I’ve tried to read this a couple of times now but just can’t get into it. I will try via audio. Rating five stars as I didn’t finish the book and authors ratings doesn’t need to suffer because of that

This was one of those books which reminded me of my narrow perspective on the world as a white central European. Which made it a fascinating read. A few passages and plot strings like the amount of narrators made this quite a challenging read, nevertheless I enjoyed this deep dive into a small Indian village where we start to feel the influence of Ghandi and the shift in politics, all centered around an old tamarind tree.

4 Stars

One Liner: Enjoyable but will work only for a specific audience

The tamarind tree has lived at the cross for decades. It has been a silent observer of the changes that took place, the good, bad, and the average, that affected people in a million ways. The tree and Damodara Asan are a source of information, intrigue, and entertainment for our nameless narrator. In this book, he takes us through the lives of a selected few who were connected to the tamarind tree in one way or another.

My Thoughts:
Firstly, my big thanks to Rosh for reminding me what to expect from the book. I enjoyed the book more because I was prepared for it read like social commentary interspersed with stories rather than a structured novel.
The events are narrated by a nameless character who is pretty much passive throughout the book. This means readers are doubly distanced from the events and don’t have anything to connect with. It’s like listening to a friend tell you the story of a movie they recently watched while you are only half-listening to it. (If this makes sense, then you know how the book reads).
However, what makes the book interesting is this distanced view of everything that happens to people from the region. Local rivalries, village politics, national politics, communal clashes, rich vs. poor, and just about everything is presented without any drama. It’s impersonal. No taking sides or pointing fingers.
The core human attitudes, fallacies, desires, etc., are presented similarly without making a hullabaloo of it. Whether or not the reader likes a character is not the author’s concern. Their role is to present the characters’ stories and leave it to the readers to decide the rest. It’s always refreshing to read such works, especially from Indian authors. There’s only so much pseudo-activism one can survive!
The translation seems authentic enough, though I have no way of knowing if it is otherwise. As an Indian reader, I found no issues with understanding the nuances that are integral to my land. That said, I’m not sure how someone with limited or no knowledge of the country and its history would appreciate the book. Given that the setting is around the Independence period (the 1940s), it is even more vital to know the sociopolitical situation of the place to make sense of the majority of the book.
What I thoroughly enjoyed were the observations of the people in the municipal park (those who read the book will know what I mean). And, of course, the fact that no character in the book is either good or bad is icing on the cake. They are the kind we see around us even today. After all, basic human traits don’t change much.

To summarize, The Tamarind Tree is a different experience and one that I enjoyed much. The pacing is a little inconsistent, but you can speed-read. Pick it up if you want something different.
Thank you, NetGalley and Amazon Crossing, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

A classic of Tamil literature, and worth reading for that alone, I didn’t really relate to this episodic tale of life in a small south Indian village. The eponymous tamarind tree is the centre of the village, located at a crossroads, and witness to all that goes on. But the times are changing, progress is coming even to this small village and the second half of the novel moves away from the tree to focus on these changes, and the rivalries between the various local businesses. The transition to the new India doesn’t accommodate such a tree or the stories it can tell. There’s nothing really wrong with the book. It’s a treasure trove of stories, legends and local history, but it just didn’t work for me as a satisfactory piece of fiction, simply as a slice of Indian history, interesting enough but not engaging.

In a Nutshell: This does have plenty to speak for it. But it is not exactly as promised. I honestly don’t think this book will work for Western readers, even after the meticulous and praiseworthy translation. Indians (especially those from the South of the country) might fare better.

Story Synopsis:
In a small village in Southern India lies an old tamarind tree, the eye witness to all that happens around it. Damodara Asan, the village eccentric, loves sitting under the tree and narrating interesting incidents to his fascinated audience, the village kids. Through the recollections, we get to see the life in the village and the thinking of the villagers.
The story comes to us in the first person perspective of an unnamed narrator, who begins with Asan’s anecdotes and then moves into general incidents that occurred around the tamarind tree.

