Status
Available
Call number
Publication
A Signet Classic
Pages
190
Description
Featuring a new introduction and afterword, this critically acclaimed novel tells the story of India and its people through the eyes of one woman and her experiences in one peasant family in a primitive Indian village. Married as a child bride to a tenant farmer she had never seen, she worked side by side in the field with her husband to wrest a living from the land that was ravaged by droughts, monsoons, and insects. With remarkable fortitude and courage, she sought to meet changing times and fight poverty and disaster. She saw one of her infants die from starvation, her daughter becomes a prostitute, and her sons leave the land for jobs which she distrusted. And, somehow, she survived. This beautiful and eloquent story tells of a simple peasant woman in a primitive village in India whose whole life was a gallant and persistent battle to care for those she loved-an unforgettable novel that will wring your heart out.… (more)
Collection
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1954
Physical description
190 p.; 6.75 inches
ISBN
0451528239 / 9780451528230
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User reviews
LibraryThing member mattviews
Set in some village in India, Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve is a gripping story of one indefatigable woman's survival of a checkered life, one that had no margin for misfortune. Neither does the book have surprises nor twist, but readers will find a determined, unrelinquished fighter in a
Rukmani married Nathan, a tenant farmer whom she had never met, as a child bride. Even though Rukmani was ignorant of the simplest of tasks, Nathan never uttered a single cross word and gave an impatient look. He looked at her as if nobody had discovered her beauty. He never asserted his rights to forbid her reading and writing, a talent that placed Rukmani above her illiterate husband.
Misfortune seemed to have a tight foothold in Rukmani and Nathan. The monsoon inundated the rice paddies where Rukmani worked side by side with Nathan to wrest a living for a household of eight. No sooner had the monsoon tapered off than a drought ravaged the harvest. Hope and fear acted like twin forces that tugged at them in one direction and another.
Poverty-stricken Rukmani saw her daughter Ira become a prostitute, her 4-year-old son Kuti died from hunger, her teenage son Raja caught stealing and beaten to death, her oldest sons Thambi and Arjun set off to Ceylon to work in a tea plantation. The opening of a tannery, of which Rukmani was only skeptical, had spread like weeds and strangled whatever life grew in its way, changed the village beyond recognition.
And yet, Rukmani survived. The interminable poverty and impregnable fate of Rukmani and Nathan must evoke in readers' pity and sympathy. But at the same time, Rukmani, whom Nathan always appeased, might seem somewhat self-piteous, cynical, and complaisant (like Dr. Kennington said, she needed to cry out for help). Ira, who exchanged her body for Kuti's milk and food, had lost her reason and given up her sanity rather than faced the truth.
A recurring theme of the book is the significance of land that fostered life, spirits, happiness and family. Rukmani often found solace in the land on which her husband built a home for her with his own hands in the time he was waiting for her. She often reminisced the very home to which Nathan had brought her with pride. The land became her life:
"I looked about me at the land and it was life to my starving spirit. I felt the earth beneath my feet and wept for happiness." (188)
So much was the book about Rukmani. The one character that stood out to me was Selvam, one of her younger son who flinched and quailed at the firecracker and used the money intended for firecracker to buy a confection cane. As wealth lured all his elder brothers away, he stayed behind and took care of his family, shouldered the household responsibilities while assisting in the village hospital.
Nectar in a Sieve is a book that will make you lump in the throat. The writing is painfully eloquent, taut, and cut-to-the-root. The living conditions, life struggles, poverty, fragility and abasement of life depicted are beyond imaginations to those who live in the first world and have never stretch a single meal portion to three meals. Everyday was a life-and-death situation.
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woman who bears an unfailing faith and rams through impregnable clamor that invades her life.Rukmani married Nathan, a tenant farmer whom she had never met, as a child bride. Even though Rukmani was ignorant of the simplest of tasks, Nathan never uttered a single cross word and gave an impatient look. He looked at her as if nobody had discovered her beauty. He never asserted his rights to forbid her reading and writing, a talent that placed Rukmani above her illiterate husband.
Misfortune seemed to have a tight foothold in Rukmani and Nathan. The monsoon inundated the rice paddies where Rukmani worked side by side with Nathan to wrest a living for a household of eight. No sooner had the monsoon tapered off than a drought ravaged the harvest. Hope and fear acted like twin forces that tugged at them in one direction and another.
