,so wonderfully imagined was the book. Hawaii has mangoes alright, but I'm sure that the mangoes the author writes about (I learned that the mango is native to India, among dozens of other facts about the country)are much much better. Mangoes apart, the book is a brilliant read and tells the story of a dysfunctional family in the south of India who are also extremely endearing. Get to know them.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Read
Review: In the past two decades there have been some wonderful novels written by Indian authors, but none of them were based/set against the background of Tamil Nadu's history. Vikram Seth's tome, "A Suitable Boy," was set against the backdrop of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, while Arundati Roy's "God of Small Things," was set in Kerala. Publisher turned writer David Davidar's book "The House of Blue Mangoes," nicely fills that lacuna. Davidar deftly weaves South history and culture into the narrative that is set in the fictional town of Chevathar located in the southern most tip of India. The novel chronicles the tragedies and triumphs of the powerful Dorai family: Solomon, Daniel, Aaron and Kannan. The panoramic story begins in the close of the 19th century and ends in 1947 when Indian became independent. Davidar's skill as a storyteller is evident and the novel makes for an absorbing read. Also his interest and keen eye for research is reflected in this historical novel.
Rating: 
Summary: wannabe
Review: Mr Davidar thought he was writing the great Indian novel. Unfortunately, what came out at the end was a schoolboy effort, characterized by Raj cliches, prose that sounds like it is translated, and occasional paragraphs containing personal views on India and Indians which dont mesh with the main text at all. I am glad I borrowed this free of cost from the library and did not waste my money - though I did waste my time reading it. All I can say is that it would make good reading on a long flight - at least the story has tempo and keeps you mildly entertained.
Rating:
Summary: Tropical Saga
Review: The character I found most interesting in the House of Blue Mangoes a three generational saga set in the extreme south of India, was the one who anchored middle section--Dr Daniel Dorai, a physician who makes a fortune from formulating a skin whitening cream. I thought that was an inspired idea that nails my native country's hypocrisy. But the novel is not a negative take on India,rather it's shot through with brilliantly described colours, smells and textures of a country that has never left me although I have spent twenty years in Vancouver. I try and read a fair amount of Indian fiction and this novel must rank with the best.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of time
Review: The critical reviewers are on target but unfortunately they don't dwell on the vast superficiality of the novel and the cut and paste, politically correct ramble that it is. I bought the book at a discount in a small town in the U.S. where I live. I was ecstatic that I could get the book so cheap, for I remember reading Prasannarajan's review in India Today, and I usually like what he says. And if I remember right, Prasannarajan speaks well of this meandering trickle of a terrible tale. I wish I had the patience to sit down and do a serious deconstruction of this "plotless plot" and "clueless narration" from a pretend writer who relies on a condensed version of the Gita, the first chapter of Radhakrishnan's tome on the Upanishads and whatever else he could lay his hands on to "learn" and "speak" about India. Dilettantism therefore is in powerful and peerless display.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth a read
Review: The House of Blue Mangoes - Neelam Illum - is a tale written on a large canvas spanning three generations of the Dorai family. The scale of this tale is magnificent and immense in its spread and reach across centuries and cultures. History and its constant mutatory effect on the socio-political aspect of Indian society, forms the backdrop against which the lives of the characters in this novel are played out.
The book is about three generations of the Dorais and spans the latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their story is thus deeply intertwined with that of the tumultuous political fabric of the times, set as it is in the last few decades of imperial rule in India. Solomon, Daniel and Kannan, are the three successive Dorais and though Davidar has fleshed out all three characters well, this book is Daniel's book, and it is in the telling of Daniel's tale that Davidar comes into his own.
After meandering down 'clever' alleyways for the first fifty or so pages when the narration seems interminably boring and a tad preachy (Father Ashworth!), Davidar settles down to doing what he intended to do - tell a story. And once the realization seems to have hit him, there's no stopping the pace of this book. Most debut forays into fiction have the weary pall of yet another 'wannabe clever' book. This one though seems to have missed that and like its chief protagonist, Daniel, who lives life divorced from any aspect of it that does not involve him and that he cannot control, this book tells a story divorced largely of unnecessary frills(excluding bits like the tea ceremony and the search for the mangoes)and, is for the large part, neither preachy nor does it make judgment or provoke much such.
This book affords no appreciations of style or language or poetry of prose; it tells a story, that's it. Moments in the lives of the characters of the book that one would think would require some deliberation; moments to stop, ponder, and reflect upon, are sadly dealt with in a very superfluous fashion. And that catches the reader by surprise. Instances like chapter 56 on the mangoes (the casual way in which the Chevathar Neelam is adjudged the finest by Daniel after a rather tedious telling of the scouring of the countryside of the land for its competitor, is left curiously and anti climatically undone) and the return of Daniel to Chevathar are some such. The pace of the book is largely sustained and makes for an engrossing read.
Rating:
Summary: At Home In India
Review: The House of Blue Mangoes is a rarity as rare as the blue mangoes in the book. Let me explain. In the last many years most of the Indian novels I've read have been written by Indians living abroad which robs them of a certain authentic feel. This novel felt authentic alright. I could smell, taste, experience the colours, food and vibrancy of India. In brief it tells the story of a South Indian family, the Dorais who are mired in a period of immense change and turbulance. What I found especially admirable about the book was the way in which the author seamlessly (by and large, there were a couple of sections where it could've been done better) melds the family story with the great historical events of the early twentieth century in India; the struggle for independence, caste wars, world wars etc. The characters are well developed...my favourites were Solomon and Aaron Dorai, although I did like Charity and Father Ashworth as well. The book taught me a lot about India while simultaneously keeping me absolutely hooked through a gripping story.
| 