You need to go in the book with the right expectations. Though a novel, the approach is more like a literary-fiction-style story anthology. The book begins with Asan’s recollections of a few incidents connected to the tamarind tree, but from the fifth chapter onwards, the narration moves to newer characters, each of whom lasts for a few chapters before heading over the narrative baton to the next character. Each character’s arc is like a short story spread over a few chapters. So this is like an unusual collection of inter-connected novellas with the tamarind tree as the common factor and the characters dominating the plot.

The book seems authentic to its era and ethos. It depicts the historical period and the local mentality well. Of course, a lot of the content feels outdated and patriarchal. All the more as women have hardly any role to play and all the incidents are male-dominated. But we need to keep in mind that this was written in the 1960s, and life in a rural India village was patriarchal then. (It still is so, in many villages.) No point in judging the writing with a 2023 mindset.

What is not dated is the representation of the psyche of human beings. These anecdote-style stories might have been written more than sixty years ago, but quite a lot of the political and corporate machinations are relevant to the current socio-politico environment in India. The attitude of the people in dealing with their family, their opponents, their religion, their political inclination, and their competitors, as presented in the book, are applicable even today, probably more so.

I had not heard of author Sundara Ramaswamy prior to this book. As is often the case in India, most of our talented regional authors remain unknown beyond those who read/speak that language. (Coming from a country that has 22 official languages and hundreds more unofficial ones is an advantage as well as a disadvantage. We have plenty of outstanding artists; we have no information about them.)

Anyway, coming back to the point, Ramaswamy, who was an acclaimed short story writer, wrote his first novel ‘Oru Puliamarathin Kathai’ in 1966. This book is a translation of the same, authorised by his children and translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan. In the afterword, they make an interesting point about the challenges they faced while translating such a strongly indigenous work to the Western audience. They had to add details and nuances to lines/gestures/events that might automatically be understood by Indian readers but would generate a blank response in western minds. The translation is indeed excellent; it seems to transport readers to the original place and time without compromising on the comprehension of the situation. Then again, I am an Indian reader. I don’t think most of the Western audience will get the essence of this book. It requires a lot of familiarity with local thinking, political familiarity, and cultural knowledge.

It took me a lot of time to get into this novel, but once I realigned my focus from plot to characters, it began working better for me. I still liked it enough, but I think it would have worked better as a short story anthology.

Recommended to Indian readers looking for a ‘zara hatke’ kind of reading experience, wanting to explore a regional classic that is still relevant, and wishing to try an author unknown to the English-reading audience. Recommended also to those readers who enjoy literary fiction, and who are open to reading a cultural classic without getting judgemental about the country the book is set in.

3.75 stars.

My thanks to Amazon Crossing and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Tamarind Tree”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Beautiful writing, but I was extremely put off my the shallow way sexual assault was dealt with. I love the idea of the animation of the tamarind tree, and thought it effective.

The Tamarind Tree has stood near a community for a long time and is often the center of many of their tales. One young boy from the village entices one of the oldest men in the village to tell the folklore and history of the tree as the village grows and changes around it.

This work wasn’t for me. I liked the idea of having a series of stories/vignettes that all centered around the tamarind tree and the people of the village near it. Unfortunately, the way the stories were told was not engaging. Part of this could be due to the fact that the tales were related by a storyteller, so there was already a degree of separation from those characters. But even the storyteller, the boy, and the other characters introduced later in the work weren’t written in a way that gave them real personalities or made them feel alive.

Then the works shift to focus on the changes of the village, politics, and rivalries between shop owners. The tree is no longer really part of the story. This left the work feeling disjointed and almost like the two parts don’t belong together in one book. I lost all engagement with the work about a third of the way through, and the ending was abrupt. There was also a lot of casual misogyny throughout the work that wasn’t explored or discussed in any meaningful way, though it was set in a rural area so that could be why the author chose to do this.

I can see how others might enjoy this work, but I think it just wasn’t for me. My thanks to NetGalley and AmazonCrossing for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This was a good story with a beautiful background. The protagonist is the tree which makes for an interesting story that you just have to read to understand.

