Rating: 
Summary: A Very Enjoyable Read
Review: Nectar in the Sieve is an enchanting novel that tells the endearing story of one woman's perseverance in a changing India. I was surprised to see that it kept my interest from beginning to end. The storyline is a classic tale of how the protagonist is against overwhelming odds and has to survive through it all to find peace and happiness. Rukmani portrays our admirable heroine who endures many predicaments yet always keeps her optimism for the future. The story begins when an elderly and matured Rukmani begins to recall her past memories. Her world takes a sharp turn when she finds herself in an arranged marriage to the poor tenant farmer, Nathan. She takes on the responsibility of bringing up and caring for six children while working by her husband's side to salvage whatever the land has to offer. Times are rough especially when famine arises and dividing meager food rations into small portions is all the family can afford. Rukmani has a great deal of compassion but often does not get the chance to act upon it. She never really succeeds in overcoming her troubles but endures them as best as she can. In the Indian culture, people are taught that suffering through their problems by themselves cleanses the soul. This is the belief that strikes a cultural conflict between Rukmani and the British doctor, Kennington, who is bewildered at the fact that these villagers do not do something to solve their troubles and thinks that the villagers should ask for help when needed instead of wallowing around in despair. In naming the title "Nectar In Sieve", that choice of words foreshadows the plot: a life story following a string of melancholy events with hope straining to get through. Except the hope cannot present itself if no struggle for it is accomplished. From natural disasters, poverty, cultural barriers, death, and famine, life has dealt Rukmani some pretty hard times but she always makes an effort to make it through them because she has hope to keep her going on. Markandaya's writing was very descriptive and refreshingly dramatic without being excessive in its tragedies. She writes situations that are realistic and able to believe, which sets the realistic tone of the novel. The language used is simple and poetic at the same time. It is very well written in a way that the story is understandable to anybody who reads it. Nectar In the Sieve is filled with many triumphs and tragedies that are meant to touch the heart. It is far from boring and is probably capable of captivating anybody's attention. I could hardly put this book down and I'm sure you will enjoy it too.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books I've Ever Read
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read. I have read it several times, but the last time I read it was a long time ago, so I don't remember the details of the story. However, I remember it was gripping. I could not put the book down. My favorite experience when I read is to feel as though I am part of the landscape of the book, and that it has become part of me. And that's the way I feel when I read this book. I become part of the people and their environment, and they become part of me. I also love books about people struggling to survive. I loved THE LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS series, THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, and THE GOOD EARTH because they describe people who do not know from one day to the other whether or how they are going to eat, find shelter, find protection from the elements. And, for me, that was one of the essential elements of this book. I remember that the family has to move from the country to the city (something that, according to what I have read, really does happen in India), because they can't survive in the country. The book describes how they struggle to survive in the city, against many odds. I also remember that the book was very, very sad. It made me cry many times throughout the book. I like books that make me feel things. I remember the beginning of the book is one of the saddest parts, when the female protagonist is an old woman, and she is reflecting on her life. She is reflecting on all the beloved people in her life that she has lost, and on her desolation and grief. And she says that life is like nectar in a sieve. I started to cry right away. This is an affecting experience that the author shares with us, of terrible loss, of grief, of humility in the face of that loss. I lent this book to my sister-in-law, and she loved it, too.
Rating: 
Summary: bad book
Review: the book is horrible and easy to put down. i was told to read it for school. some of us started and hated it so after all the complaints about how horrible the book is we didn't have to read it and read frankenstien instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book
Review: My teacher made me read this book because I am from India myself. It shows the hardships that Rukmani has to go through in order to survive. She has to deal with the death of her sons and the discrimination of her grandchild and has to see her own daughter becoming a prostitute to feed her own child. Even though I am 12, I would say children above 13 or 14 only should read this because 1) it might be too boring for younger children 2) This is more of an adult book in terms if it's situations. Nevertheless. it's a good book for cultural value. Read this if you can.
Rating:
Summary: A sad story
Review: Rukhmani's story is a sad one that continues to be true in India today. Infant mortality is very high due to poor healthcare and starvation. Women in India have a shorter lifespan then men, Ruku's story shows why all these sad statistics are true. A note about the caste system. It is an inseparable part of India and Hinduism (not a proud part either). One is born into a caste and cannot change it by switching occupations as a previous reviewer has mentioned. The caste system is much more complicated than you're a priest, warrior, merchant or farmer. Being born into a "low" caste does not mean one is automatically consigned to drudgery and poverty and being a "high" caste does not guarantee wealth. In this book, Ruku is married to a poor man but he is of the same caste as her (intercaste marriage at the time would have guaranteed social ostracization).
Rating:
Summary: In Depth...
Review: I would not so much say that this book is powerful more so than incredibly in depth. The author depicts her story in a very realistic manner, there is no idealism of how absolutely perfect India was before the Tannery had disrupted their life, nor did she over dramatize their affects to the viliage. It seemed to be a very down to earth book about what life in India was like. The struggles,the pain, and never really asking for better, or regreting what they did not have. These people lived day by day and survived. When one would die, the family would not fall apart in greif the though realize that they must go on in order to survive. Rukmani almost seemed to leave her fate in the hands of another, an unknown character, though at the same time she seemed so strong, and wise. Almost as if she knew what would happen in life would happen and to live one day at a time was the only thing that she could do about it until the day she too died.
