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    The Pleasure Seekers: A Novel
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    The Pleasure Seekers: A Novel
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    The Pleasure Seekers: A Novel
    Ebook350 pages6 hours

    The Pleasure Seekers: A Novel

    By Tishani Doshi

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Meet the Patel-Joneses-Babo, Sian, Mayuri, and Bean-in their little house with orange and black gates next door to the Punjab Women's Association in Madras. Babo grew up here, but he and Sian, his cream-skinned Welsh love, met in London. Babo's parents disapproved. And then they disapproved unless the couple moved back to Madras. So here they are. And as the twentieth century creaks and croaks its way along, Babo, Sian, and the children navigate their way through the uncharted territory of a "hybrid" family: the hustle and bustle of Babo's relatives; the faraway phone-line crackle of Sian's; the eternal wisdom and soft bosom of Great-Grandmother Ba; the perils of first love, lost innocence, and old age; and the big question: What do you do with the space your loved ones leave behind?


    Tishani Doshi, a prizewinning poet, plunges into fiction for the first time with this tender and uplifting debut. With rich feeling and dazzling language, Doshi evokes both Zadie Smith and Rohinton Mistry as she captures the quirks and calamities of one unusual clan in a story of identity, family, belonging, and all-transcending love.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateSep 5, 2010
    ISBN9781608192977
    Unavailable
    The Pleasure Seekers: A Novel
    Author

    Tishani Doshi

    Tishani Doshi was born in Chennai. She is an award-winning poet, journalist, essayist and novelist. Doshi has published seven books of fiction and poetry, most recently Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, which was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award 2018. She is the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award for Poetry, winner of the All-India Poetry Competition, and her first book, Countries of the Body, won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2006. Her debut novel, The Pleasure Seekers, was shortlisted for the Hindu Literary Prize and longlisted for the Orange Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Small Days and Nights was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize 2020. Doshi is also a professional dancer with the Chandralekha Troupe. She lives in Tamil Nadu, India, with her husband and three dogs. tishanidoshi.com

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    Reviews for The Pleasure Seekers

