Nectar in a Sieve (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Kamala Markandaya
- First Published: 1954
- Type of Work: Realism
- Time of Work: The early 1950’s
- Setting: A tenant farm, a village, and a city somewhere in India
- Principal Characters: Rukmani, Nathan, Kenny, Kali
- Genres: Long fiction, Realism, Social realism
- Subjects: 1950’s, Culture, Family or family life, Tradition, Class conflict, Colonialism, Love or romance, Race, Nature, Marriage, 1940’s, Rural or country life, Villages, 1930’s, Poverty or poor people, Farms, farmers, or farming, Faith, India or East Indian people, Small-town life, Lifestyles, Economic conditions, Hindus or Hinduism, Life, philosophy of, Modernization, Industrialization
- Locales: India
The Novel
It is not surprising, given the importance of village life in India, that Kamala Markandaya should have set her first novel in a primitive village, with peasants as her main characters. The admirable thing is that she crafted an international best-seller out of the story of a simple woman who never loses her faith in life or her love for her husband and children—despite her long, unceasing battle against nature, changing times, and dire poverty. The elemental plot is simple to follow and deeply moving.
The narrator is Rukmani, a literate widow, who tells in...
[The entire page is 2517 words long]
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