Nectar in a Sieve

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, affirming, and sad
Review: Set in some village in India, Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve is a gripping story of one indefatigable woman's survival of a checkered life, one that had no margin for misfortune. Neither does the book have surprises nor twist, but readers will find a determined, unrelinquished fighter in a woman who bears an unfailing faith and rams through impregnable clamor that invades her life.

Rukmani married Nathan, a tenant farmer whom she had never met, as a child bride. Even though Rukmani was ignorant of the simplest of tasks, Nathan never uttered a single cross word and gave an impatient look. He looked at her as if nobody had discovered her beauty. He never asserted his rights to forbid her reading and writing, a talent that placed Rukmani above her illiterate husband.

Misfortune seemed to have a tight foothold in Rukmani and Nathan. The monsoon inundated the rice paddies where Rukmani worked side by side with Nathan to wrest a living for a household of eight. No sooner had the monsoon tapered off than a drought ravaged the harvest. Hope and fear acted like twin forces that tugged at them in one direction and another.

Poverty-stricken Rukmani saw her daughter Ira become a prostitute, her 4-year-old son Kuti died from hunger, her teenage son Raja caught stealing and beaten to death, her oldest sons Thambi and Arjun set off to Ceylon to work in a tea plantation. The opening of a tannery, of which Rukmani was only skeptical, had spread like weeds and strangled whatever life grew in its way, changed the village beyond recognition.

And yet, Rukmani survived. The interminable poverty and impregnable fate of Rukmani and Nathan must evoke in readers' pity and sympathy. But at the same time, Rukmani, whom Nathan always appeased, might seem somewhat self-piteous, cynical, and complaisant (like Dr. Kennington said, she needed to cry out for help). Ira, who exchanged her body for Kuti's milk and food, had lost her reason and given up her sanity rather than faced the truth.

A recurring theme of the book is the significance of land that fostered life, spirits, happiness and family. Rukmani often found solace in the land on which her husband built a home for her with his own hands in the time he was waiting for her. She often reminisced the very home to which Nathan had brought her with pride. The land became her life:

"I looked about me at the land and it was life to my starving spirit. I felt the earth beneath my feet and wept for happiness." (188)

So much was the book about Rukmani. The one character that stood out to me was Selvam, one of her younger son who flinched and quailed at the firecracker and used the money intended for firecracker to buy a confection cane. As wealth lured all his elder brothers away, he stayed behind and took care of his family, shouldered the household responsibilities while assisting in the village hospital.

Nectar in a Sieve is a book that will make you lump in the throat. The writing is painfully eloquent, taut, and cut-to-the-root. The living conditions, life struggles, poverty, fragility and abasement of life depicted are beyond imaginations to those who live in the first world and have never stretch a single meal portion to three meals. Everyday was a life-and-death situation. 4.2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Nectar In a Sieve
Review: This book was a great experience to learn more about the Indian culture. This book really draws you into the reality of the poor conditions which the citizens of Indian have to indoor and live through. Even to this day it isn't rare to see a poor Indian family in the same condition that Kamala Markandaya lived through. Nectar In a Sieve is a highly recommended book in my part. This really gives you a chance to look at what other people in third world countries indoor each and everyday

