Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Faber and Faber (1999), Edition: New Ed, 224 pages
Description
Sampath Chawla is born into a family slightly off kilter, to a mother not quite like her neighbors, in a town not quite like other towns. After years of failure at school, failure at work, it does not seem as if Sampath is going to amount to much.Then Sampath climbs up a guava tree in search of a life of peaceful contemplation -- and becomes famous as a hermit. Written with rich humor and an eye for the eccentric, this is a magical tale of a world gone slightly mad.
Media reviews
HULLABALOO IN THE GUAVA ORCHARD
Although the publishers of "Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard" have been comparing the book to Arundhati Roy's award-winning novel "God of Small Things," 27-year old Kiran Desai turns out to have less in common with Ms. Roy or Salman Rushdie than with an older
As Mr. Narayan has done in his well-known Malgudi stories, Ms. Desai has conjured up a small Indian town, poised midway between tradition and modernity, and focused on the life of one of that town's anonymous inhabitants -- a dreamy, introspective fellow torn between his familial obligations and his own desire to be left alone.
In the case of "Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard," this dreamer is a slovenly young man named Sampath Chawla, who was born in the town of Shahkot during a historic monsoon that ended months of drought. For years, Sampath has done nothing to live up to the expectations wrought by his auspicious birth: he has sleepwalked through school, daydreamed through work. Since getting a job at the local post office, he has spent most of his free time reading other people's mail and musing about their lives.
Although Sampath causes his go-getter father endless grief, his grandmother prophesizes great things: "But the world is round," she declares. "Wait and see! Even if it appears he is going downhill, he will come up out on the other side. Yes, on top of the world. He is just taking the longer route."
Because "Hullabaloo" is the kind of fable where prophecies always come true, Sampath's grandmother is quickly proven correct. Not long after Sampath runs away from home and takes up residence in a guava tree with a band of monkeys, he is being acclaimed as the hermit of Shahkot, a visionary blessed with "an unusual spiritual nature." His furtive reading of other people's mail has endowed him with what seems like the power of second sight, just as his simple-minded love of adages promotes a reputation for "unfathomable wisdom."
If Sampath's incongruous enshrinement as a wise man plays off the hallowed Indian tradition of spiritual enlightenment, the events that accompany his newly discovered holiness read like an out-and-out sendup of the Western cult of celebrity. Sampath's ambitious father is soon gussying up his son's orchard bower (trying hard to keep a balance "between the look of abstemiousness and actual comfort") and concocting a host of moneymaking schemes designed to capitalize on his son's newfound fame. Soon, buses and rickshaws are bringing tourists to visit "the famous Baba in his treetop hermitage," and making Sampath's family rich.
All is not well, however. Sampath's monkey companions have developed a taste for liquor and become a growing public nuisance. Worse, a spy for the local Atheist Society has vowed to expose Sampath as a fraud. "It was precisely people like Sampath who obstructed the progress of this nation, keeping honest, educated people like him in the backwaters along with them," the spy thinks. "They ate away at these striving, intelligent souls, they ate away at progress and smothered anybody who tried to make a stand against the vast uneducated hordes, swelling and growing toward the biggest population of idiots in the world."
Ms. Desai does a clever, dexterous job of orchestrating these events, and in doing so introduces a sprawling cast of characters rendered in bright folk-art colors. There's Sampath's immediate family, of course: his hustling, status-conscious father; his eccentric, ditsy mother and his pushy, man-handling sister. And then there are the town officials, charged with containing the hullabaloo surrounding Sampath: Vermaji, a monkey expert who is puffed up with self-importance; the brigadier, who would rather count the birds in his garden than preside over his troops, and the superintendent of police, who neglects his duties in hopes of being demoted. Filling out the cast are Sampath's former colleagues at the post office, an unfortunate ice cream vendor who catches the attention of Sampath's bossy sister and a chorus of pilgrims and tourists.
These bumbling characters may teeter on the edge of caricature, but the author delineates them with such wit and bemused affection that they insinuate themselves insidiously in our minds, even as they lend the fictional town of Shahkot a palpable fairy tale charm. With "Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard," Ms. Desai has made a modest but enchanting debut.