As much as I was enjoying the storytelling style of this book, I just could not get past the rhetoric of a rape victim becoming obsessed and pining after the man who took her against her will.

This was such a phenomenal book. I love that the tamarind tree is the main character of the story and isn't just an object of convenience. The narration was well paced and lovely. The characters and their arcs were fantastic, and I loved the casual feel of this one.

A unique, modern classic set in South India which will appeal most to people familiar with the history and culture of the region.

I am an Indian living in Malaysia, a country where Malaysian Indians form the third-largest ethnic group. Their festivals and language (Tamil) have been given official status in the country. I am often assumed to know Tamil, or the Tamilian culture, by my local friends, and I have to tell them that the Tamilian culture is one of the many South Indian cultures we have in India, and I’m a North Indian. Likewise, not all North Indians share the same culture or language. We have different regional festivals, ways of dressing, food, etc. Fun fact: we have 447 native languages in India (source: Wiki). Foreigners often see India as a singular entity in terms of culture, forgetting India is a hub of diverse cultural groups. I make this point to declare my ignorance of the Tamilian culture which is predominantly showcased in this book, so my review will have its limitations.

The Tamarind Tree has stood at the crossroads of a South Indian village for decades. It has silently witnessed generations of villagers playing, gossiping, working, protesting against British colonialism and even dying in its shade. The novel has the feel of an anthology, with each chapter telling a new story that stems from the previous one, keeping the essence of the book intact. Some chapters initially appear to be disjointed but will subtly unveil the common link with the others. The characters change through the book but continue to make appearances.

This book was culturally rich, but the story comes from a time long ago, nearly 75 years ago, when India was only recently liberated from colonialism, so it has an old-work quality. The writer shows an ungraceful yet honest journey of the villagers as they step into a new India, now plagued by religious fanaticism, a repercussion of the India-Pakistan partition. Humour is subtle and will be best understood by Indians who are aware of the political situation in India and the rural mentality. It took me a long while to get into this book: the first four chapters were a cakewalk, but starting from chapter 5, I had to really put in the effort to follow the storyline. I even contemplated DNFing it, but as I carried on, I was able to latch onto the slow, nostalgic charm of the book.

This is not an easy read, especially if you are not from India (precisely South India), have limited knowledge about the place, if you are young and unaware of our journey as a country, then this book is not for you. This book needs a lot of patience and awareness, lack of either of the two will make this an unsatisfying read.

Overall, a bundle of humour, satire, philosophy and history.

Thanks to Amazon Crossing and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Publication Date: November 15th, 2022.

3.5/5🌟(I’m rounding this down for now, but planning to discuss this book with a friend who read this last week and gave it 5🌟. I need to know what I’m missing. Sometimes a good discussion could do wonders for your perspective.)

This is actually a tough book to write a book review on. This was originally written in Tamil and was translated into English, the Englished translation will be published on November 15th.

The story centers around a tamarind tree and how because of human greed and politics would soon destroy the nature around the tamarind tree and how the tree had all the rich history. The translator did a good job with the translation and me, coming from Sri Lanka did enjoy reading this book as I am familiar with some Tamil words. Overall, it was a good and enjoyable read--worth four stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

First of all, let me say i truly wanted to like this! I love the translation. It seems to have kept the original authenticity of author's writing which is delightful.
Now coming back to the story i fiund the story too disjointed. It was like watching one of the indian tv soap operas with a whole lot of characters and no cohesion between all the different parts.
At times it tried to be something like 'a thousand years of solitude' but it seemed to me like it wasn't working out. The vision to tie in the story through a theme (which by the way misogyny doesn't count as one neither does classism and casteism) was missing.
I admire the scope, and the beginning which was about the tamarind tree (other than problematic parts) but overall it just didn't work out for me.

A translation of the Tamil classic.

This is a novel about place, and about how time changes the character of a place. Don’t go into this expecting a typical Western narrative about a single main character who changes and learns a lesson. There may be a first person narration, but the real story here weaves in and out of the roots of the titular tree that stays inexorably the same as time passes and the world changes around it.