Poverty-stricken Rukmani saw her daughter Ira become a prostitute, her 4-year-old son Kuti died from hunger, her teenage son Raja caught stealing and beaten to death, her oldest sons Thambi and Arjun set off to Ceylon to work in a tea plantation. The opening of a tannery, of which Rukmani was only skeptical, had spread like weeds and strangled whatever life grew in its way, changed the village beyond recognition.
And yet, Rukmani survived. The interminable poverty and impregnable fate of Rukmani and Nathan must evoke in readers' pity and sympathy. But at the same time, Rukmani, whom Nathan always appeased, might seem somewhat self-piteous, cynical, and complaisant (like Dr. Kennington said, she needed to cry out for help). Ira, who exchanged her body for Kuti's milk and food, had lost her reason and given up her sanity rather than faced the truth.
A recurring theme of the book is the significance of land that fostered life, spirits, happiness and family. Rukmani often found solace in the land on which her husband built a home for her with his own hands in the time he was waiting for her. She often reminisced the very home to which Nathan had brought her with pride. The land became her life:
"I looked about me at the land and it was life to my starving spirit. I felt the earth beneath my feet and wept for happiness." (188)
So much was the book about Rukmani. The one character that stood out to me was Selvam, one of her younger son who flinched and quailed at the firecracker and used the money intended for firecracker to buy a confection cane. As wealth lured all his elder brothers away, he stayed behind and took care of his family, shouldered the household responsibilities while assisting in the village hospital.
Nectar in a Sieve is a book that will make you lump in the throat. The writing is painfully eloquent, taut, and cut-to-the-root. The living conditions, life struggles, poverty, fragility and abasement of life depicted are beyond imaginations to those who live in the first world and have never stretch a single meal portion to three meals. Everyday was a life-and-death situation.
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LibraryThing member Zmrzlina
Beautiful writing and the book is worthy of the praise heaped upon it. I didn't particular enjoy reading this as there was no tension. Life was dismal and just got more dismal. Not that I wanted a "happily ever after" ending because I despise contrived, neat endings. For me, this was a very, very
The title is just so amazingly perfect, though. The people in the story always know the sweetness in life will seep out and be gone. So very sad. I wonder how much has changed, or hasn't changed in India. I do think there is life in the US that is like "nectar in a sieve," too, though not nearly as desperate as mid-20th century India. I keep thinking of Rukmani's comments about not being able to plan for the future and keep thinking how people come to accept that as the way things have to be. Too many people live by the "live for the day" rule, I think. All over the world.
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long short story. The title is just so amazingly perfect, though. The people in the story always know the sweetness in life will seep out and be gone. So very sad. I wonder how much has changed, or hasn't changed in India. I do think there is life in the US that is like "nectar in a sieve," too, though not nearly as desperate as mid-20th century India. I keep thinking of Rukmani's comments about not being able to plan for the future and keep thinking how people come to accept that as the way things have to be. Too many people live by the "live for the day" rule, I think. All over the world.
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LibraryThing member inkstained
I originally read this for class many years ago, and found it to be a difficult book to start. Once I got into a bit, though, it became much more interesting. I'd give you a better description of the story, but I don't remember it well enough to do it justice. It's a short book, and I took a lot
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away from it even if I can't remember the plot very well. I recommend it to anyone wanting to read something that takes place somewhere outside of modern America. Show Less
LibraryThing member readingrat
A moving story about a very difficult life.
LibraryThing member NanceJ
I love books about other cultures, and I enjoyed this one about a woman in India
LibraryThing member t1bnotown
This is a book I read in my senior year world literature class. We learn about the lives of peasants in India and watch one thing after another go wrong for one woman and her family. She does not realize how lucky she is with anything until it gets worse. We slowly learn just how hard the life of a
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peasant can be as they struggle to survive. Though things are depressing, the story is fascinating. Show Less
LibraryThing member Stevil2001
I am pretty sure that when Kamala Markandaya sat down to write this book, the tale of an Indian peasant woman right around the time of decolonization, that she wrote a list called Terrible Things That Can Happen to an Indian Peasant Woman. Then she turned that list into an outline. The first
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two-thirds of this novel are pretty unrelenting in terms of the bad things that happen: famine, accusations of infidelity, famine, workers being laid off, famine, infants dying, famine, sons being worthless, more famine. At times it became annoying, but the character of Rukmani holds the book together, as a simple, believable figure doing what needs to be done to get by and never complaining. The book really picked up, however, in Part II, when Rukmani and her husband have to travel into the city, and they end up completely out of their element. It's devastatingly sad, but it's also gripping, probably because I, too, fear the city. I think also this works because in Part I, a part of you thinks that they don't have to be doing what they're doing and if they go somewhere else things would be better... but Part II shows you that's untrue, as the only way things can go is to get worse. Show Less
LibraryThing member laurscartelli
"All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair--
The bees are stirring--birds are on the wing--
And Winter, slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.