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generation of Indian writers, including her mother, Anita Desai, and R.K. Narayan. There are no grand, mythic visions at work in "Hullabaloo," no ambitious displays of magical realism. Rather, the novel stands as a meticulously crafted piece of gently comic satire -- a small, finely tuned fable that attests to the author's pitch-perfect ear for character and mood, and her natural storytelling gifts. As Mr. Narayan has done in his well-known Malgudi stories, Ms. Desai has conjured up a small Indian town, poised midway between tradition and modernity, and focused on the life of one of that town's anonymous inhabitants -- a dreamy, introspective fellow torn between his familial obligations and his own desire to be left alone.
In the case of "Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard," this dreamer is a slovenly young man named Sampath Chawla, who was born in the town of Shahkot during a historic monsoon that ended months of drought. For years, Sampath has done nothing to live up to the expectations wrought by his auspicious birth: he has sleepwalked through school, daydreamed through work. Since getting a job at the local post office, he has spent most of his free time reading other people's mail and musing about their lives.
Although Sampath causes his go-getter father endless grief, his grandmother prophesizes great things: "But the world is round," she declares. "Wait and see! Even if it appears he is going downhill, he will come up out on the other side. Yes, on top of the world. He is just taking the longer route."
Because "Hullabaloo" is the kind of fable where prophecies always come true, Sampath's grandmother is quickly proven correct. Not long after Sampath runs away from home and takes up residence in a guava tree with a band of monkeys, he is being acclaimed as the hermit of Shahkot, a visionary blessed with "an unusual spiritual nature." His furtive reading of other people's mail has endowed him with what seems like the power of second sight, just as his simple-minded love of adages promotes a reputation for "unfathomable wisdom."
If Sampath's incongruous enshrinement as a wise man plays off the hallowed Indian tradition of spiritual enlightenment, the events that accompany his newly discovered holiness read like an out-and-out sendup of the Western cult of celebrity. Sampath's ambitious father is soon gussying up his son's orchard bower (trying hard to keep a balance "between the look of abstemiousness and actual comfort") and concocting a host of moneymaking schemes designed to capitalize on his son's newfound fame. Soon, buses and rickshaws are bringing tourists to visit "the famous Baba in his treetop hermitage," and making Sampath's family rich.
All is not well, however. Sampath's monkey companions have developed a taste for liquor and become a growing public nuisance. Worse, a spy for the local Atheist Society has vowed to expose Sampath as a fraud. "It was precisely people like Sampath who obstructed the progress of this nation, keeping honest, educated people like him in the backwaters along with them," the spy thinks. "They ate away at these striving, intelligent souls, they ate away at progress and smothered anybody who tried to make a stand against the vast uneducated hordes, swelling and growing toward the biggest population of idiots in the world."
Ms. Desai does a clever, dexterous job of orchestrating these events, and in doing so introduces a sprawling cast of characters rendered in bright folk-art colors. There's Sampath's immediate family, of course: his hustling, status-conscious father; his eccentric, ditsy mother and his pushy, man-handling sister. And then there are the town officials, charged with containing the hullabaloo surrounding Sampath: Vermaji, a monkey expert who is puffed up with self-importance; the brigadier, who would rather count the birds in his garden than preside over his troops, and the superintendent of police, who neglects his duties in hopes of being demoted. Filling out the cast are Sampath's former colleagues at the post office, an unfortunate ice cream vendor who catches the attention of Sampath's bossy sister and a chorus of pilgrims and tourists.
