Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Fourth Estate Ltd (2010), 272 pages
Description
A tremendous first novel from an exciting young author. Feted for its electric chaos, the city of Bombay also accommodates pockets of calm. In one such enclave, Mohan, a middle-aged letter writer - the last of a dying profession - sits under a banyan tree in Fort, furnishing missives for village migrants, disenchanted lovers, and when pickings are slim, filling in money order forms. But Mohan's true passion is collecting second-hand books; he's particularly attached to novels with marginal annotations. So when the pavement booksellers of Fort are summarily evicted, Mohan's life starts to lose some of its animating lustre. At this tenuous moment Mohan - and his wife, Lakshmi - are joined in Saraswati Park, a suburban housing colony, by their nephew, Ashish, a diffident, sexually uncertain 19-year-old who has to repeat his final year in college. As Saraswati Park unfolds, the lives of each of the three characters are thrown into sharp relief by the comical frustrations of family life: annoying relatives, unspoken yearnings and unheard grievances. When Lakshmi loses her only brother, she leaves Bombay for a relative's home to mourn not only the death of a sibling but also the vital force of her marriage. Ashish, meanwhile, embarks on an affair with a much richer boy in his college; it ends abruptly. Not long afterwards, he succumbs to the overtures of his English tutor, Narayan. As Mohan scribbles away in the sort of books he secretly hopes to write one day, he worries about whether his wife will return, what will become of Ashish's life, and if he himself will ever find his own voice to write from the margins about the centre of which he will never be a part. Elliptical and enigmatic, but beautifully rendered and wonderfully involving, Saraswati Park is a book about love and loss and the noise in our heads - and how, in spite of everything, life, both lived and imagined, continues. --- Product Description.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member polarbear123
I was going to go for 3 stars on the strength of the first half of this book but I found myself enjoying this short tale the more I read. The weaker moments are the at times constant reminiscing of the characters about some aspect of their past set off normally by a sound or a smell as they go
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about their daily business. This became a little tiresome at the beginning but the real strength of this book is the exploration of emotions and relationships that two very different men have. I found myself getting emotional during the last few pages especially as the theme of departures and new beginnings seemed to touch a nerve with me. At times this book is perfectly weighted and highly enjoyable. Show Less
LibraryThing member Mercury57
My enjoyment of novels set in India has continued with Saraswati Park, the debut novel by Anjali Joseph.
Set in Bombay it features Mohan who in an age of electronic communication, sits under a tree near the post office and writes letters for the illiterate. His children have left home, his marriage
But she too is a collector, covering the surface of their kitchen table with bottles and jars of food. Her outlet from the endless round of domestic chores lies in the TV soap operas she increasingly fills her day watching. In a telling moment about the narrow circle of her life she reflects that
…her relationship with the shirts, neatly ironed and folded, was so much more direct than any other interaction”.
Into the humdrum lives of this couple, comes their 19 year old nephew Ashish. He’s a young man adrift in the world, unable to focus on his final year studies in literature, who allows himself to be seduced by a more wealthy student. But as quickly as that relationship starts, Ashish finds himself abruptly rejected and subjected to the sniggers of other students. He similarly sleep walks into his next relationship, this time with the more experienced, world wise professor who is meant to be tutoring him for the upcoming exams.
Ashish is the catalyst for the narrative development. He is the instigator of Mohan’s first efforts to become a writer and the outlet for his aunt’s affection and it’s his presence that sustains Mohan through the troubled months when he fears Lakshmi has left him.
Saraswati Park is an endearing portrait of these three very ordinary people; intimate and at times wry in its observations as they discover themselves and learn what matters most to them.
But there is a fourth – equally important – character in this novel: the city of Bombay itself. Vibrant, chaotic, full of sound and movement and yet capable of delivering moments of unexpected tranquility. It’s the product of Anjali Joseph’s personal knowledge of the city – born in Bombay her years of study at Cambridge and then East Anglia have given her the ability of objective distancing.
A deserved winner of the Betty Trask Award, Joseph is tipped by many critics to be an author to watch in the future.
Well worth reading.