Yet well I ken the banks where
Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.
Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may,
For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!
With lips unbrighten'd, wreathless brow, I stroll:
And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?
Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live."
- (Samuel Taylor Coleridge "Work Without Hope")
I've read a lot of Asian-American and Indian-American literature. My second English class focused quite a bit on "mixed" American writers. Korean-American, Indian-American, Japanese-American, Chinese-American, African-American, and the list, as I remember, goes on. It was an interesting period in my reading because I was reading literature that I would never have picked up on my own. Not to mention, much of it was in the form of short stories which I wouldn't find on my own. A lot of the work was photocopied specifically for the class out of books that I would never go near.
My favorites were the Indian writers. I think I lost my adoration for them a bit when I worked on Dharamvir Bharati's The Blind Age during sophomore year, though. Among these writers were Jhumpa Lahiri and Bharati Mukherjee (my favorite was Mukherjee's short story - "A Father"). Their work is so beautiful and honest and still retain a bit of grit. That being said, I'm very surprised that I never came across Kamala Markandaya. In fact, when I picked it up in the library's fiction section and finally looked to see what it was, my initial reaction was to return it to the shelf because I thought I HAD read it or that I should have, and I was not looking forward to reading something my teacher would have had me read. But then I glanced at the back and decided to check it out anyway.
I'm so glad I did.
It's the kind of novel you have to read the back of. Not because there's something lost in translation or because the story is hard to follow, but because you need to be prepared. I can best describe it as the story of a woman with nothing to lose who loses almost everything. It's sweet, it's damp and dirty, it's about tradition and modernity, it's honest and beautiful, it's tragic and it's wonderful. And even in its sadness, its tragedy, and its dirt, it is hopeful.
Even in its frankness, it is hopeful. In the first 2 pages, you know how it will end. You know all of the tragedies that will happen in this woman's life. And yet you're drawn in. You keep reading even though you know it's going to be a big bad scary path. And you're rewarded for going with her on her journey. The visual quality of Markandaya's writing allows you to escape into that world, pretty or not. Strongly - very strongly - recommended.
The bees are stirring--birds are on the wing--
And Winter, slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.
Yet well I ken the banks where
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amaranths blow,Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.
Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may,
For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!
With lips unbrighten'd, wreathless brow, I stroll:
And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?
Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live."
- (Samuel Taylor Coleridge "Work Without Hope")
I've read a lot of Asian-American and Indian-American literature. My second English class focused quite a bit on "mixed" American writers. Korean-American, Indian-American, Japanese-American, Chinese-American, African-American, and the list, as I remember, goes on. It was an interesting period in my reading because I was reading literature that I would never have picked up on my own. Not to mention, much of it was in the form of short stories which I wouldn't find on my own. A lot of the work was photocopied specifically for the class out of books that I would never go near.
My favorites were the Indian writers. I think I lost my adoration for them a bit when I worked on Dharamvir Bharati's The Blind Age during sophomore year, though. Among these writers were Jhumpa Lahiri and Bharati Mukherjee (my favorite was Mukherjee's short story - "A Father"). Their work is so beautiful and honest and still retain a bit of grit. That being said, I'm very surprised that I never came across Kamala Markandaya. In fact, when I picked it up in the library's fiction section and finally looked to see what it was, my initial reaction was to return it to the shelf because I thought I HAD read it or that I should have, and I was not looking forward to reading something my teacher would have had me read. But then I glanced at the back and decided to check it out anyway.
I'm so glad I did.
It's the kind of novel you have to read the back of. Not because there's something lost in translation or because the story is hard to follow, but because you need to be prepared. I can best describe it as the story of a woman with nothing to lose who loses almost everything. It's sweet, it's damp and dirty, it's about tradition and modernity, it's honest and beautiful, it's tragic and it's wonderful. And even in its sadness, its tragedy, and its dirt, it is hopeful.
Even in its frankness, it is hopeful. In the first 2 pages, you know how it will end. You know all of the tragedies that will happen in this woman's life. And yet you're drawn in. You keep reading even though you know it's going to be a big bad scary path. And you're rewarded for going with her on her journey. The visual quality of Markandaya's writing allows you to escape into that world, pretty or not. Strongly - very strongly - recommended.
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LibraryThing member kylljoi
A heartbreaking weekend read. I suggest a soft sofa, lots of tea and a rainy season.
