- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Villard; 1 edition (April 15 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375507566
- ISBN-13: 978-0375507564
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.4 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,748,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Narayan, who grew up in Chennai, India, writes in humorous, tender prose about her family and their love of food. Rituals surrounding food are central to every aspect of life, such as the choru-unnal ceremony of a child's first meal of rice and ghee. When her mother is pregnant with her brother and the women gather to feed her and chew betel, Narayan writes, "As they chewed and their lips and tongue became stained red, their jokes became more risque, their gossip more personal, their bodies more horizontal." Food is intimacy and comfort, and Narayan's book neatly transitions between descriptions of her family's life and the meals that punctuated it. Recipes for staples such as rasam (a bean and rice comfort food) a wonderful recipe for upma (a semolina vegetable stew)-which she serves to a grumpy group of Americans-complement more festive recipes for snacks and meals such as inji curry (a pickle with ginger and tamarind). When Narayan comes to America for a year at Mount Holyoke, she misses her native food but, in a hilarious sequence of events involving two dead goldfish, chances upon a taxi driver from Kerala whose wife feeds her olan, made with pumpkin, black-eyed peas and coconut milk. Narayan's sparkling, insightful narrative makes for a delightful cultural and culinary read.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Weaving together stories from her remarkable life with tasty Indian vegetarian recipes, Narayan offers insights into Hindu culture and custom and contrasts her upbringing with life in her adopted America. Born and raised near Madras as a Brahmin in caste-conscious south India, she was part of an extended family of wonderful eccentrics. Her portraits of small-town life include the "iron man": no body builder, he went from house to house ironing clothes with the aid of a coal-fired iron. Shunning bottled milk, Narayan drank hers squirted straight from the udder to her mouth. Food and the enjoyment of it were central to her family, so when Narayan won a fellowship to study in America, the only way the family would let her travel was for her to prepare a proper banquet for them. Reaching New England, she immersed herself in American life without giving up her vegetarianism. Following tradition, her family arranged for their daughter to marry an appropriate mate, and to her surprise, her family chose well. This is a delightful, stereotype-shattering memoir. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
THE FIRST FOODS that I ate were rice and ghee. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
THE FIRST FOODS that I ate were rice and ghee. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful story,
By A Customer
This review is from: Monsoon Diary: A Memoir with Recipes (Paperback)
How wonderful it was to read a biography during this unsettling time that didn't have the ...and then something terrible happend that made me the way I am.Shoba Narayan tells her interesitng life story about family and life in India with humor and grace. All those people, all those celebrations, and all that joy!. The cranky American diners certainly gave an interesting, and somewhat embarrassing balance to her experiences. I for one will be watching for further stories and books from this author.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tasty!,
By lukrezya (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Monsoon Diary: A Memoir with Recipes (Paperback)
Part memoir and cookbook, this book skillfully mixes life experiences with recipes. I enjoyed reading about the author's experiences growing up in South India, and her eventual settlement in the US. The funny stories, family chararacters, and associated foods made the recipes all the more interesting and tasty to me. Who knew that there was so much peril and hidden meaning in a banana leaf? This book is a perfect length and a delightful and easy read.
3.0 out of 5 stars
A reasonable "recipe",
By SL "S'poreBookWorm" (Singapore) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Monsoon Diary: A Memoir with Recipes (Hardcover)
The idea of interspersing food recipes in a novel is not new and indeed, for books depciting life in India, such treatment is aplenty. "The Monsoon Diary" tells of the author's childhood years growing up in Madras. I especially like the narration of how the author's arranged marriage took place, how she met her future hubby and how he proposed- that is quite interesting. I could not recall reading such narration from the first-person perspective. The rest of the book is quite mundane. Nonetheless, a credible debut.
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