    4/5

    26 ratings23 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Lovely, lyrical storytelling. I am sorry I waited so long to read this.
    • 4/5
      This is story which spans 3 generations and 3 decades. Babo , the oldest child of Mr. Patel and Trishala is sent to London where he falls in love with a Welsh girl, Sian. When the parents know about it Babo is called back under false pretenses. Bud Babo is desperate to marry Sian and so with the help of his grandmother who stays alone in A village called Ganganagar in Gujarat, they get married. They plan to immigrate to London in a few years but decide to make their life in India itself. They have two daughters and a happy life. As the daughters grow older they move away, Mayuri the eldest marries and Bean the youngest moves to London where she has an affair with a married man and gets pregnant. The last part of the book happens around the earthquake which happened in Bhuj on 26th January 2001. The author is a poet and this is her first novel. The novel is autobiographical. The author is Bean which is very apparent and the situations which revolve around her have a very familiar and genuine touch. That touch is somewhat lost when the author is writing about other characters. There are some touching moments and some not so.
    • 4/5
      This was a great book that took me on an emotional as well as intellectual and historical journey through the characters of Babo and Sian, the British woman that would become his wife. I especially liked the wise old grandmother and the descriptions of the places in the novel.
    • 4/5
      A novel that spans three generations of a family and looks at the consequences of a controversial marriage between Babo and a Welsh girl for yhe rest of Babo's family. There is much to like here and you will find yourself caring about the fate of these characters. A book that nourishes the soul as you read is probably the best way to describe it.
    • 4/5
      In 1968 Babo Patel leaves his close-knit family in Madras (now Chennai) to go to London. His father, Prem Kumar, owns a paint business and has organised a job for Babo with his cement supplier and a place in a polytechnic course. The Patel family are strict observers of the Jain religion, so alcohol and meat are off limits for Babo. Within a few months, Babo meets Sian, who's from a small village in Wales and whose mother hasn't even been to London.NOTE: a slight spoiler follows, but nothing you wouldn't guess anyway.There are no tricks in this novel - it follows Babo and Sian and their families in a straightforward narrative from 1968 to 2003. The story's based on her parents' relationship. I thought Doshi did a great job making all the characters jump off the page. The book slowed down a bit in the middle and could have done with a little less in it, but I really picked up for me near the end. The themes in here were ones that I could relate to a lot - moving around the world at 21, cross-cultural relationships, and watching your kids grow up.
    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed reading this book. Of course, I love to read any author who writes stories taking place in India. I really enjoyed the first part of the book with the story of Babo. However, I had a harder time as I got towards the end of the book. My interest started to wane as the story progresses more towards the stories of Babo's daughters as I found their escapades a bit tiresome. Overall, though, it's a good read. Nothing memorable, but good for a quick read. I haven't found a book recently that's grabbed my attention to the point where I can't put the book down.
    • 4/5
      "And later, when they grow up and walk about barefoot in their lives, when they're trying to understand the darkness and the divine beings that threaten them, this is what they remember: there was a beautiful time once; it was childhood. They carry it around inside them, thinking if only they hold on to it, if only they don't drop it in the sand, it will stay inside them for ever, and they'll be able to return to it whenever they need."Sigh. This book made a lovely read, filling me with nostalgia-a kind of life nostalgia, not tied to my own specific memories. It had a touch of magical realism (particularly Ba's amazing sense of smell), & a deceptively simple poetic tone to the narrative. In some ways it reminded me of another book that I couldn't quite put my finger on-One Hundred Years of Solitude, kind of, in its scope, but softer, more feminine. The love story between Sian & Babo was delightful. I also enjoyed the parts that touched on being 'a stranger in a strange land'-Babo in England, Sian returning to Wales, Bean trying to find herself in London-those parts really resonated with my personal experiences. I found The Pleasure Seekers to be a well-written, captivating book.
    • 3/5
      This is the first novel of this author who describes herself as an 'Indian poet, novelist, author, journalist and dancer'. I received this as a free copy to review and was quite eager to start it and enjoy another slice of Indian culture. The book follows the main character, an Indian man, on his travel to London where he meets a Scottish woman he ultimately falls inlove with. They journey back to India to start their' family and that was it for me. The story kept my interest for a while; the language is soft and beautiful, and the images creatively put into words. You keep waiting for something to happen; unfortunately, by the middle of the book there is no build up, no culmination point, which I found disappointing for such a great start. Thus, this is a book of a family saga; although artistic, the book failed to keep my interest and I only finished the book as I dislike leaving a book half read. Too bad...
    • 3/5
      Doshi's novel tells a beautiful story of family and love that transcends borders. Doshi crafts a love story that is wonderful in many ways, if not overly sweet at times. The prose clearly shows that Doshi has a good relationship with language; it is often poetic and is sometimes stunningly beautiful. However at times the vehicle overwhelms the tenor and Doshi's prose seems to occasionally lack a lucidity that I wish it possessed. For this reason I would certainly read Doshi's poetry, because she clearly has interesting things to say and the skill to say it.