LibraryThing member AMQS
I picked this book up on a whim off of the "staff favorites" display at the library. I've since discovered that this book is required reading for many high schoolers, but somehow I missed this 1954 classic story of tenant rice farmers in rural India until now. This story is narrated by Rukmani,
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married at age 12 to a gentle and loving husband. Together they raise a daughter and 6 sons, and work the land, facing starvation in years of heavy monsoon rains or drought. A central theme of this straightforward, simply written book is the love of the land, and its keenly felt loss when their land is sold to the tannery that has transformed their village to a squalid town. Rukmani, her husband, and their children face hunger, anger, tragedy, betrayal, and upheaval, yet as unrelenting as their struggle is, the book is also hopeful and compelling. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheVeaz
Being married at the age of twelve seems unbelievable to many of us, but in this book a twelve year old bride, Rukmani, tells us the story of her life as a wife of a peasant farmer in 20th century India. Her joys and sorrows make this a poignant, yet remarkable story. Group discussions regarding
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various family issues seen in the book would enhance the reading for students. A few of these topics could be gender preference (are boys prized more than girls even in our society?), obedience to parents, and sacrifice. From a research standpoint, the references in the book to various features of India allow students many choices in a research topic: Indian food, religion, caste system, etc. An interesting class assignment involves the poverty/lack of food seen in the novel. Students can create a chart listing what they eat in an average day and compare it to an average day's diet mentioned in the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member kbknapp
Overall, this novel recounts Indian life on a small farm during the 1900s. Told through the eyes of the protagonist Rukmani, the novels shows the struggles that Indian farmers have to deal with during changing economic tries. From droughts to industrialization in the small town, Rukmani and her
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husband face many struggles in the rapidly changing world. As one class progressed, the other fell behind contributing to the major class differences we see in India today. Show Less
LibraryThing member kit_kat227
This book is about Rukmani and her life as a child bride and the hard ships she faced.
Once you get passed the awkward writing style this book is one of a kind keeping you enticed the whole time
The only thing about it I disliked is the synopsis on the back as it contains a lot of spoilers.
Once you get passed the awkward writing style this book is one of a kind keeping you enticed the whole time
The only thing about it I disliked is the synopsis on the back as it contains a lot of spoilers.
LibraryThing member fuzzy_patters
Nectar in a Sieve takes place during the period of English colonization of India and is about a woman, Rukmani, and her attempt to make a life on the land with her family while India changes around her. I really liked this book, and there is a lot going on such as the effects that colonization has
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on those being colonized, the role of women in this society, the role of family in helping us through tough times, and the fact that change can create winners out of some and great losers out of others. It leads to the question whether progress is worth the destruction. I found myself becoming more and more sympathetic to the narrator, who is Rukmani, as she is very likable and also poignantly insightful. It reminds me of Achebe and even Rushdie for some obvious reason, but it also reminded me of Steinbeck in that it was about downtrodden underdogs, who you really want to root for, but you know they are doomed for unhappiness in an unfair world. Show Less
LibraryThing member Laura1124
This story is moving and beautiful. The poetic simplicity of the writing is ingenious. One critic found the voices somewhat stilted because lacking dialect - but they felt very true to me and the characters were very much alive. It is difficult to ponder this existence. But, it is an inspirational
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story of one family's determination, kindness, generosity, and persistent optimism that you come to hope may be the core of human nature - when all else is taken away. Show Less
LibraryThing member snash
A poignant portrayal of woman's struggles and persistence in the face of deteriorating conditions, illustrating the will to live and the power of love and compassion.
LibraryThing member Carolee888
Nectar In A Sieve by Kamala Markanddaya, an Indian classic, poor farming family fights for survival during droughts, and floods. A daughter turns to prostitution in desperation to save her baby brother from dying. No help from the government, lack of clothing, shoes. Makes me want to read about the
It is amazing how they did not give up even though the circumstances became devasting. People became homeless as a result of the weather and companies took the land from which they made a meager living. Even though it was a traditional marriage, arranged, between an older man and very young woman and their marriage had threats, their love for each other endured.
I hope that you read it.
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modern-day poor of India.It is amazing how they did not give up even though the circumstances became devasting. People became homeless as a result of the weather and companies took the land from which they made a meager living. Even though it was a traditional marriage, arranged, between an older man and very young woman and their marriage had threats, their love for each other endured.
I hope that you read it.
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Subjects
Awards
Notable Books List (1955)
ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound (Fiction — 1999)
Call number
FIC A4 Mar