Customer Reviews

The Hero's Walk

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a poignant look at the tumultous life of an Indian family; their traditions, joys and sorrows. The characters are wonderfully drawn, the story simple yet compelling. We are given an intimate look into the daily lives of each member of the family. Each character a marvelous study unto themselves. We feel the family's pain and small joys, as they try as best they can to exist in a society that seems to be falling apart around them. Unlike another reviewer who grew tired of the 'excessive' references to sights, sounds and smells, I was fascinated by these descriptions, even when reading about the family waking up to find their home flooded by raw sewage! A final note, if any of you think your mother-in-law is a pain, wait until you meet Ammayya! I would highly recommend this novel.

This story begins right inside the hustle and bustle of a home in India. The central character is a father with regrets and lots of struggles with purpose in his current life. The family life inside this house is very entertaining in all ways and deals with traditions and clashes with new ways of thinking as well as corruption and love and loss.
I found all the characters multilayered and very believeable. All the chapters are titled and storied around their titles; while connecting this very good story as it just flows along, I found it hard to put down and wanted the book to continue when I was done.
Will really look forward to her new book, Tell It To The Trees, or reaching further back to Tamarind Mem.
Highly reccommended!

I absolutely adore this book! Anita Rau Badami has managed to beautifully incorporate the mind-set of both middle-aged, traditional Indian parents, with that of a child being brought up by mixed parents, in Canada.
The characters come to life and their emotions pull the reader into the pages and the plot.
It is beautifully written, and the story itself is very realistic. The characters are each victims in their own ways and Badami has been able to portray them, not as characters in a story, but as people living in our world, surviving the laughter and tears of everyday life.
Read this book, it might really help to change your life...or simply to make you think.

This book is a great story for anyone who wants to curl up on a cold day. The characters are rich in description and you feel as though they could be any number of people you know. Even though I'm in Canada and they are in India, you feel no distance since the story is human in every aspect. The author weaves a wonderful and interesting tale.

This book is heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, a page-turner filled with pathos. I loved it madly.

As a native of South Asia, the things referenced in the book rang true with me...the characters' voices, their actions, their reactions...it was all so familiar. Badami obviously knows what she's talking about! In particular, you had to love Sripathi...what a character. I'd be curious to know if the author actually knows people like the ones she has written about. At any rate, she's written a book that deserves praise and plenty of attention.

The Hero's Walk is one of those rare novels that just sweep you up until you relunctantly turn the last page. Badami writes as convincingly as a grandfather as she does as a 7 year old girl. At times this novel is hilarious and at times it will break you heart. Who could ask for more?

I'm not much of a writer, so just a brief note to say that the characters were truly brought to life in all the wonderful, annoying, spiteful, patient, and loving ways of people everywhere. I fell in love with this family, and felt the things they felt as I read the book.

Bring on the sequel!

This is one of the most satisfying novels I've read in months. Anita Rau Badami is a first-rate writer and first-rate storyteller. Her novel is richly detailed, funny, and ultimately quite moving. I felt very much like I had been taken inside a culture that is foreign to me and made to feel very much at home. If you love a strong narrative, this is the book for you.

This is one of the best novels I have read in a long time. The characters were compelling and authentic. While the setting was India, the range of human emotions portrayed was truly universal. The reader becomes absorbed in the family members and their interactions, with enough of a plot to make the pages turn. I saw so many familiar people in the characters, and I live in New Jersey, not India. The author is a true storyteller.