    • 5/5
      When Babo leaves Madras, India to study in London, he finds only loneliness and cold, that is until he meets Sian. When he meets her, he immediately falls in love with a ba-da-boom boom boom of his heart. Though his strict Jain parents are horrified by his new love, they are willing to make a compromise. If Babo and Sian wish to marry, they must live with his parents in Madras for two years -- after which point, they can live where they please. So, Sian leaves Britain's shores and flies to India, where she learns how to properly wear a sari, how to behave as a good India wife should, and how to temper the isolation and loneliness of living in a new country. Babo and Sian are an island unto themselves and their love is passionate and forgiving. But this story is not just about Babo and Sian. It is about the nature of family (both in Madras and Wales), and how each individual member stands both rooted in its foundations and as a solitary pillar in the world. Each family member, from the great grandmother (who accepts the purity of Babo's love for Sian without question) to Babo's brother (who is somewhat lost in his position as second son), is opened like a fruit, with their soul, ripe with love and loneliness barred for the reader to see. Tishani Doshi's prose is like crystal, clear and deeply resonate. This novel, evocative, sweetly painful, and compassionate, is one of my favorites of the year.
    • 4/5
      The Pleasure Seekers is the story of a Welsh-Indian “hybrid family” that takes place largely in Madras. Though beautifully written, I found it hard to relate to initially. The relationship between Babo and Sian is simply overly-sweet for my taste, but I carried on. I was glad I did. As the story progressed and between to focus more on the two sisters, particularly Bean, I began to enjoy the story immensely. I felt that the sisters were much more real and therefore more interesting than the parents. This is Tishani Doshi’s first novel and I am looking forward to reading more from her in the future.
    • 3/5
      There is so much that is good, even great about this first novel. Imagery, language, characters, a sense of place, a palpable sense of heat and light, of the varieties of landscape, climate and weather in both India and the UK. But, somewhere along the line, the story seemed to sputter and stall and it was not until the final twenty pages or so that it kicked into life again, albeit with a different central character driving the story. I'm curious to read Tishani Doshi's poetry, as, I suspect this is a more comfortable fit for her. But she shows great promise as a novelist and I'd be up for trying whatever comes next.
    • 5/5
      The writing of this book drew me right in and made me love the characters. It shows that cultural differences can be surmounted even when there is some disapproval. The characters are engaging and the writing is wonderful. The author deals with many of the big passages of life and how people deal with these events in different ways, but we all have to deal with them.
    • 4/5
      Indian literature is one of my favourite genres so I was really looking forward to reading this one. Stories that take place on two continents with mixed marriages are particularly interesting to me as I am in one myself. The couple, Babo and Sian, find themselves estranged from there respective native countries and find happiness in each others. Doshi is a great writer and is certainly comparable to Thumrigar, Lahiri and Roy in prose style. This is a good first book but not a great one as the plot did not develop sufficiently as the reader expects. I hope for more from Doshi in terms of plot in her next book as the second half of The Pleasure Seekers seems to meander and be somewhat lacking in gripping narrative.
    • 3/5
      There is no denying that this book is well written. The prose is beautiful. The line between detail and concision is well tread. That the book was written in English, published in New York, but written by someone living in India and unapologetically uses Indian terms without explanation adds to its charm. However, I failed to find be captivated by the story.In any high school English class we are told that a good story has a conflict, rising action, climax, and usually resolution. This story is a series of mini conflicts, but there is no over-arching plot. It simply follows a family through a couple of generations (hallelujah for its concision!). Because it flits back and forth among the family members, there is no main protagonist, except perhaps Bean, but she is not a major character till the final third of the novel. I suppose the book can be compared to [book:One Hundred Years of Solitude]. And as with that book, it requires a second or third reading to really grasp its beauty and point, so too The Pleasure Seekers may benefit from deeper study to be truly appreciated. I hope Doshi keeps writing.
    • 4/5
      This is a remarkably good book. Doshi beautifully achieves one of the central purposes of good literature, which is to shed a unique look at humanity and the multifaceted ways of our lives. I liked Doshi's blend of narrative storytelling, magic realism (only the slightest brush of it) and lyrical writing. For a writer so new in her craft, I was astounded by Doshi's breadth of knowledge and about the sympathetic treatment of her characters. This book didn't keep me up at night; at times I felt as though it meandered. But at the end of the journey, I was glad for having taken it and the meandering too was pleasant.
    • 5/5
      Tishani Doshi's tale spans five decades and tells the story of a love that crosses continents and transcends cultures and generations. I loved the poetic style of this novel and the vivid, almost magical, descriptions of life in India - it was so easy to see why Sian chooses to raise their family in India over England. I also liked the way in which the author told the story from the perspectives of different characters. It gave the overall narrative an interesting well-roundedness and mirrored the transition of the story through successive generations. I felt that the ending was a little rushed and discordant, given the rest of the narrative, but it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment.
