I couldn't help but compare Kiran Desai with Mr. Dickens, the renowned master of characterization. She evokes the same gift of painting a character and breathing life into it. The situations wherein she puts these characters make for a very entertaining, hilarious reading. I have never been to India but after reading her book I can picture the old post office where Sampath worked and the marketplace where people can buy ready-made dentures! Her writing style can best be described as lyrical. I initially borrowed this book from the library but decided to have my very own copy - from Amazon.com of course. It is hard to believe that this is her first novel! I hope she's working on a sequel because not only do I miss the characters but a talent like Desai deserves to be read by more people.

It has been some time since I read this delightful book, so all of its details aren't crystal clear to me now. But I feel like I must respond to those (both here and in a few periodicals) who claim Desai wrote this book for a "Western" audience. I don't think Desai wrote this book for any other reason than the sheer joy of putting together a fun, sharp story. This is no Oprah's book of the month marketing hogwash here, and it is preposterous to claim that Desai was "targeting" an audience at all, except, perhaps, the audience that simply enjoys a story for the story's sake. When I checked her biography on the book's jacket, I didn't see anything referring to her obtaining a degree in marketing. I think this is a stimulating and beautifully written first novel by a young writer who probably had no alterior motives in writing it except to tell a story. One recent reviewer here stated that Desai was trying "to show how the East really is ... whether it is like that or not" and used a sentence - a single sentence mind you! - as proof of that point. C'mon. Lighten up. This is a nice piece of fiction and it should be enjoyed for what it is, not for what hypersensitive, politically charged minds think it is trying to be. I do understand the criticism of the ending. But I would suggest that those who didn't "get it" go back and read the last few pages again. I love the way the events leading up to the last sentence begins crescendoing a few pages before. It was almost (cliche alert) like a jazz composition in its thought and rhythm. Read it out loud (that is how I enjoyed it fully) and you'll see what I mean. And it does come to a Bang! stop. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Going back to the jazz metaphor, it snapped me back to the reality of self and forced me to think about what it was that I had just read, like a composition that ends on a beautifully punctuated note. No cushy fadeaway scenes here - which are, by the way, the preferred ending for those "targeting" the "Western" audience.

Excellent fiction. Anita Desai is a born story teller. All the minute details of ordinary life described extra-ordinarily. Presently residing in US, this book took me back to India mentally. Very easy to identify with each of the characters. You have people like Mr. Chawla, very efficient, systematic and money-minded.You also have people like Sampath, who are fed-up with the mundane,time-bound and commercial life. Though the book makes you laugh aloud in the beginning, slowly it explores the human nature. The need for space. There's a little drag towards the end. (The book could have been a long 'short story'). But again the last chapter was very good and I think that's the best way to end the book. The 'Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard' lingers in your mind long after reading.