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Summary: message of hope and survival
Review: I am 70 years old, and first read this book when I was a young woman. The story of Rukmani's incredible, and indomitable courage thoughout a life I can bearly imagine has stayed with me all these years. I was fortunate to find a copy being sold by the local library and have started to read it again. It is pitiful to read some of the shallow reviews here. I can only suppose the writer's to be very young and very immature. A gloomy story perhaps, but life affirming in every way. Love does survive... and sweetens even the most bitter of life's circumstances. Nectar in a Sieve is a true classic in my opinion and deserving of thoughtful reading.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya tells the story of peasant woman, Rukmani, as she ages in post-colonial India. From the time Rukmani marries as a twelve-year-old bride, raises a family, and looks on as her children make lives of their own, she is faced with unthinkable challenges. She is repeatedly moved from home to home by the government, she suffers from hunger and oppression, and she is forced to watch the village community she has lived in for so long crumble under the great changes caused by the "westernization" of her homeland. She lives a life of "Hope and fear. Twin forces that tugged at us first in one direction and then in another." Yet she endures through all of the pain with extraordinary fortitude and solemn grace.
Nectar in a Sieve portrays Rukmani's story in a very different style of writing than what I usually encounter. Rather than explicitly describe the struggles that Rukmani is faced with, she explains the situation in a very simple way and allows the reader to put their own emotion into Rukmani's place. Because of this, I found myself to be incredibly wrapped up in the story and almost crying because of the sense of optimism and love in Rukmani's character and the depression that she faces. Although the book may at times appear slow-paced, I loved it and still think it is very accessible to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: A Life-Affirming Book
Review: This was a very good book for its time...a sort of "The Good Earth" with the setting in India instead of China. It seems a bit dated now, but still, the situations are entirely credible. I especially liked the character of Kenny, the English doctor who was alternately angered by the peasants' unquestioning acceptance of their fate and sympathetic to the point of sacrificing his own life to helping them. The main character came across as someone whose values were utterly admirable. She valued family, education, hard work and the beauty of the natural world.
I was appalled at some of the insensitive reader reviews I read. Who are these people? Have they no understanding of the world? Do they not know that the vast majority of the world's population still suffers under many of the same conditions of poverty and enslavement to the caprices of nature and disease? I guess they have easy access to McDonald's for food and TV for entertainment.
The writing was simple yet moving and the overall feeling was one of hope for the human condition.

Rating:
Summary: « Boring, but a Surprisingly good Ending «
Review: The book started of incredibly boring. I thought the author used to much description of Rukmani's struggle. However in the end, I cried from an overwhelming sense of emotion. The author ended the book very well. Although some people feel that seh didn, i think that she brought up important points on how life had been for the poor people in the past in india. Many people may have a misconception of india after reading this book. But this is just a small portion of how life went on for the poor people. It isnt trying to say that india is not a good place to live because this was in the past.

Rating:
Summary: As boring as Bush is stupid
Review: I was amazed at the extremity of the boredom I was forced to negotiate while attempting to slog through this book for Language Arts. Basically, the plot begins with someone getting married and then having lots of children in India. They go through the process of starving and then dying and then starving over and over again, making stupid decisions and having tragic events happen to them along the way. Because of the obvious pattern it followed, he book became extremely predictable and thus even more boring, which I didn't think was possible.
In conclusion, some may contend that Nectar in a Sieve is a 'beautiful masterpiece illustrating the hardships of life in third world countries', but I think it would be better characterized as 'a huge waste of paper. Spend your money on something else.

Rating:
Summary: Bad book
Review: Although I try to appreciate a lot of books that have absolutely no points of interest or a moral, this is without doubt the worst book I have ever read. The books ends tragically (The husband of Rukmani dying), with no reason to end it like that. The book itself has no moral, unless it's this: Don't live in India. I suggest people who want to read this book to find a better book to read.

Rating:
Summary: An agglomeration of boring, plotless drivel.
Review: I had to read this book for school. To put it simply, it was a pain to get through, because just sitting down and thinking was more interesting than reading it.
Nectar in a Sieve is about a poor peasant family in India that faces many hardships. Sounds boring? It is. More or less all the action can be summed up by saying, "they farmed, and sometimes the crops failed, so their daughter had to prostitute herself, then their sons left, then they went to the city because they got evicted from their land, then they went back home and that's the end of the book." YESSIR THIS BOOK IS BORING!! DONT READ IT!!

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Summary: way too depressing even for me...........
Review: Is it just me or does it seem like the author spends a lots of time describing short moments or long stretches of despair in great detail, and glosses over happy bits? I mean, come one, one can only take SO much doom and gloom in one book. This is not an emotional roller coaster, as someone else put it. This is an emotional slide down the stairs-- you drop, level out a bit, drop again, level out again, etc. The whole book is one long whining, ... complaint about Rukmani's hardships. ... Rukmani is the most depressingly INactive character I have ever come across, and I read a LOT. She just sits and lets things happen to her, then moans and ... about it.