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Mr. Chawla's frustration comes to a head when Sampath loses his menial job at the post office after performing an impromptu cross-dressing strip-tease at his boss's daughter's wedding. Confined to the house in disgrace, Sampath runs away from home and takes refuge in the branches of a guava tree in an abandoned orchard outside of town. At first family and townsfolk think he's mad, but in an inspired moment of self-preservation Sampath, who had spent his time in the post office reading other people's mail, reveals some choice secrets about his persecutors and convinces them that he is, in fact, clairvoyant. It isn't long before Mr. Chawla sees the commercial possibilities of having a holy man in the family, and pretty soon the guava orchard has become the latest stop along the spiritual tourism trail.
Take one holy man in a guava tree, add a venal father, a food-obsessed mother and a younger sister in love with the Hungry Hop Kwality Ice Cream boy and you've got a recipe for delicious comedy. Mix in a rioting band of alcoholic monkeys, a journalist determined to expose Sampath as a fraud, an unholy trio of hypochondriac district medical officer, army general and university professor, all determined to solve the monkey problem, and you've got a real hullabaloo. Kiran Desai's delirious tale of love, faith, and family relationships is funny, smartly written, and reminiscent of other works by Indian authors writing in English such as Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh, Banerjee Divakaruni's The Mistress of Spices and Shashi Tharoor's Show Business. --Alix Wilber
Sampath's newfound fame sends the tiny town of Shahkot into turmoil. His feisty sister falls in love with the very unsuitable Hungry Hop Ice Cream Boy; a syndicate of larcenous, alcoholic monkeys terrorizes the pilgrims who cluster around Sampath's tree; his father attempts to turn the orchard into a highly profitable carnival scene; and an overzealous spy determines to get to the bottom of it all and, to his consternation, achieves this goal in a most unpleasant way. In short, none of Kiran Desai's outrageous characters goes unaffected as events spin increasingly out of control.
"Lush and intensely imagined. Welcome proof that India's encounter with the English language continues to give birth to new children, endowed with lavish gifts."--Salman Rushdie
"Desai is a lavish, sharp-eyed fabulist whose send-up of small-town culture cuts to the heart of human perversity."--The New Yorker
"[Desai's] novel stands as a meticulously crafted piece of gently comic satire--a small, finely tuned fable that attests to the author's pitch-perfect ear for character and mood, and her natural storytelling gifts.... [An] enchanting debut."--The New York Times
"A voice, and a huge imagination, leap from the pages of Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard.... Desai creates a whole tableau--like a medieval tapestry in which all the people and animals start moving and speaking-affectionately describing a village atmosphere and the familial relationships within it."--The New York Times Book Review
"So fresh and funny and delicious that it defies comparison."--The Times (London)
"There is so much to admire in this charming book, dainty in its construction but ballasted by real emotion, that to call Desai a young writer of promise would do her a disservice. On this showing, she is already a finished article."--The Sunday Telegraph (London)
"Ms. Desai mocks pious enthusiasm, official incompetence, domestic confusion, young love, marriage customs, sacred monkeys, and a few subsidiary targets. She is a delightfully funny, amiable satirist, with the Puckish view that 'this their jangling I esteem a sport.'"--The Atlantic Monthly
"A delicious blend of humor and magic, hilarity and wisdom-and unexpected poetry. Kiran Desai's language will continue to delight you long after you turn the last page."--Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
"With this radiant novel, Kiran Desai parts the waters. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard evokes a bright, buoyant world, and the warmth and generosity of her writing makes for a joyous debut."--Junot Díaz
"A hullabaloo of a debut from a vibrant, creative imagination."--Gita Mehta
"Desai's book is a festival of comic eccentricity.... The novel exudes charisma, poetry, and joy in language. It's a sparkling debut."--The Baltimore Sun
"Clearly envisioned and opulently told.... Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard is as memorable as its title. With it, Desai joins the ranks of Anglo-Indian writers who have energized English literature with their imaginative, complex storytelling."--The Chicago Tribune
"Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard is an exuberant romp full of whimsy
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