Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
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After years of failure at school and work, and of spending his days dreaming in the tea stalls and singing to himself in the public gardens, it doesn’t seem as if post-office clerk Sampath Chawla is going to amount to much. But then he climbs a guava tree and becomes unexpectedly famous as a guru.Born during a torrential rainstorm, in Shahkot, India, to a mother whom the neighbours find distinctly odd, Sampath Chawla is a disappointment to his family. Nothing but trouble from the start, he disgraces himself at a wedding party, loses his job at the local post office and runs away from home to take refuge in the guava orchard, at the top of a guava tree. There he is mistaken for a holy man and seer when he reveals intimate secrets about the local inhabitants (gleaned from reading their mail in idle moments at the post office). His father can see there is money, at last, to be made from his idle son and sets about doing so with determination. A local journalist, however, is equally determined to unmask him. Although Desai writes with considerable flair, employing an inventive style of English reminiscent of a line of Indian authors from Salman Rushdie to Arundhati Roy, there is something tiresome about this relentlessly perky comedy, and one has a slight suspicion that the European reader is being hoodwinked with fashionable pastiche. Midnight’s Children has a lot to answer for. –Lisa Jardine
Rating: 
(out of 9 reviews)
List Price: £7.99
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Review by James M for Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
Rating:
Bought this because I’m too stingy to buy her Booker winner till it comes out as a paperback. She’s a very talented writer – natural comic writing, very gentle humour. I fear this book paints a picture of a lagely imaginary India, or an India long since passed, but I greatly enjoyed the characterisations and the situations. The first 50 pages in particular are first class. Thereafter her focus slips a little and we get into first-novel-it is. I suspect The Inheritance of Loss is a fine book – she’s taken 7 years to write it, and all the signs of an exceptionally talented natural writer are there to be seen in Hullaballoo
Review by HORAK for Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
Rating:
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.
Review by for Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
Rating:
One of the nicest books I have read in years. Beautifully written and utterly compelling. I was genuinely upset when I reached the end – I just wanted to have more; to spend more time with the delightful characters that Kiran Desai has created. I’m buying it as presents for loads of folk this Christmas – it’s a real treat.
Review by for Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
Rating:
I aven’t read a book I have liked so much since Annie Proulx’s Shipping News. This is a very funny story about a family in India, whose son goes slightly off the rails. The results are hilarious. This story makes for a wonderful debut by the dughter of the famous autor, Anita Desai.
Review by Jennifer Malsingh for Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
Rating:
I read this book all in one go one weekend, I just didn’t want to put it down. It tells the wonderfully humorous tale of Sampath Chawla and his rather peculiar life. Filled with both hope and hopelessness, despair at the way the world is going and joy in living life as it comes, this is a wonderful book. The characters are ruddy with life, and you will just want the book to go on so you can find out more about them!