Serving Crazy with Curry

Rating:
Summary: Serving up a great read!!
Review: Amulya Malladi is a master storyteller. This book, the third novel focusing on the lives and times of Indian women in crisis, is a fabulous study of family dynamics. Relationships are at the center of a Malladi novel -- between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and daughters, sisters and sisters and this one is a powerful discussion of a family reacting to a member's attempted suicide.
Devis is a mess. She has managed to screw up her life and feels that her only way out is through suicide. She chooses the time and the method, plans it all out, and puts her plan into motion -- only to be thwarted at this as well: nosy mom happens to come by and lets herself in with her key to find Devi in the nick of time. Devi does not consider this "saving" to be a favor. She stops talking completely and, after discharge from the hospital, takes over her mother's kitchen -- cooking new dishes that are nothing like those ever produced in her home. Her emotions come out through her cooking -- extra spicy when she is angry, milder when she is mellow. Her family -- mother, father, sister Shobha and brother-in-law Girish don't know what to make of this. Truths long held inside are revealed as the family recovers from Devi's suicide attempt. A dead marriage is revived but another one is abandoned. A mother's love is finally accepted, and the sisters learn how to accept each other. In short, this is a wonderful story and one you will remember long after you put the book down. A reader's circle guide with discussion questions is included as well as a whimsical conversation between the author and her characters. ENJOY!!!

Rating:
Summary: A clever and inventive dark comedy
Review: Amulya Malladi's third novel is SERVING CRAZY WITH CURRY, a dark comedy in which suicide is the center of the story. The reader is allowed inside the thoughts of Devi Veturi as she ponders killing herself, plans it, attempts it, and then tries to recover from it while living with her crazy family in the middle of California's famous Silicon Valley. It almost resembles a Bollywood-style movie and is just as entertaining.

The book opens with Devi contemplating reasons to die. She writes a list of pros and cons of whether to die or not, as if she were deciding on something as mundane as buying a house. It's important, but she treats the idea as a business plan, which can be of equal importance. And she has just been laid off (again), which doesn't help with her depression. Despite how she feels, her list tells her that she must save herself and abandon her previous plans, but she has already made up her mind and is now devising ways to do it. She has finally made her decision --- or thinks she has --- but she's up all night worrying about this business of suicide.

She then decides to call her father, as it is now morning and because talking to him would help stall her decision to kill herself. She hears her family in the background as her father answers the phone. There are tears in her eyes, but she tells him that she is fine and doesn't let on about her latest job, or how she is really feeling. She wants her father to make things better but knows that everything that has happened to her is her own fault and that she is responsible for her own actions. She will deal with her life as only she knows how.

What saves her is a "mistake" she made the previous year, by giving her mother a set of keys to her apartment. From then on, her mother, Saroj, would make appearances at the apartment, with one excuse or another. On the morning when Devi attempts to kill herself, her mother has the sixth sense to come over to see her eldest daughter. Devi's other mistake was refusing to talk to her mother when she had called earlier that morning. When Saroj finds out from Girish, her son-in-law, that Devi had just lost her job, she rushes to the apartment to see how Devi is doing. Saroj finds her daughter in the bathtub, blood everywhere.

The family, already living in a dysfunctional state, goes into cardiac arrest when they find out about Devi. Her parents bring her home to recuperate, and although they are not quite sure if she's making any progress with her emotional state, they do know one thing: she refuses to speak. Instead, she voices her emotions through cooking, which is more than her family can take. Yes, they have discovered that Devi has a gift for cooking, which was never apparent before. But on the other hand, she WAS communicating through her food to express feelings, whether it was of happiness or anger. On one occasion, she creates such a hot and spicy meal that it was almost impossible for anyone to eat it. Everyone, however, knew how she felt. The food said it all.

Devi starts a journal while she is recuperating and expresses her feelings through her recipes. Each recipe reflects what she is feeling at the moment, explained through the ingredients and how she prepares the dish. It is a very clever way of getting inside her head, and the reader begins to understand what Devi truly is going through. The center of her depression, however, is not fully realized until much later in the book when it is finally revealed exactly why Devi wanted to end her life.

A wonderful book and probably Malladi's best so far, SERVING CRAZY WITH CURRY is a very inventive way of using recipes to help tell a story. Malladi creates a family of characters that one can imagine on the big screen: the jealous younger sister, the doting father, the nagging mother, the grandmother, and the good son-in-law. While some books are noted for either a great story line or a great set of characters, this book can boast both. This reviewer would love to see a sequel, to see where Devi and her family go from here.

--- Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton ([e-mail])


Rating:
Summary: Crazy but Charming
Review: Devi decides to kill herself because her life sucks. She survives, saved by her crazy mother and life is not the same for anyone in her family ever again. Devi is forced to live with her parents while she recovers and she becomes silent. She doesn't speak, which really starts to bug her sister and her family. And she starts to cook, crazy food, different from the Indian-Indian food her mother cooks. I loved this book. It was funny, dark, poignant...and very, very tasty.


Rating:
Summary: Superb page-turner!
Review: Devoured this book in 2 days flat-- because once you start reading it you are hooked! You WILL relate to all the women some way or the other, or you may know people just like them! Disturbing twist at the end, but I had kind of guessed it by the time I got there...read it for the recipes, the tug of war between the generations or just because the title made you curious - but READ it for sure!

Rating:
Summary: 2 days of enjoyable reading!
Review: I am a huge fan of books written by South Asian authors. I am especially a huge fan of the author of this book Amulya Malladi. As with her other two books this book is filled with so many qualities that makes you want to continue reading. This book was easy and clear to follow. The author brought some secret issues that may be present in any family and transformed it to allow each character to look deeper into themselves. I would highly reccommend this book to anyone who loves good books. My only complaint is I wish the book didn't have to end.

Rating:
Summary: This is my favorite book
Review: I have read everything Amulya Malladi has written and I must say this is her best book. (And it was cheaper to buy because it is in trade paperback format!) This book is definitely more mature. It is also a pure delight to read. I read it in two days and now have to wait god only knows how long for her next book...

Rating:
Summary: Piece of crap
Review: I really liked Amulya Malladi's first book - "A Breath of Fresh Air". Her subsequent books fail to satisfy. In the lauguage and ideas of her latter two books, the author seems to have lost her originality and instead, I see a lot of influence from "Sidney Sheldon" novels - minus the thrill and/or originality. Also the author seems to accentuate only the negative issues about India and Indians.

Rating:
Summary: Another good book by Amulya Malladi
Review: SERVING CRAZY WITH CURRY by Amulya Malladi
November 9, 2004


SERVING CRAZY WITH CURRY is the third book by Amulya Malladi. Having read all three of her novels, I can say that she is improving with each book. In this most recent publication, Malladi chose to write a dark comedy, centering on a young woman who contemplates thoughts of ending her life.

The thought of suicide automatically brings up negative connotations, but in SERVING CRAZY WITH CURRY, the focus is on recovery. Devi Veturi is the young woman who attempts suicide in the beginning of the novel, but because of the luck she has in having a meddling mother such as Saroj, Devi's life is saved and she moves in with her parents while she recuperates.

The story takes place in Northern California's famous Silicon Valley. Devi and her family have been in the States for several decades, and are very rooted in the culture of American life. However, their Indian traditions are also a big part of their lives, and one aspect is food. Devi stops speaking after her suicide attempt, but she learns to communicate by cooking. She creates all sorts of wonderful Indian and not-so Indian recipes, with each one revealing how she is feeling at the moment. At the same time, she starts a journal where she writes her innermost thoughts, a device that allows the reader inside her head and eventually finding out the root of her depression.

SERVING CRAZY WITH CURRY sounds as if it could be a downer, but it's not. Reading the story of Devi and her family is like watching a Bollywood movie. It's entertaining; it will make you laugh. But at the same time, the reader will get to the heart of Devi's soul, and will begin to understand her story and the anguish she is going through while trying to stay sane in a complicated world. I really enjoyed this book by Amulya Malladi. I loved all three of her books and recommend them all. She has written three very distinct books, which I find refreshing in an author. A reader will never know what to expect with each new book. SERVING CRAZY is probably the best written of all three, and I highly recommend it. I am also looking forward to reading her next book!

Rating:
Summary: Hey, this is a good book!
Review: The characters in this book could have been pulled from life. It's amazing. I can't say that the story was all that strong, but the family dynamics and great (though somewhat unrealistic) dialogue just made my day. It'll take you a couple of hours to read, and it's well worth your time. Pick this up! Give it as a gift.

Rating:
Summary: CRAZY & EXCELLENT!
Review: When I first picked up the book I wasn't sure about finishing it because it started with an attempted suicide. But I found that I couldn't stop. Amulya Malladi seems to have a knack for showing how wonderfully crazy, yet intimate families can be. Reading this book also gave me a clear insight into the immigrant psyche--the tug and pull between wanting to stay in a foreign country and going back home. I loved this book!