Read Women discussion

This is our discussion thread for our September open choice fiction book discussion of Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya, and nominated by Jamie.

Nectar in a Sieve

First published in 1954, a few years after India gained independence from England, this debut novel is set during a period of intense urban development in India, and its events are centered in a remote, rural South Indian village whose inhabitants bear the brunt of rapid change. It is the chronicle of the (arranged) marriage between Rukmani, the then-12-year old- youngest daughter of a village headman, and Nathan, a tenant farmer, and their poverty-stricken family. There is an epic quality in this short book that emanates from the character of Rukmani and Nathan; from their patience and their acceptance of a fierce fate so far from Western conception, in the story of personal lives told with insight and compassion and humor, in the transcendence of the spirit over the terrible world of man and nature's making. Note that Markandaya wrote Nectar in English.

Kamala Markandaya

Kamala Markandaya (1 January 1924 – 16 May 2004) was a pseudonym used by Kamala Purnaiya Taylor, an Indian novelist and journalist. A native of Mysore, India, Markandaya was a graduate of Madras University, and afterwards published several short stories in Indian newspapers. Between 1940 and 1947, she worked as a journalist and published short stories in Indian newspapers. In 1948, she married an Englishman, relocated to England and lived in London for the rest of her life. She had one daughter.

Markandaya was the author of 11 novels, including Nectar: Some Inner Fury (1955), A Silence Of Desire (1960), Possession (1963), A Handful of Rice (1966), The Coffer Dams (1969), THE NOWHERE MAN (1972), Two Virgins (1973), The Golden Honeycomb (1977), Pleasure City 1982/1983) and the posthumously published Bombay Tiger.

See this short bio/obit published around the time of her death.

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/...

Jamie will lead our discussion.

Hello, I enjoyed very much the style of the author, very rich and expressive. But this type of story was not for me, I am afraid, too depressing! Even if the ending gives a little bit of hope. However, on a positive side, the Indian ways of life for this family of peasants are definitely interesting. I doubt it has changed much even if the novel was written more than 50 years ago.

I read this at the beginning of July and it was very moving to me. It is truly a hard book to read because terrible things keep happening to Rukmani and Nathan's family. But several times, family members make sacrifices to help the family survive. Those incidents of sacrifice for the good of others was just what I needed at a time when I felt like selfish behavior was in abundance all around me. The wretched life the family lived made me feel thankful for the life I have which I needed this year.

I'm about half-way through now and what's striking me is that so many of the challenges Rukmani and her family face (in the 1940s, I believe?) are so similar to what so many people all over the world are facing now--housing and food insecurity, lives disrupted by climate chaos and technological change, workers being treated badly as so on. I don't think I made this connection between now and then the first time I read the novel about 12 years ago.

It's interesting that, in the link to her bio that Carol posted " Nectar in a Sieve, [is] said to be reminiscent of Thomas Hardy's novels." I can definitely see parallels between this and, say, Jude the Obscure.

I agree, Laurie, that it's a very moving story. I feel such tenderness for Rukmani and Nathan.

Story wrote: "I'm about half-way through now and what's striking me is that so many of the challenges Rukmani and her family face (in the 1940s, I believe?) are so similar to what so many people all over the wor..."

It is true that several of the events are possible today. The extreme weather destroying their crops and the lack of proper medical facilities are definitely issues that are contemporary.

I have a fascination with India, it’s history and geography and it’s people. I read Behind The Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo which takes place much later than this book but shows still how little life has changed for the underclass while the modern world barrels through.
Despite the sadness of this story with the characters struggles just to survive, I found a bright spot, that even though she was only 12 when she is married off to Nathan, Rukmani loves her husband, and he loves her. In many stories of such arrangements, the child bride suffers at the hands of her husband. There is a sweetness in this couples care for each other.
This also reminded me of The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck which I read many years ago.

Read this the last two days, and found it very good. Though Rukmani is (except having learnt reading and writing) a simple character, she has a good heart. The arranged marriage turns out happy (besides Nathan´s infidelity), and most of the people in the village help eachother. Though they experience hard times till famine and death, they hold together. It is sad, and there´s certainly still truth in all the problems they´re facing, but there´s also hope in it.

Btw where´s Jamie? ;)

I think this book is especially fascinating to people like me (and presumably many of you) who have grown up in modern, developed worlds so different from this. I can't imagine a life where not eating all day is the norm or the idea that I could have that many kids and half of them may not survive.

The ignorance and naïvite that frusterates Kenny certainly frusterates me too as I can't wrap my head around that way of thinking. The book is a good reminder of how different lives are around the world and how we should be grateful for all the advantages we have.

Jamie wrote: "I think this book is especially fascinating to people like me (and presumably many of you) who have grown up in modern, developed worlds so different from this. I can't imagine a life where not eat..."

What you said about being grateful for what we have is exactly how I felt after I read this. I said as much in my review.

I do wish we got a little more of her story though. How did the family do after she returned? Did she hear from her other sons ever? I'm assuming it was a similar situation of ups and downs, gains and losses. I suppose with this type of story there never is a good place to end it.

I was also a bit disappointed about the end, but thought that it wasn´t easy to end a never-ending story.

Hello, that’s funny, I have a totally different approach to this book. The whole story was difficult for me to read and to accept as the situation was getting worse and worse with the climax taking place in the town where they are strangers and where their lives was to be ended, basically. However, the ending was for me, at last, a ray of hope where, through the little boy, it is a new beginning for all, where you learn you have to come back to the land, the source of everything, and where a new future is possible. So I was particularly glad it ended this way because throughout the whole book, I felt terribly down for this family.

I wondered if it would become better once they returned to their village, without home, work, and most of the family gone.