Set in Bombay it features Mohan who in an age of electronic communication, sits under a tree near the post office and writes letters for the illiterate. His children have left home, his marriage
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to Lakshmi has become dull, and he seeks respite in collecting books and dreaming of a day when he can write his own book based on the stories that come to him in his sleep. He derives small pleasure by visiting the street vendors who sell 2nd hand books at Fountain area and ccollecting 2nd hand books (especially those with wide margins so he can make notes). It’s a habit which irritates his wife.But she too is a collector, covering the surface of their kitchen table with bottles and jars of food. Her outlet from the endless round of domestic chores lies in the TV soap operas she increasingly fills her day watching. In a telling moment about the narrow circle of her life she reflects that
…her relationship with the shirts, neatly ironed and folded, was so much more direct than any other interaction”.
Into the humdrum lives of this couple, comes their 19 year old nephew Ashish. He’s a young man adrift in the world, unable to focus on his final year studies in literature, who allows himself to be seduced by a more wealthy student. But as quickly as that relationship starts, Ashish finds himself abruptly rejected and subjected to the sniggers of other students. He similarly sleep walks into his next relationship, this time with the more experienced, world wise professor who is meant to be tutoring him for the upcoming exams.
Ashish is the catalyst for the narrative development. He is the instigator of Mohan’s first efforts to become a writer and the outlet for his aunt’s affection and it’s his presence that sustains Mohan through the troubled months when he fears Lakshmi has left him.
Saraswati Park is an endearing portrait of these three very ordinary people; intimate and at times wry in its observations as they discover themselves and learn what matters most to them.
But there is a fourth – equally important – character in this novel: the city of Bombay itself. Vibrant, chaotic, full of sound and movement and yet capable of delivering moments of unexpected tranquility. It’s the product of Anjali Joseph’s personal knowledge of the city – born in Bombay her years of study at Cambridge and then East Anglia have given her the ability of objective distancing.
A deserved winner of the Betty Trask Award, Joseph is tipped by many critics to be an author to watch in the future.
Well worth reading.
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LibraryThing member stillatim
It took me a while to get into this, but it's well worth it. S Park is a much better defense of the realist novel than Franzen's Freedom, for instance; it packs the same emotional weight into a third of the pages (and, at a guess, a quarter of the words). Like 'Freedom,' the book has a bit of a
And if you don't care about that, it's just a lovely book full of the minor domestic dramas that we all live through, and an all too rare instance of a well-written book that suggests family life isn't there just so the young have something from which to escape. There are very, very few false steps in the prose, and one or two wonderful moments- particularly the paragraph which gives the book its cover in this edition. Certainly the writing isn't ambitious, but since so many young authors torture language in order to express nothing, I'm fine with that.
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chip on its shoulder: while Franzen talks a lot about Tolstoy, Joseph's particular reference is Henry James, and there's some great, gentle parody of the modernists (James Joyce as captain of the pick-up cricket team, menacing the younger boys). I'm curious to know how much the media representation of this as a kind of anti-Magical Realism polemic is based on Joseph's actual feelings, and how much of it is just good marketing aimed at people who, like me, can't really be bothered trudging through 600 page novels about the 'color' and 'exoticism' of the sub-continent. Certainly you could read the novel as precisely that kind of polemic; but maybe it's not. And if you don't care about that, it's just a lovely book full of the minor domestic dramas that we all live through, and an all too rare instance of a well-written book that suggests family life isn't there just so the young have something from which to escape. There are very, very few false steps in the prose, and one or two wonderful moments- particularly the paragraph which gives the book its cover in this edition. Certainly the writing isn't ambitious, but since so many young authors torture language in order to express nothing, I'm fine with that.
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LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
"a lovely quiet come off the page, it was rich and held shards of past experiences."
This book is set in a fictional quiet suburb of Bombay (now Mumbai), Saraswati Park, and centres around a middle-aged married couple Mohan and Lakshmi. Their lives are settled, mundane and unexciting until one day
Mohan belongs to a vanishing trade as a writer, spending his days sitting in the middle of the bustling city writing letters and money orders for the illiterate but he still manages to find peace and quiet in the chaos. He loves the sound of the pigeons overhead and to huddle with his fellow writers around cups of hot tea. Books are his passion and at home he sits quietly, drifting in and out of the novels he is reading barely aware of his surroundings. Lakshmi has no interest in books preferring TV soaps for her entertainment and now that their own children have flown the nest find their lives are slowly almost imperceptibly drifting apart.