    • 4/5
      This was a very enjoyable family saga. The story begins with Babo Patel's journey from India to London, where he meets and falls in love with Sian Jones, a Welsh woman. At the request of Babo's family, Sian comes to India where she agrees to remain for two years after their marriage in order to earn the family's approval of their union. What follows is a sweet love story, mixed with the clashing and merging of two very different cultures. Babo and Sian's family grows and changes through the years, but certain threads remain constant. The descriptions of India vividly bring it to life, and the language of the novel is quite beautiful. The author sometimes uses made-up words (for example sha-bing sha-bang for sex) that give the novel a very unique personality. There is a mystical element woven into the novel; Babo's grandmother, Ba, can smell people coming to her from hundreds of miles away and appears to have some kind of sixth sense. There isn't really a particular plot to the novel; rather, it's a portrait of the evolution of a family over nearly half a century. It's also a look at the theme of having a "foot in each world," and this is represented in many ways throughout the novel. Overall this was a really nice read, and I was sad to see it come to an end.
    • 4/5
      Babo Patel is sent by his large and loving Indian family in Madras to London to be educated so that he can return and work in the family business. But the unthinkable happens. Babo meets Sian Jones, a redhaired young woman from Wales and they fall in love. Babo's family are horrified but the young couple are determined to marry and thus begins the story of Babo and Sian and and three generations of family. While the book is lighthearted and humerous, the characters are compelling and the reader travels through the 20th century with Babo amd Sian and their children and grandchildren. Ms Doshi is a poet and her prose is delightful. This is really just a lovely book and I highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      It is set mostly in Madras, India and spans about thirty years. A young Gujerati man studying abroad in England meets a Welsh girl. They fall deeply in love. How they keep their love strong and stay happy in spite of the odds against them, how they inspire family members with a desire for a similar love, how they do their best to raise their daughters to be happy. Mostly about real family life with its sadness, happiness, and challenges. I really liked it.One of the things I liked best is that in spite of their unique challenge, a mixed marriage, their lives felt familiar. Their struggles are not unique to them, they are the struggles of every family in every country.A quote that sums up the book very well for me is from Babo, on the eve of his eldest daughter's wedding."It's not what you think. It's not that I don't want them to go away from home and find love, live their lives as fully as they possibly can. It's not even that I want them to remain eternally innocent. But what I want, what I really want to know is what I'm supposed to do with the space they leave behind? What am I supposed to fill it with?""You fill it with love," Ba murmured. "Like you have always filled it. With love and more love."
    • 5/5
      Tishani Doshi's The Pleasure Seekers is a tender lover story that succeeds despite some muddled shifts between the characters' perspective. The development of the affection between Babo and Sian is organic. Doshi's skill lies in having us feel their desire even throughout their separation and their elation at being reunited. When the story shifts to the children's perspective, the voice becomes believable as a child's voice. Unfortunately, the shifts to the other Patel family members' perspectives (i.e. Chotu) aren't as effective, but they are short and do serve as markers between the different story lines.Doshi's background as a poet is clear. In most parts, the writing flows from scene to scene, and includes playfulness with verb tenses, foreshadowing, and narrative perspective. It is not a novel that is difficult to read, but it is a novel worth reading.
    • 5/5
      The Pleasure Seekers is a mixed bag of a novel. The story is set in both London and Madras, two places which could not differ from each other more.The character's in this story come alive as Doshi's imagination creates a family of mixed race. The story is an old one, having left London and moved to Madras, Sian Jones finds herself with a foot in two worlds. Her home was in Wales and she has left all she is familiar with to come to a new country, a country she comes to love. Doshi does a really good job of fleshing out not only the story but the characters as well. When the story ends....the people live on in the mind of the reader. I enjoyed this book very much. Tishani Doshi is also a poet. To read a novel written by a poet is to find oneself enjoying words and thoughts strung together in a beautiful style. Would recommend this book to just about any one I know. Will make a wonderful reading group choice. So much to talk about, so many things to think on and written in such a delightful way.
    • 5/5
      The Pleasure Seekers is a modern family saga about four generations of the Patel family of India. It begins in 1968 when Prem Kumar Patel sends his oldest son, Babo, off to study in London, only to have Babo fall madly in love with, and eventually marry, a Welsh girl named Sian whom he brings home to the strange world of Madras and the Patels' Jain religion. This is only the first of several cross-cultural encounters and bold going forths that will shape the lives of Prem Kumar and his family.Moving swiftly through the family's experiences, and through the traumatic events of India's recent history, author Tishani Doshi tells a captivating and believable story in spellbinding and sumptuous prose. Her characters are immediately engaging, and their struggles to find their own identities amidst the passion and tragedy of a complex world, are compelling and convincing. There are passages of such startling insight and poetic beauty that they are worth reading again and again. I highly recommend The Pleasure Seekers, and I hope this young author will give us more.