Rating: 
Summary: Perfumed Fingers
Review: Shoba Narayan has a gift for making you feel you are actually in her family's house in Madras and in Kerala. You can smell the cooking, almost touch the food. Her grandmother being courted, after marriage, by the young husband who sneaked under her veil in the kitchen to get to know her as they chopped spices together; Shoba the student cooking for hippy counselors at a children's camp in New Mexico; Shoba the bride learning, by trial and many errors, to please her husband with multi-cultural creativity in the kitchen .
But this is not only a book about food! She writes lyrically about her family, and about American college life. Her experiences as a budding artist at graduate school are chlling. And then, the inevitable arranged marriage, so mysterioiusly inexplicable to the American, so commonplace even now in India.
Fascinated, I await her next book. On babies? On combining a career with marriage? On her travels? Whatever she writes, it will be light and funny. And serious.
Rating:
Summary: Does for Madras what Calvin Trillin does for New York City
Review: Shoba Narayan's "Monsoon Diary" is about her memories of growing up in Madras, South India, before immigrating to this country, and, about South Indian food: "A Memoir with Recipes". She delivers on both counts. (You know the author is going to stick to her roots, a true writer from Madras, when she starts by thanking her neighbors: "Prabha-mami, Nagarajan-Mama, Sumathi-ka, Babu-anna, Vijaya-aunty, and Nithya-uncle").
As memoir, it is for me, an immigrant from Madras, what "Midnight's Children" is for immigrants from Bombay: stories of growing up there, scenes of life in the city, and intimate portraits of family and friends. She transported me to familiar events and landmarks in Madras: Mardi Gras at IIT, Pondy Bazaar, Alsa Mall, WCC, Music Academy, Grand Sweets, Adyar Woodlands, Ambika Appalam Depot, Hotel Saravana Bhavan and yes, even Naidu Hall ("famous for its bras and "nighties," airy nightgowns made from the softest cotton").
Narayan, a recipient of the M.F.K. Fisher award for distinguished writing, writes well about idli-sambar and rasam, but when she writes about the art of eating off a banana leaf at South Indian weddings, and riffs on the real soul of South Indian food (largely still unfamiliar to most foodies), she does for Madras what Calvin Trillin does for New York City -you want to go there right now and eat it all: puli-kaachal, vatral kuzhambu, agathi keerai, murunga kai keerai, sojji-bajji, bonda-burfi, thaiyru saadam, narthangai uruga, upma, venn-pongal, murukkus, and cheedai. But don't be intimidated by this list; according to the author's mother-in-law, only "Three things are dear to a South Indian's heart: Hot Coffee, good yogurt, and pickles."
Narayan gives an engaging account of her new life in the USA, which takes her to college at Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts; then Delton, Michigan; Boston; Taos, New Mexico; Memphis, Tennessee; Connecticut; and New York City.
Her book includes 21 recipes including some of the items mentioned above. Portions of this book first appeared, in part, as pieces published in "Gourmet," "House Beautiful," "Saveur," "The New York Times," and in "Beliefnet" on the web.
"Monsoon Diary" will fit in well on my shelf right next to my favorite memoir about Madras and writing: "My Days," by R.K. Narayan (no kin to the author).
Rating:
Summary: Does for Madras what Calvin Trillin does for New York City
Review: Shoba Narayan's "Monsoon Diary" is about her memories of growing up in Madras, South India, before immigrating to this country, and, about South Indian food: "A Memoir with Recipes". She delivers on both counts. (You know the author is going to stick to her roots, a true writer from Madras, when she starts by thanking her neighbors: "Prabha-mami, Nagarajan-Mama, Sumathi-ka, Babu-anna, Vijaya-aunty, and Nithya-uncle").
As memoir, it is for me, an immigrant from Madras, what "Midnight's Children" is for immigrants from Bombay: stories of growing up there, scenes of life in the city, and intimate portraits of family and friends. She transported me to familiar events and landmarks in Madras: Mardi Gras at IIT, Pondy Bazaar, Alsa Mall, WCC, Music Academy, Grand Sweets, Adyar Woodlands, Ambika Appalam Depot, Hotel Saravana Bhavan and yes, even Naidu Hall ("famous for its bras and "nighties," airy nightgowns made from the softest cotton").
Narayan, a recipient of the M.F.K. Fisher award for distinguished writing, writes well about idli-sambar and rasam, but when she writes about the art of eating off a banana leaf at South Indian weddings, and riffs on the real soul of South Indian food (largely still unfamiliar to most foodies), she does for Madras what Calvin Trillin does for New York City -you want to go there right now and eat it all: puli-kaachal, vatral kuzhambu, agathi keerai, murunga kai keerai, sojji-bajji, bonda-burfi, thaiyru saadam, narthangai uruga, upma, venn-pongal, murukkus, and cheedai. But don't be intimidated by this list; according to the author's mother-in-law, only "Three things are dear to a South Indian's heart: Hot Coffee, good yogurt, and pickles."
Narayan gives an engaging account of her new life in the USA, which takes her to college at Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts; then Delton, Michigan; Boston; Taos, New Mexico; Memphis, Tennessee; Connecticut; and New York City.
Her book includes 21 recipes including some of the items mentioned above. Portions of this book first appeared, in part, as pieces published in "Gourmet," "House Beautiful," "Saveur," "The New York Times," and in "Beliefnet" on the web.
"Monsoon Diary" will fit in well on my shelf right next to my favorite memoir about Madras and writing: "My Days," by R.K. Narayan (no kin to the author).
Rating:
Summary: Answers to questions I never thought to ask
Review: Shoba Narayan's lyrical prose transports us not only to the world of her birth, but to the continuation of her education in America. She tells us about the arranging of marriages, and about the arranging of food, "so much information about things I never thought to ask about but thought wonderful just because they were Indian" (quote from Sybil Ecroyd in New Zealand).
I am already looking forward to her next book!
Rating: 
Summary: A reasonable "recipe"
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A reasonable "recipe"
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: It's Delicious!
Review: This is a perfect book to relax with on a lazy weekend--preferably if you're in the mood to try a new dish! The recipes, spiked with the vibrant herbs and spices of India, are simply superb. Add to that a wonderful, warm story-telling style, and you have a winner. Buy it--you'll enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: It's Delicious!
Review: This is a perfect book to relax with on a lazy weekend--preferably if you're in the mood to try a new dish! The recipes, spiked with the vibrant herbs and spices of India, are simply superb. Add to that a wonderful, warm story-telling style, and you have a winner. Buy it--you'll enjoy it.
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