What do You think about Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard (1999)?
since the book was set in shahkot, north india(the capital of divine religious cultures and morals) one would expect the book to be have a wide range of religious themes, settings etc however desai employs a much different setting. she completely turns around and lowers the prestige pattern of hinduism as a religion and culture that was set in books known for this such as 'a passage to india'. the book's main genre is comedy and that is the device she uses in potraying the indian beliefs. the author potrays them as corupt and totally commercialised people not the simple non-buereaucratical peopole. desai openely says this; " how many hermits were secretly wealthy? how many holy men were not at all the beggers they appeared to be? "to turn around a corrupt and illegal act of reading through peoples mail as a spiritual proclaimation conveys the insatiable appetite for gurus when she turns around the religious theme. it is quite predictable since the title itself speaks about what one would expect before reading thus no criticism should be put on its religious setting
—Kara
Fairly amusing and fairly brief novel about Sampath, an Indian adolescent, who really does not want to work hard and who would rather laze around. One day he suddenly decides he would like to sit at the top of a guava tree. He stays there and refuses to come down. He begins to be mistaken for a wise man. There is an air of predictability about this and some of the characters are very formulaic. There are some very funny moments though and the saga of the drunken monkeys is hilarious. Desai also very neatly dissects bureaucracy and the inability of local dignitaries to make decisions. She also sends up the role of the guru mercilessly and some of the sayings Sampath passes on to those who visit him in his tree are close enough to the sort of things you read in books of wisdom/proverbs to be convincing and amusing at the same time. Desai must have had great fun making them up: Remember "If you do not weed your tomato plant will not flower".The plot is a little thin at times and some of the interesting side stories would have benefited from expansion. The ending doesn't work, but on the whole it is enjoyable and doesn't stretch the mind too much; which is sometimes a good thing, especially as I'm going to read Middle C next!
—Paul
From the beginning of the book to the middle I found the book boring. However as I continued to read the book, it slowly but surely became interesting. To be honest if I was given this book by a person and they told me to read it, I would have put it down by the first chapter.I think that the monkeys getting drunk was nothing big but just an idea to add a bit of humor into the book.No one believes the grandmother when she tells them that Sampath will be successful but he is taking a bit more time than everybody else.She was able to prove her point when Sampath climbs the Guava Orchard looking and hoping for peace and all of a sudden out of the blue he becomes famous as a Holy Man. The ending was unexpected and I didn't think I would enjoy this book but I was proven wrong. I'm glad you made us read this book because now I know to have patience while reading a book.
—Natasha Ghawi