These bumbling characters may teeter on the edge of caricature, but the author delineates them with such wit and bemused affection that they insinuate themselves insidiously in our minds, even as they lend the fictional town of Shahkot a palpable fairy tale charm. With "Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard," Ms. Desai has made a modest but enchanting debut.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member bryans
The book the Hullabaloo in a Guava Orchard was a book that was a very interesting read. The book seems to be more about the family’s craziness than any other aspect of the book at all. The father seems to be a normal person trying to better his family standings. The grandmother seems to be a
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little crazy but only to the point that she spits out knowledge that seems to go against scientific knowledge that are such as “for a healthy baby keep your head clean of lice” these types of things actually make it hard to decide if she is crazy or if she is just someone who when growing up looked for things her parents and grandparents would say and learn from them. The mother you can see is crazy but she can also be called just obsessed with just cooking food. Then as you notice that her plans for food just get stranger and stranger than the one before and in the end all she wants to do is cook a monkey for her son who seems to be the craziest of all of their family. He wants nothing more than to be alone away from other humans that he believes are loud and filthy. When he runs into the tree he hides there because it is far from humans so when they all start coming it is okay because they are respectful and are quiet and are just waiting for him to say something that the believe to be words of wisdom. The ending is a weird one that you have to interpret on your own what really happened in the end, I know what I believe and I hope you know what you believe. Show Less
LibraryThing member booker-hooker
Never have I felt that this is a book I should not have read. But thats how I felt. Even though it expanded my taste and palet of books it was still a book I could have lived without. When I read a book I look for books that inspire me and opens my eyes to a time when stuf were less complicated.
The book to many was funny but to me it was sad. How he, so innocently just climbed up a tree looking for quiet, how could this be funny to someone? I was on the verge of tears being the lone-wolf that I am. It shattered my illusions that I can take a day off, doing what I feel like and just be quiet. It gradually unfolded and presented the people first as poor, looking for answers but showed how people turned on him as fast as they liked him.
That's what I realised. How people will never let something be innoncent, how they in some way or annother must contaminate it when that prescious sweet thing they have doesn't meet their needs.
That's what's bothering me and I can feel how this realisation is being pumped in my heart out to my veins to innitally take over my whole body. It was a great book, a book for adults already gone through this contamination. Those will find it funny whilst I and all of us with still innoncence running in our cappilaries, giving nutrition to all our cells will have our illusions of a friendly world shattered to crumbs.
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But this book was different, I still have a weight on my chest of sorrow and the realization that people are too nosey for someone to have a moment for oneself. I don't know if it's the book or what it made me realise.The book to many was funny but to me it was sad. How he, so innocently just climbed up a tree looking for quiet, how could this be funny to someone? I was on the verge of tears being the lone-wolf that I am. It shattered my illusions that I can take a day off, doing what I feel like and just be quiet. It gradually unfolded and presented the people first as poor, looking for answers but showed how people turned on him as fast as they liked him.
That's what I realised. How people will never let something be innoncent, how they in some way or annother must contaminate it when that prescious sweet thing they have doesn't meet their needs.
That's what's bothering me and I can feel how this realisation is being pumped in my heart out to my veins to innitally take over my whole body. It was a great book, a book for adults already gone through this contamination. Those will find it funny whilst I and all of us with still innoncence running in our cappilaries, giving nutrition to all our cells will have our illusions of a friendly world shattered to crumbs.
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LibraryThing member esmith1707
An excellent book. This is very well written, witty and the characters are drawn in immaculate detail. The author neatly ties in all sorts of observations to the main plot. I would readily recommend this book to anyone who appreciates good fiction.
LibraryThing member writestuff
Kiran Desai, Book prize winner author of The Inheritance of Loss, has written a quirky satire about a family living in India. The book, set in a village called Shahkot, opens with the main character's birth during the beginning of monsoon season. Twenty years later, Sampath Chawla has disappointed
One day, Sampath boards a bus into the country, and ends up climbing a tree in a guava orchard. From there, things get decidedly strange as the villagers grant him holy man status due to his propensity to mutter bizarre adages such as: 'Some people can only digest fish cooked in a light curry. Others are of a sour disposition and should not eat pickled fish.'
Filled with eccentric characters such as Kulfi, Sampath's mother who is obsessed with food; and Pinky, Sampath's sister who is looking for love but has an aggressive streak...the book borders on weird. The humor is subtle and entrenched in the Indian experience - so I felt like I was missing some of the satire.
Although Desai's writing is engaging, the story ends abruptly and left me largely unsatisfied. This one is forgettable.
Not recommended.
