The House of Blue Mangoes Book

To the reader prepared to enter the intoxicating and all-encompassing world of David Davidar's The House of Blue Mangoes, a memorable experience is in store for some books require a certain application on the part of the reader before they reveal their secrets. And (like so many hard-won things in life) the subsequent rewards are infinitely more gratifying than the "quick-fix" novel that throws its thin appeal in your face. In a similar fashion to Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, Davidar's ambitious Indian-set novel relates many stories in one, each ineluctably merging into the other. We are shown three generations of an old family in the village of Chevathar by the ocean. The patriarchal Solomon struggles to maintain equilibrium as caste struggles begin to create harsh conflict in the village. And we are told the story of Solomon's sons, their triumphs and disasters as India inaugurates its struggle for independence. There is the story of Solomon's grandson who may be the last of the line, undertaking his own bid for independence. All of these are drawn with a mercurial vividness, but Davidar has a Tolstoyan sense of the larger canvas: among an army of other characters, we are given Father Ashcroft, an English priest cast up in an unregarded fragment of the empire, and the beguiling Anglo-Indian Helen, who will play a key role in the rush-to-destruction of the family. Davidar's epic covers the spectrum: heroes and rogues, clans and dynasties, the ugly and the beautiful. The narrative, alternately measured and hectic, enfolds assassinations and passionate affairs, exorcisms and beggars' banquets--all are incorporated into a rich weave. Davidar's models are often stories from India's great epics, but (along with the tracking of tigers) the fascination of the everyday is never overlooked, from making a perfect cup of tea to whipping up a flavoursome biryani. Behind the struggles of the protagonists, we are shown the various strategies Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill used in their battles, and we see how the English memsahibs played their part in the downfall of the Raj. The mangoes of India, a key image in the novel, suggest the heady, ripe taste of this baggy, engrossing and thoroughly individual novel.--Barry ForshawRead More