Books Online Download The Toss of a Lemon Free

Details Containing Books The Toss of a Lemon

Title	:	The Toss of a Lemon
Author	:	Padma Viswanathan
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 640 pages
Published	:	April 1st 2008 by Random House Canada
Categories	:	Fiction. Cultural. India. Historical. Historical Fiction

The Toss of a Lemon

Padma Viswanathan

Hardcover | Pages: 640 pages

Rating: 3.78 | 2863 Users | 487 Reviews

Chronicle To Books The Toss of a Lemon

In south India in 1896, ten-year old Sivakami is about to embark on a new life. Hanumarathnam, a village healer with some renown as an astrologer, has approached her parents with a marriage proposal. In keeping with custom, he provides his prospective in-laws with his horoscope. The problem is that his includes a prediction, albeit a weak one, that he will die in his tenth year of marriage.

Despite the ominous horoscope, Sivakami’s parents hesitate only briefly, won over by the young man and his family’s reputation as good, upstanding Brahmins. Once married, Sivikami and Hanumarathnam grow to love one another and the bride, now in her teens, settles into a happy life. But the predictions of Hanumarathnam’s horoscope are never far from her new husband’s mind. When their first child is born, as a strategy for accurately determining his child’s astrological charts, Hanumarathnam insists the midwife toss a lemon from the window of the birthing room the moment his child appears. All is well with their first child, a daughter, Thangam, whose birth has a positive influence on her father’s astrological future. But this influence is fleeting: when a son, Vairum, is born, his horoscope confirms that his father will die within three years.

Resigned to his fate, Hanumarathnam sets himself to the unpleasant task of readying his household for his imminent death. Knowing the hardships and social restrictions Sivakami will face as a Brahmin widow, he hires and trains a servant boy called Muchami to help Sivakami manage the household and properties until Vairum is of age.

When Sivakami is eighteen, Hanumarathnam dies as predicted. Relentless in her adherence to the traditions that define her Brahmin caste, she shaves her head and dons the white sari of the widow. With some reluctance, she moves to her family home to raise her children under the protection of her brothers, but then realizes that they are not acting in the best interests of her children. With her daughter already married to an unreliable husband of her brothers’ choosing, and Vairum’s future also at risk, Sivakami leaves her brothers and returns to her marital home to raise her family.

With the freedom to make decisions for her son’s future, Sivakami defies tradition and chooses to give him a secular education. While her choice ensures that Vairum fulfills his promise, it also sets Sivakami on a collision course with him. Vairum, fatherless in childhood, childless as an adult, rejects the caste identity that is his mother’s mainstay, twisting their fates in fascinating and unbearable ways.

Present Books In Pursuance Of The Toss of a Lemon

Original Title:	The Toss of a Lemon
ISBN:	0307356329 (ISBN13: 9780307356321)
Edition Language:	English
Setting:	India

Rating Containing Books The Toss of a Lemon

Ratings: 3.78 From 2863 Users | 487 Reviews

Column Containing Books The Toss of a Lemon

I took my time reading this novel. Normally I consume books rapidly, hoping to jump to the next one on my list. Toss of Lemon made me slow down, not because of difficult prose or boredom, but because I wanted to savor the story. The novel traces history through the lens of a family which is based loosely on the author's own family history. It made me want to learn more about India and Indian history, something that I have not been exposed to beyond Ghandi. I highly recommend this book as a long

Why I Don't Read Novels to Learn AnythingReviewers on this site and LibraryThing call this novel "informative," and say it's a look into the "psyche" of a Brahman family in India. It is said to be an "epic," which opens a "window" onto a world many readers won't know, "enriching" our experience and making us more sympathetic to "exotic" customs and ideas. The book, in other words, functions in two ways: it's a romantic epic of a family, and it tells us about rural Brahman life in India. It's

This book started off well but became an absolute drag to read. I ended up not finishing the book. The author got far too muddled in the details of each character's life that it became hard to understand what was going on with whom. Though I always enjoy a family's journey, this became far too slow for me. Also, I think the author got too bogged down in the details of cultural and religious events as well as political developments. It gets very difficult for the reader to keep up with these

I read this book for several reasons, chiefly that it felt good in my hand. The cover was soft and smooth in a textured way and the pages felt as if they were made from something special. Additionally, this has been the summer of india-interest for me and this book presented itself.It reminded me a lot of "London" by Edward Rutherford in the sense that they are both long epics and I enjoyed the first story line but not necessarily the ones following; though I kept reading because I was already

This book is set in Southern India and is the story of four generations of upper caste (Brahmin) women, dating from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. One of these women, central to the book, is Sivakami. Married at 10 years, a widow with two children at 18 years, she is a strong, loving woman who puts family, duty, and caste above everything else. We see her raising her children and grandchildren. We observe, with compassion, her struggle with a son who rejects her

The Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan is a hefty epic novel about an Brahmin Indian family, spanning three generations---beginning in 1896. Although the book is fiction, the author's idea for the book was based on stories told to her by her grandmother over the years.The novel follows Sivakami, from the time of her marriage in 1896 at the age of ten, to when she becomes a widow at age eighteen, left alone with two young children. The story continues as the reader watches the difficulties

this book is powerful and fascinating! A life-changing book!