Rating:
Summary: powerful
Review: Nectar in a sieve does a really good job of showing how life was for people in colonies. Though the book deals with British colonial control over India, the book relates the colonialism across the globe really. Colonialism really deals with a rich people conquering a poor people to exploit them, which nectar in a sieve really shows through the life of one Indian woman and her family and village and how they are all influenced by each other and larger society.
Rating:
Summary: Nectar in a Sieve
Review: I read this book for a project in my English honors class in 11th grade. Being honest, I would have to say it is the best book I have yet been assigned. This book demonstrates courage, strength and her struggle for survival. It was very well written--Rukmani, the main character, can be related, in one way or another, to everyone's life. This book was well worth the reading. Unforgettable!
Rating:
Summary: Nectar in Review
Review: Nectar In A Sieve Written by: Kamala Markandaya Reviewed by: Suzannah Gerber Written in the early fifties, Nectar in a Sieve reflects a time of immense difficulty and change in India. The push for Indian independence from Britain was booming, and India suffered some of the worst, cultural, economic, climatic and social set backs they have ever known. This book is comprehensive to most novel-aged reading levels, and with good reason. The message of successful struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds is an age-old tale that diligently seeks out a wide range for its audience. Although graphic details are used, they enact a dramatic affect that is delightful and not gory or excessive. Immediately setting up the reader for a poignant tale of strife, Markandaya chooses the title and inscription for the book from the same Coleridge quote which reads "Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve, and hope without an object can not live." That quote could theoretically be a credo for Rukmani, the protagonist of this story, who is an Indian girl is set up in an arranged marriage at 14, and begins a life of her own with her husband Nathan, on his rented plot of land. We see Rukmani's life unfold through the tumults of India's changes, among which high birth rate, industrialization, high poverty, and white occupancy play no small part. Early on, a tanning factory is built in their primitive village asserting the white presence as an immediate a relevant issue central to the novel. The affect of the newcomers sends the limbo-like message of an India dealing with white industry and Muslim labor migration. Quickly, the factory sets the former bartering village into unrest, as we see it directly responsible for the death of Rukmani's third son, Raja; the relative exile-of-necessity of her two eldest sons, Arjun and Thambi, and for cost inflation of the village produce and goods, such as rice, which were depended upon for survival. Although politics and international affairs aren't dealt with outright in the novel, social practices of a traditional India are discussed at great length. India is known to have a class system known as a caste, in which members of society are expected to fulfill certain roles and responsibilities in the society. To go against the caste meant risking shame and exclusion not only for yourself but for your entire family. Rukmani, whose father was a member of a once, but no longer, important local authority for a higher caste, must marry beneath her into the farming caste, resulting in only mild shame but the increased hardship of a life to which she is unprepared. Caste again becomes an issue when Rukmani's sons wish to enter into industry, which belongs to another section of the caste, to which Rukmani is skeptical for many reasons. The topic of bearing male children versus females is also one key to Indian life in this novel. Daughters need dowries, which often means a life of scrimping and saving for the family until it is time for her to marry, but also male children are needed to raise and manage the land so that subsistence can be maintained. Traditions concerning wedding ceremony, how to keep and cleanse the dead, family/gender roles and respect among the villagers are thematic concerns constant throughout the book shown top us in the inner dialogue and actions of Rukmani. The key conflict for Rukmani's family is money, especially the money to afford food. The extreme and relentless poverty that repeatedly sweeps the country throughout the course of this book is an issue of befuddlement for the central white character, a doctor named Kenny, who often expresses contempt for the Indian way of life. A certain Western arrogance is communicated from Kenny who disapproves of what he terms the "Indian philosophy" of suffering hardships in silence. However, suffering in silence is exactly what Rukmani perfects. While monsoons ravage, crops fail, a landlord exacts payment, and rain doesn't fall, Rukmani, the married mother of six maintains her faith in life and humanity. She sees her sons leave after a failed union organization attempt and in desperate need of assuaging hunger. She suffers the rejection of her daughter from her son-in-law after child bearing fails, then watches her later become a prostitute in an attempt to save the baby of the family, Kuti, ultimately failing, instead producing an illegitimate albino child with little chance for survival. Rukmani suffers the knowledge of her husband's philandery and ... child with her village rival Kunthi, and still finds the love within her to struggle on to happier days. Along the way, Kenny and Rukmani establish an interesting rapport (rumored to be an affair) that shows an interesting atmosphere concurrent to the Indian fifties. The introspective juxtaposition of a reluctant philanthropist and an innocent village woman tenses as they teach each other to respect the life of one another, both being lives of loss and maintenance for different reasons. Both Rukmani and Kenny are highly adaptive and private people, bent on expediently exacting their moral sense of duty. Through interactions with each other, however, they grow as people, becoming happier and more accepting of the unpreventable changes occurring all around them. Although rampant with melodrama, and a bevy of startling plot twists, Nectar In A Sieve tells a story that needs to be told about the brutal life conditions of India. Although the characters are made into heroes, and their dead into martyrs, this is a tragic life story with a hope that trickles through it, as the title foreshadows it would. Life is rampant throughout the book, even in its darkest moments, and hope corresponds; the hope that India will one day overcome the poverty, disease and famine still crippling its people. Nectar In A Sieve is written in quickly read British style English, acceptable for most ages, and comes with a glossary of Indian terms providing the story little snippets of Indian culture in its native language for colouring.
Rating: 
Summary: Dullsville
Review: THIS BOOKS GETS TWO STARS.This book is very boring, however the information given by the author on the lifestyle, and the hardships is a little bit interesting. It is a bit gory. Thats why it deserves two stars.
|