When Ashish comes to stay with them, things start to unravel. So when Laksmi’s brother dies her underlying frustrations become apparent and she leaves the city to stay with her family helping to look after an ailing relative. It soon becomes evident that both are disappointed with their marriage. Mohan's life has become sedentary but Lakshmi’s absence spurs him into starting to write about what he sees about him and his experiences. The first steps are very tentative but through Ashish’s influence he gets more confident and one of his stories wins a prize and is published.
Ashish is in many respects like Mohan. He is a quiet student, who has to repeat a year because of poor attendance, he appears passive rather than pro-active but there is also a deep sadness within him. He loses one boyfriend shortly after moving in with his aunt and uncle and although he finds someone else this relationship also ends abruptly. Finally he realises that to have any future he must not only leave the city but he also leave the country and sets off for America.
Saraswati Park is therefore about love,marriage and loss but also about the power of imagination and memories, the beauty and danger of reading and ultimately also about writing.
Overall given that this was the author's first novel I felt that that she produced an accomplished piece of writing. You could see the combination of the outside world and the pressures that it puts on interior lives, meaning that the portrayal of the three characters was very good. However, I also felt that it was missing something. The plot was polite rather than dramatic and whilst you got some colour from this vibrant, disparate city (I had the good fortune to spend 5 or 6 weeks there some 30 years ago) I felt she just skimmed over the surface of it. It felt like a homage to it rather than a true exploration and as such I felt that I learnt nothing new or compelling. Overall I felt that this was an enjoyable read whilst it lasted but a bit like a salad or McDonalds not one that will live long in the memory.
This book is set in a fictional quiet suburb of Bombay (now Mumbai), Saraswati Park, and centres around a middle-aged married couple Mohan and Lakshmi. Their lives are settled, mundane and unexciting until one day
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Mohan's nephew Ashish comes to live with them for a year when work compels Ashish's parents have to leave the city. As Ashish struggles with school and relationships Mohan and Lakshmi must also confront the quiet little discontents that have grown and been left unspoken between them during many years of marriage.Mohan belongs to a vanishing trade as a writer, spending his days sitting in the middle of the bustling city writing letters and money orders for the illiterate but he still manages to find peace and quiet in the chaos. He loves the sound of the pigeons overhead and to huddle with his fellow writers around cups of hot tea. Books are his passion and at home he sits quietly, drifting in and out of the novels he is reading barely aware of his surroundings. Lakshmi has no interest in books preferring TV soaps for her entertainment and now that their own children have flown the nest find their lives are slowly almost imperceptibly drifting apart.
When Ashish comes to stay with them, things start to unravel. So when Laksmi’s brother dies her underlying frustrations become apparent and she leaves the city to stay with her family helping to look after an ailing relative. It soon becomes evident that both are disappointed with their marriage. Mohan's life has become sedentary but Lakshmi’s absence spurs him into starting to write about what he sees about him and his experiences. The first steps are very tentative but through Ashish’s influence he gets more confident and one of his stories wins a prize and is published.
Ashish is in many respects like Mohan. He is a quiet student, who has to repeat a year because of poor attendance, he appears passive rather than pro-active but there is also a deep sadness within him. He loses one boyfriend shortly after moving in with his aunt and uncle and although he finds someone else this relationship also ends abruptly. Finally he realises that to have any future he must not only leave the city but he also leave the country and sets off for America.
Saraswati Park is therefore about love,marriage and loss but also about the power of imagination and memories, the beauty and danger of reading and ultimately also about writing.
Overall given that this was the author's first novel I felt that that she produced an accomplished piece of writing. You could see the combination of the outside world and the pressures that it puts on interior lives, meaning that the portrayal of the three characters was very good. However, I also felt that it was missing something. The plot was polite rather than dramatic and whilst you got some colour from this vibrant, disparate city (I had the good fortune to spend 5 or 6 weeks there some 30 years ago) I felt she just skimmed over the surface of it. It felt like a homage to it rather than a true exploration and as such I felt that I learnt nothing new or compelling. Overall I felt that this was an enjoyable read whilst it lasted but a bit like a salad or McDonalds not one that will live long in the memory.
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Awards
Betty Trask Prize and Awards (Prize Winner — Winner — 2011)
Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Shortlist — 2011)
Ondaatje Prize (Shortlist — 2011)
Desmond Elliott Prize (Winner — 2011)
Hindu Literary Prize (Shortlist — 2010)
Crossword Book Award (Winner — English Fiction — 2010)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
272 p.; 6.06 inches
ISBN
0007360770 / 9780007360772
Local notes
Fiction