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his family with his meaningless lifestyle and lack of motivation.One day, Sampath boards a bus into the country, and ends up climbing a tree in a guava orchard. From there, things get decidedly strange as the villagers grant him holy man status due to his propensity to mutter bizarre adages such as: 'Some people can only digest fish cooked in a light curry. Others are of a sour disposition and should not eat pickled fish.'
Filled with eccentric characters such as Kulfi, Sampath's mother who is obsessed with food; and Pinky, Sampath's sister who is looking for love but has an aggressive streak...the book borders on weird. The humor is subtle and entrenched in the Indian experience - so I felt like I was missing some of the satire.
Although Desai's writing is engaging, the story ends abruptly and left me largely unsatisfied. This one is forgettable.
Not recommended.
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LibraryThing member npl
After an auspicious birth, Sampath has reached 20 without finding a direction for his life, although it is not for lack of family’s suggestions. After Sampath cracks at a wedding, dresses in the bridesmaid’s finery, joins the crowd, dances, sings, strips, and moons the guests from the top of a
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fountain, he discovers his true path as the Monkey Baba in the tallest tree of an abandoned Guava Orchard. Following Sampath, his father sees money, his mother reconnects with the world, and his sister finds, and bites, her true love. Then things become truly ludicrous. All the while, Desai’s language is reminiscent of a verbal presentation of a fable or mythic legend and full of wonderfully, vibrant imagery of India. Show Less
LibraryThing member echaika
Marvelous tale oof a clerk who becomes a holy man by climbing a tree. A Third World (that arrogant label) story, but not so far removed from the First World (that arrogant construction) but people are people everywhere, even if they are dubbed as from an exotic culture, or from an "underdeveloped"
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country. Show Less
LibraryThing member debnance
Everything I want in a book: engaging characters, a bit of a plot, a little fun, a tiny bit of underlying seriousness. Sampath Chawla has grown up to become quite a disappointment to his family. He works in a post office where he spends most of his time reading the mail that comes through the
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office. His father is in despair; Sampath has no ambition. One day, Sampath leaves his job and, almost without thinking much about it, climbs up into a guava tree. He doesn't come down. As time passes, a mythology about Sampath begins to develop, and villagers come to sit under his tree, observe Sampath's tranquil state, and ask questions of Sampath. Sampath becomes known as a holy man. There's more, involving monkeys and romance, bitten-off ears and spies for an atheist group, but you get the idea. Fun, but not necessarily frivolous. Show Less
LibraryThing member thejohnsmith
Sampath Chawla is odd. So is his mother, so is is father. This tale relates something of the family's rather odd life in an Indian town that seems to have more than its fair share of odd citizens. It's a very entertaining story that won't take long to read and won't leave you dissapointed. Well
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written, great characters. Show Less
LibraryThing member jclarkd
This book is extremely different than most books available today. Today we're used to books that grab your emotions and force you to feel what the character does, all while staying focused on one point of view the whole time. This book is completely different. In the tiny town of Shahkot a drought
This book is different than most books today because it’s a really light read. Its kind of a refreshment after reading a lot of sad books. The ironic humor is great; I couldn't help myself from laughing out loud in class a couple times. The only complaint I have is how long the ending was dragged out, nevertheless though, it’s a great book.
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devastated all of its citizens, including Kulfi, the main characters mom. The town loses all hope until Kulfi gives birth to Sampath, and then a wonderful monsoon restores peace to the small town. Already you can tell this book is going to be weird. Keep in mind that he restores peace to the town though. The author wrote this book beautifully. By the time I was reading the book I noticed everything clicked into place. It kind of all ties in. This book is different than most books today because it’s a really light read. Its kind of a refreshment after reading a lot of sad books. The ironic humor is great; I couldn't help myself from laughing out loud in class a couple times. The only complaint I have is how long the ending was dragged out, nevertheless though, it’s a great book.