A good translation of a classic of Indian literature.

This is quite a charming and nostalgic toned read. Set in a village in India, I liked reading the slice of culture that wasn’t my own. A key part of many cultures is storytelling, and I love how the book showcased how important and special storytelling can be. It is so interesting to see the way nature, and a single tree, has such an impact, and the way humans interact with it and affect it in both good and bad ways. Though I have all of this to say, I wasn’t a big fan of the writing. I found it didn’t pull me in, and I wasn’t very engaged while reading this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. ❀

Oh boy. This was struggle Street for me. Almost a DNF, but I kept going, to understand why I was so bored with this book.

So, yes, it's about the goings-on of life around the tamarind tree in a certain village in South India. Around the tree are various shops whose owners are involved in the subsequent stories that grace this book.

Perhaps it was the underlying morality being conveyed to the reader through the stories, or it was the dull politics or that plain old Indian banter, I just found it boring.

Nevertheless, thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for this ARC.

The Tamarind Tree is a lively translation of a cult classic in Tamil - Oru Puliyamarathin Kathai - by the stalwart Sundara Ramaswamy. The original in Tamil was first published in 1966 and has sold over 125,000 copies since.
The essential theme is that of loss - not of hope or life or beauty, which tenaciously hang on, but of a colorful past steeped in magic, myth, and mystery. An old tree standing at the intersection of three roads will definitely have tales to tell, and how! In 200 pages, the novel sketches out a bygone time in a tiny corner of South India.
Aniruddhan Vasudevan's translation is brilliant as always. The book is all the more delightful for readers familiar with the culture, language, and geography, but there is magic in it for everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced copy.

I was really looking forward to this book. The description and the cover really intrigued me; I enjoy reading books from different countries.
The Tamarind Tree is a landmark in the village square and has been there for as long as anyone can remember. Tales passed down from generation to generation often mention the tree; villagers congregated around it, children climbed on its branches, business men held meetings in its shade. But life with the tree was not always good. And in time problems arose. (No spoilers given)
This beautifully written book was translated from the original. It flows along like a slowly meandering river.
Unfortunately, I lost the thread of the story and became slightly bored 3/4 of the way through. I did finish, though found the ending quite abrupt.

Storyline:
There is not a rigid story with starting and ending but a series of events. These are happening in a village in India before independence. There are characters from a typical village like youngsters, a priest, businessmen, politicians, etc. The huge Tamarind tree in the middle of the village is connected to every person and event.

Characters:
The tamarind tree is the most important character of the story. For people who live connected to the nature, a tree is not a mere object of convenience. The older the tree, the more people having stories associated to it. The author presents the changes in the neighborhood after the tree is replaced with a park in a thought-provoking way. He makes us wonder if felling down trees is actually development or far from it.

Narration:
The stories are narrated in first person. The book is divided into short chapters where each chapter has its a separate event. They all are happening in the same village and a few characters might repeat. I read about 2-3 chapters in each sitting. Each one deals with a different theme and aspect of the society - political situation, independence, social inequalities, business and human nature. The life in villages and the human relations are entirely different from what we see in the cities. One can get a better idea of this from the book.
Though the points discussed are deep and subjective, the language is simple and can be read by anyone, including beginners. Like I said, the whole book is presented in short chapters that makes it easier to read and remember.

Must read for:
- People from the 90s or earlier (the original book was written in 1966).
- People who live/have lived in villages.
- People having close contact with plants and nature.
The story is translated to English in 2022. It is important that we read this kind of stories because most of us will never be able to experience the life in a village. At least not like how it was a fifty years ago. The people in the village are quite close to each other like a big family; the tree being the head of the family.

I received a review copy and I am posting my review voluntarily.

I loved the book.

The translator did an amazing job. He did not make the book's You know plot, break. He did not translate too much , I loved it for that.
The Author kinda reminded me of my grandfather. Reading the book wants me to go back to India and ask my Grandfather a couple of stories. I will definitely buy this when this publishes.

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC.