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The Toss of a Lemon | 
 enlarge | Author: Padma Viswanathan
Publisher: Harcourt
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $12.94
You Save: $13.06 (50%)
New (46) Used (16) Collectible (4) from $11.49
Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 58597
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 640
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 0151015333
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780151015337
ASIN: 0151015333
Publication Date: September 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: new-bkm-highly rated seller-no remainder marks
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Product Description
The year of the marriage proposal, Sivakami is ten. She is neither tall nor short for her age, but she will not grow much more. Her shoulders are narrow but appear solid, as though the blades are fused to protect her heart from the back. She carries herself with an attractive stiffness: her shoulders straight and always aligned. She looks capable of bearing great burdens, not as though born to yoke but perhaps as though born with a yoke within her. Spanning the lifetime of one woman (1896–1962), The Toss of a Lemon brings us intimately into a Brahmin household, into an India we’ve never before seen. Married at ten, widowed at eighteen, left with two children, Sivakami must wear widow’s whites, shave her head, and touch no one from dawn to dusk. She is not allowed to remarry, and in the next sixty years she ventures outside her family compound only three times. She is extremely orthodox in her behavior except for one defiant act: She moves back to her dead husband’s house and village to raise her children. That decision sets the course of her children’s and grandchildren’s lives, twisting their fates in surprising, sometimes heartbreaking ways. Inspired by her grandmother's stories, Padma Viswanathan masterfully brings to life a profoundly exotic yet utterly recognizable family in the midst of social and political upheaval. The Toss of a Lemon is the debut of a major new writer.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 41 more reviews...
 Breadth but no real depth November 1, 2008
While I sort of liked this book on the whole, I thought the characters were too one and two dimensional. But for Sivakami most of the portraits of the women in this story were pretty flat.
In fact, I felt the author tried too hard to write a "sweeping" narrative and I found myself getting really, really bogged down by too much periphera.
At the end, I felt like I had just read a travelogue.
 Interesting Plot but Somewhat Pedestrian October 14, 2008
Describing the length of this book generally ends in words like: "Epic" or "Sprawling," but The Toss of a Lemon is both of these, although perhaps not in the best way. "Toss of a Lemon" chronicles a family throughout an era, starting with a marriageable Sivakami at age 10, progressing through her children growing up, and ending as her grandchildren reach adulthood.
The best thing about this novel is that the cultural aspect is in full force. It takes its time to juxtapose a very traditional, upper-caste Brahmin (Sivakami) against the changing political and social eras of her children, as they deliberately mix and erode the idea of class. It tells an interesting story, although it can drag a bit. It was enough to keep me entertained on a 23-hour plane ride, but I don't think that I derived any lasting insight from the book. I like looking through books for thought-provoking passages and quotes, and this was more of a storytelling book with a somewhat pedestrian plot.
"Toss" was ambitious in scope, but the characters occasionally came off a little bit too unwieldy or simplistic (for exmaple, the Vairum character was immediately known upon birth to be weird, marked, and a dark soul; Goli is immediately made known to be a selfish lout), and they did not really complete any character development; they sort of just react to their surroundings. Otherwise, the story is filled with a motley assortment of characters - enough to take your mind off of the simplicity of the characters, and their backgrounds are all lovingly explained in detail.
While I enjoy reading books about different cultures, I was a little bit ambivalent about this book because of the partial lack of character development and the fact that Indian politics were alluded to, but never explored in any depth. Because the book promises "social and political upheaval," I was expecting more. However, if you liked "The Kite Runner," you will probably enjoy this book. "The Life of Pi" is also somewhat similar in lengthy narrative, but does a much better job being much more focused.
Anyway, I liked it overall, and thought that the story was compelling, but in the end, I only thought that it was an average novel. Would I read it again? Probably not, but it was worth reading once.
Readers Will Either Love It Or Hate It October 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Toss of a Lemon will leave little middle ground with readers. Fans of the book will get swept up in the book's epic, yet intimate, scope and be transported to another world by the book's intricate descriptions. The book's detractors will only experience tedium after being exposed to over 600 pages of names and ritual titles.
Which side of the argument do I agree with? While impressed at the effort that it took to write the book, I find myself on the "tedium" side. The main reason why I feel this way is because the story, despite clearly being a very personal tale for the author, has a surprising lack of emotion. The entire story seems stultified by the very social structures that it portrays. Consequently, it is difficult to generate an emotional connection to the characters when those characters spent most of the book repressing their emotions for the sake of their social class.
Family stories set in other cultures can work (see The House of the Spirits). But, those works contain an emotional center to which readers from other cultures can relate. Such a center isn't present in The Toss of a Lemon. Thus, while the book is an impressive achievement, the story itself is not worth the effort needed to read the book.
 Engrossing! October 1, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I took my time to read it slowly, to better visualize the events as they were unfolding. The size of the novel had me concerned at first; I was not sure I would find the story interesting enough to commit to the many hours necessary to complete it.
How wrong I was. The rich explanations of traditions, situations, and personalities had me reading that extra page before turning out the light at bedtime. I looked forward to reading each night and then each morning. I was sorry to see the landscape of India and this family fade as I read the last sentences before closing the book for the last time.
I felt angered about many aspects of the culture, but found myself most upset with the treatment of widows and the blame women took upon themselves. I learned much on my visit and have a greater respect for the strength of women past and all they had to endure.
The Toss of a Lemon was a wonderful trip to a colorful and strange land where monkeys are left offerings and love and duty are not exclusive of each other. An easily readable book; descriptive and vivid.
Wonderful novel - several generations of a family in India to know and love September 25, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I became very involved in this book, the story and its characters and their lives. This book starts with a young girl having an arranged marriage at the age of 10. Many girls of her culture in India were married at the age of 7 or so until the British rulers banned the practice decades later. The young brides did not live with their husbands (in his parents' home), however, until they were "of age" - meaning not until they had started their menses. This is a story of how a young girl is married, is widowed at age 18, cannot go out of her home between dawn and dusk due to her beliefs as a Brahmin caste member - it is a shame for her, as a widow, to be seen by others. She cannot touch anyone during the daytime as well - if she does, she has to bathe again. She cannot remarry for the rest of her life. With all of these restrictions, she manages to care for her household, cook all of the meals, keep track of the income for the properties that she owns, prepare for holidays, and see after her children, grandchildren and great-grand children and so much more.
As each of the generation grow up, we live through someone in that generation but keep tabs on those before them. The first main character is Sivakama, the widow. We learn of the children and the good and bad characteristics of each including how each person deals with living with the rules of the caste they are a born into -- it is a very important part of the stories we read. Many people are connected to each other - sometimes in surprising ways. We feel their elation, their anxieties, their sadness, their perplexities.
This book is a book of fiction but the descriptions of the people, the cities, the homes, the religion, the happenings of the times, etc. are fact and the things talked about and lived through really happened to people like them in real life. The politics of the each time period are real and how people reacted to them is shown through the main characters as well as those in the world around them.
I loved reading this book. I kept reading a few pages a day -- more if I had the time. I wanted to find out what happened to everyone but knew I would miss them when I finished the book. When I finished I was sad because it was all over but these fictional people will forever be in my memories.
Sometime in the not too far future, I will take this journey again to be reaquainted with the people I have grown to love and understand.
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