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LibraryThing member jennyo
Finally! A happy Indian novel! I thought it might never happen, but I thoroughly enjoyed this little book about a young Indian man who gets tired of all the noise and bustle around him and runs off to live in a guava tree. He sort of inadvertantly becomes a holy man, and there are monkeys involved,
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and things get a little out of hand. It's funny, it's clever, and it has the same gentle flavor and lilting language as Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe books. What a fun read. Show Less
LibraryThing member nobooksnolife
For me, reading Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard was a case of 'purchase in haste; regret slowly'. I missed seeing the "YA" notation in the editorial reviews, then I was thoroughly swept away by most of the reader reviews, so I was expecting another work on par with Arundhati Roy or Chitra Banerjee
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Divakaruni. I stayed with Hullabaloo for the whole ride, expecting a clever pay-off at the ending...instead, I felt taken for a ride. Maybe it's OK for Young Adult fiction (but my young teenage daughter has already moved into a more challenging reading level). I hope Inheritance of Loss will be better--I'll still give it a try. Show Less
LibraryThing member teckelvik
I picked this off the shelf at the library because I am actively trying to read more books by Indian authors. (Asian Indian, just to be clear.) It looked entertaining, and it was. This was a quick read, and I really enjoyed it. The author has a very distinct voice and way of writing that just makes
The plot, such as it is, weaves around the tale of Sampath, and his decision to run away from home and move into a tree in a local guava orchard. Other characters have their own opinions on this, and to add to the confusion, he becomes known as a local holy man and the center of a rapidly growing cult. The chaos gets ratcheted up another notch when the local monkeys attack.
There were a lot of laugh out loud moments in this book, and what brings it down to three stars is the ending. It just, ends. There is no resolution of any of the plot threads, although I suspect that the attempted elopement is off. In a page and a half there is a literal ride into the sunset, and that's it. I was very disappointed, because until then, it was great. I will definitely look for more books by the same author.
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the whole book come to life. Most of the novel takes place within the internal dialogues of different characters, with random bits of interaction. This probably sounds odd, but it's beautifully done, and leads to very, very funny scenes when incompatible worldviews collide.The plot, such as it is, weaves around the tale of Sampath, and his decision to run away from home and move into a tree in a local guava orchard. Other characters have their own opinions on this, and to add to the confusion, he becomes known as a local holy man and the center of a rapidly growing cult. The chaos gets ratcheted up another notch when the local monkeys attack.
There were a lot of laugh out loud moments in this book, and what brings it down to three stars is the ending. It just, ends. There is no resolution of any of the plot threads, although I suspect that the attempted elopement is off. In a page and a half there is a literal ride into the sunset, and that's it. I was very disappointed, because until then, it was great. I will definitely look for more books by the same author.
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LibraryThing member woolenthusiast
Best as an audiobook but this is a brilliant book.Sampath runs away from his house and escapes to an orchard inadvertently becoming a guru. A really funny book and one I have read several times and often give away as a present.
LibraryThing member rajveerspace
Nice story filled with humor and very close to small town life
LibraryThing member siri51
Indian son and monkeys living in an orchard with a variety of chaos going on - family, drunken monkeys, govt officials and assorted problem solvers
- an endearing tale.
- an endearing tale.
LibraryThing member BookConcierge
Entertaining fable of modern-day India. Sampath, who has never amounted to anything, runs away and climbs the guava tree where he becomes known as the Monkey Baba - an esteemed holy man revered by his village and other pilgrims.
LibraryThing member Perednia
Fun, wise novel with ending that may be OTT for some but which I found delightful.
LibraryThing member zasmine
I'm a little confused about this book. Reading it in highly urban India, I really liked the description of the wild. I loved Kulfi's appetite and her wondrous palette. The civil servants were all delightful- from the new DC to the Post master to Miss Divya, the CMO, the Brigadier... And that cute
However, so often, the book also read like a cheap, hollow satire at a concept of 'India', betraying the ugly divide between the westernized Indians and those that can 'act as subjects'.
For the lovely description of the Guava Orchard I really needed in these last few days, i rate it a 3
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love story between Pinky, ice cream boy and miss birthday cake. However, so often, the book also read like a cheap, hollow satire at a concept of 'India', betraying the ugly divide between the westernized Indians and those that can 'act as subjects'.
For the lovely description of the Guava Orchard I really needed in these last few days, i rate it a 3
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Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2000)
Betty Trask Prize and Awards (Prize Winner — Winner — 1998)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1998
Physical description
224 p.; 4.96 inches
ISBN
0571195717 / 9780571195718