Book Report on Nectar in a Seive

Nectar in a Sieve

A

Book Report

In Final Fulfillment

Of the Subject

Afro-Asian Literature

Submitted To:

Ms. Anna Marie Cadiang

Submitted By:

Krismae Roby Geronimo

BSED-3

TITLE: Nectar in a Sieve

AUTHOR: Kamala Markandaya

Kamala (Purnaiya) Taylor, who wrote under the pseudonym of Kamala Markandaya was born in the town of Mysore in Southern India in 1924 to a Hindu-Brahmin (the highest Indian caste) family. In 1940, she went to study history at the University of Madras. During this time, she also worked as a journalist and published short stories in Indian newspapers. In 1948, Markandaya moved to England; she married Bertrand Taylor, an Englishman, and made England her adopted home although she continued to visit her homeland regularly. The couple had one daughter, Kim. Her husband died in 1986 and Markandaya died on May 16, 2004 at her home outside London, England.

Markandaya first gained success with Nectar in a Sieve, although she had written two novels before it. Published in 1954, the novel quickly became popular; it was a Book-of-the-Month Club main selection and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association in 1955. A Handful of Rice is her second best-known work. Both novels are studied widely in American schools and universities.

Markandaya’s novels deal with a wide range of Indian topics from the poverty-stricken peasants of Nectar in a Sieve to Indians dealing with issues of racism while living abroad inThe Nowhere Man. She is regarded as a pioneer for Indian writers writing in English; Uma Paramewaran, who has written about Markandaya’s work wrote: "Markandaya's strength as a novelist comes from her sensitive creation of individual characters and situations which are simultaneously representative of a larger collective; her prose style is mellifluous and controlled." Her most famous work, Nectar in a Sieve, exemplifies this statement.

SETTING

The novel is set in an unnamed village in rural India. The villagers...