The Toss of a Lemon

by: Padma Viswanathan

Published by: Harcourt Books (September 8 release)

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

In India in 1896 a young Brahmin girl in the southeastern Tamil region of the country is married to a village astrologer. She is ten and he is sixteen, but they won’t live together until she comes of age at fourteen. He foresees his own death after the birth of a son, and at the age of eighteen, Sirikami becomes a Brahmin widow with two small children–a girl and a boy.

Padma Viswanathan has woven together a marvelous tapestry of life in a small village in that rural part of India. She was inspired by stories her grandmother told about her grandmother who was married to the village astrologer and who became a widow at a young age. Brahmin widows shave their heads and do not go out in society again, but this woman opted to live in her own home and raise her own children.

One of the threads in this family saga is the way in which caste rules affect the behavior of various family members and friends. Another thread explores the educational opportunities of the time and the training given to both boys and girls in the upper castes. A third thread in the tapestry develops around the desire for children and the rituals that families go through during pregnancies, delivery and raising of the children. The title, A Toss of a Lemon, comes from one of those rituals where a lemon is tossed from the delivery room in the family home to the waiting father so that he can know the exact time of birth while remaining outside to avoid being defiled by the birthing itself.

The family saga takes over 600 pages to reach its conclusion, but it remains so interesting and compelling throughout that it doesn’t feel like reading a tome. This is Viswanathan’s first novel, but she has written like an expert. The details are exquisite–descriptions of scenery, clothing, music and food add a color to the story that is not always available. I was fascinated throughout.

I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in other times and other places, as well to readers who just enjoy a good story well told.

Armchair Interviews says: Amazing debut novel.