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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780385493703
ISBN number: 0385493703
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 224
Printing Date: May 18, 1999
Publishing house: Anchor
Release Date: May 18, 1999
Sale Popularity Level: 97253
Studio: Anchor
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Product Description:
Sampath Chawla was born in a time of drought that ended with a vengeance the night of his birth. All signs being auspicious, the villagers triumphantly assured Sampath's proud parents that their son was destined for greatness.
Twenty years of failure later, that unfortunately does not appear to be the case. A sullen government worker, Sampath is inspired only when in search of a quiet place to take his nap. 'But the world is round,' his grandmother says. 'Wait and see! Even if it appears he is going downhill, he will come up the other side. Yes, on top of the world. He is just taking a longer route.' No one believes her until, one day, Sampath climbs into a guava tree and becomes unintentionally famous as a holy man, setting off a series of events that spin increasingly out of control. A delightfully sweet comic novel that ends in a raucous bang, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard is as surprising and entertaining as it is beautifully wrought.
Amazon.com Review:
Pity the poor Chawla family of Shahkot, India--their son, Sampath causes all kinds of trouble for his family, culminating in a Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, but in a village like Shakhot, hullabaloo is a way of life. Indian writer Kiran Desai begins her very first novel with Sampath's birth at the tail-end of a terrible drought. His mother, Kulfi, half-maddened by heat and hunger, can think of nothing but food: 'Her stomach grew larger. Her dreams of eating more extravagant. The house seemed to shrink. All about her the summer stretched white-hot into an infinite distance. Finally, in desperation for another landscape, she found a box of old crayons in the back of a cupboard and ... began to draw.... As her husband and mother-in-law retreated in horror, not daring to upset her or the baby still inside her, she drew a parade of cooks beheading goats.' Sampath's father, Mr. Chawla is a man for whom 'oddness, like aches and pains, fits of tears and lethargy' is a source of discomfort; he fears 'these uncontrollable, messy puddles of life, the sticky humanness of things.' This distaste for sticky humanness will prove problematic for Mr. Chawla later in life when his son grows up to become a young man possessed of a great deal of feeling and very little common sense or ambition.
Mr. Chawla's frustration comes to a head when Sampath loses his menial job at the post office after performing an impromptu cross-dressing strip-tease at his boss's daughter's wedding. Confined to the house in disgrace, Sampath runs away from home and takes refuge in the branches of a guava tree in an abandoned orchard outside of town. At very first family and townsfolk think he's mad, but in an inspired moment of self-preservation Sampath, who had spent his time in the post office reading other people's mail, reveals some choice secrets about his persecutors and convinces them that he is, in fact, clairvoyant. It isn't long before Mr. Chawla sees the commercial possibilities of having a holy man in the family, and pretty soon the guava orchard has become the latest stop along the spiritual tourism trail.
Take one holy man in a guava tree, add a venal father, a food-obsessed mother and a younger sister in love with the Hungry Hop Kwality Ice Cream boy and you've got a recipe for delicious comedy. Mix in a rioting band of alcoholic monkeys, a journalist determined to expose Sampath as a fraud, an unholy trio of hypochondriac district medical officer, army general and university professor, all determined to solve the monkey problem, and you've got a real hullabaloo. Kiran Desai's delirious tale of love, faith, and family relationships is funny, smartly written, and reminiscent of other works by Indian authors writing in English such as Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh, Banerjee Divakaruni's The Mistress of Spices and Shashi Tharoor's Show Business. --Alix Wilber
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Rated by buyers 
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Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard is the old sixties message of "do your own thing" brought to bear in rural India. That nation is still bound by caste and class consciousness that places strong limits on what each person may and may not do. Naturally, the truly talented may transcend those limits, but what about the rest of us?
To explore that point, Kiran Desai provides us with the least likely hero you've ever met, Sampath Chawla, who combines the simpleness of Don Quixote with the desire for ease of Tom Sawyer. He and a number of the other characters are especially interesting for being originally drawn, rather than representing traditional archetypes. In doing this, Ms. Desai is helped by her references to the lack of mental balance in Sampath's mother and her children.
Some may incorrectly describe this as a humour book, but rather it's a biting satire of the nuttiness of the way things usually work. For example, in a job we are supposed to please the boss and rely on the boss's good will to provide for us. But if pleasing the boss means that we make ourselves miserable, what use is this? As another example, spew out a nonsensical aphorism and most people will find a connection to their own life . . . even if none is intended. We defer to those who seem to have superior power or knowledge . . . even when it's only a reputation for such rather than the reality.
Ms. Desai's point is that the good life is the rational life of meaningful self-interest, unrestrained by tradition, convention, and habit. She makes the exposition of that point more fun than any other writer I can remember.
Rated by buyers -
This is a novel I've had around for several years. I'm sorry I waited so long to read it.
This delightful novel tantalizes the senses, including taste and smell. To me, the Indian setting is exotic - although in one of the Political Correctness classes I had to take it was pointed out that considering other cultures exotic is a form of racism.
But hey, we don't have monkeys running wild in SoCal. And the orchards around here that still remain are for oranges, not guavas.
This is a Fools' Journey novel. The more I reflect on reading it, the deeper connections and folds and ironies I find. Perhaps I'm reading some into the story ... but that's OK.
I'd say more, but that would lead to a lot of spoilers.
I haven't had such a delightful time reading for many years (Probably not since I read Bless Me, Ultima, which is an entirely different sort of book.)
Rated by buyers 
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This novel was selected for our book club this month. While its cover claims this is supposed to be funny, most of us didn't find it to be such. Several of us agreed that perhaps certain scenes might have been entertaining to WATCH in a Ballywood-style film, but reading about them was more odd and strange than humorous. Perhaps it was the delivery; like a joke in the hands of a "joke-killer," the author seems to butcher the scene before it has a chance. Desai should stick to serious literature because she clearly has some talent in that area. Save the funny stuff for someone else...
Rated by buyers -
This is the story of Sampath "Good Fortune" Chawla, an idle young man who spends many hours dreaming in the tea stalls and singing to himself in public gardens of Shahkot. At the post office he spends time reading the mail instead of working and soon loses his job. Then he decides to take permanent residence in the fork of a guava tree in a marvellous orchard upon a hillside and become a hermit. Unfortunately his family quickly realise that Sampath could make their fortune and so a stream of worshipers start visiting Sampath's tree, asking for blessing while his parents, in a nearby tea stall, sell flower garlands, fruit, incense and souvenirs.
In a witty and sharp prose Ms Desai mocks pious devotion, official incompetence, domestic tiffs, young love, marriage customs, sacred monkeys and the novel is a delightfully funny satire of the customs of India.
Rated by buyers 
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I realize this book is supposed to be a comedy. And if you like Homer Simpson, or Phoebe and Joey from Friends, you may love this book. But stories about people who are completely stupid irritate me. I hate Homer Simpson, and I didn't like Phoebe and Joey from Friends, either. If you hate stupid people, you will hate this book.
This book is filled with people who are so stupid, it certainly would explain why India is a third world country.
However, I've read other books by Indian authors and I know India is NOT peopled entirely with idiots.
I don't need to reiterate the plot, as plenty of other reviewers have done that for me. I will only tell you this book is not funny. Quite frankly, I'm baffled why this author is so celebrated, as The Inheritance of Loss sucked also, although for different reasons.
Skip this. If you want a good novel by/about India, read The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami, or anything by Thrity Umrigar.
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