Book Review: CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS by Shankari Chandran

 

Title: CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS

Author:  Shankari Chandran

Read: July 2024

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description (Goodreads):

 

Welcome to Cinnamon Gardens, a home for those who are lost and the stories they treasure.

Cinnamon Gardens Nursing Home is nestled in the quiet suburb of Westgrove, Sydney – populated with residents with colourful histories, each with their own secrets, triumphs and failings. This is their safe place, an oasis of familiar delights – a beautiful garden, a busy kitchen and a bountiful recreation schedule.

But this ordinary neighbourhood is not without its prejudices. The serenity of Cinnamon Gardens is threatened by malignant forces more interested in what makes this refuge different rather than embracing the calm companionship that makes this place home to so many. As those who challenge the residents’ existence make their stand against the nursing home with devastating consequences, our characters are forced to reckon with a country divided.

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is about family and memory, community and race, but is ultimately a love letter to story-telling and how our stories shape who we are.

My musings:

 

CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS is one of the best and most relevant books I have read so far this year! Don’t be fooled by the cosy cover and title, because this story is gritty and confronting in parts. It will touch your soul and break your heart.

Cinnamon Gardens is a nursing home, and if there is a similar place in real life, please sign me up! Started up by Sri Lankan immigrants, the place truly cares about its residents, taking not only their bodily needs but also their spiritual and cultural preferences into consideration. The food alone sounded divine, and the activities nurturing, provided by people who really care. I loved the concept so much! Exploring both the beginnings of the nursing home, going back into the early lives of its founders, as well as its current fate, was a journey I won’t soon forget.

The most difficult reviews are those of books that are so well written that my words will do them an injustice, and CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS definitely falls into that category. Chandran manages to pack a lot of content into the book’s 384 pages, all relevant in Australia today. I learned so much about Sri Lankan culture and the country’s troubled history, and reflected on parallels drawn between its colonial history and Australia. The theme of the migrant experience and racism features prominently and also offered a unique angle from the author’s family’s own experience. I loved the way Chandran brought her characters to life, they all felt very real and dear to me.

CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS was a bookclub choice, and there was so much to discuss! As stated before, my words feel totally inadequate summing up my reading experience and the reflection it prompted. I feel that everyone living in Australia today needs to read this book! It both warmed my heart and broke it and I shed many tears over the fates of its characters. Highly recommended!

 

Bookclub Read (book vs movie discussion): MAO'S LAST DANCER by Li Cunxin

Title: Mao's Last Dancer

Author: Li Cunxin
Narrator: Paul English
Read: January / February 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

The extraordinary memoir of a peasant boy raised in rural Maoist China who was plucked from his village to study ballet and went on to become one of the greatest dancers of his generation.

From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice.

My musings:

Mao’s Last Dancer was our last bookclub read, and apparently I have been living under a rock, since I had not heard of the book OR the movie! Since a lot of my reading is escapist and a means to disengage from real life problems, I seldom delve into autobiographies – and am finding that I may be missing out! Li Cunxin’s account of his life, from a childhood in rural, poverty stricken China to his rise to fame, was interesting, humbling and inspiring in equal measures. It certainly provided a lot of material for our bookclub discussion. Personally, the one message that stood out most for me was how loving the Li family was, and how they looked out for each other. Living in unimaginable poverty, there was always plenty of love to go around, and each family member was willing to share what little they had with others. I found this so refreshing and humbling, living in a society where we tend to accumulate and hoard possessions and compete with each other, and where families are often fractured and family values lost as a result of this. Whilst the poverty and constant struggle for survival in Li Cunxin’s childhood sounded horrendous, it may have also set the foundations for his resilience, determination and inner strength that ultimately formed the cornerstones to his success.

Whilst I initially thought the story was off to a bit of a slow, rambling start and could have done with some careful editing, I found the small facts of Li Cunxin’s childhood and the political background fascinating. I’m a total numpty when it comes to ballet, but this posed no obstacle to my enjoyment of the book, as the underlying message could have been applied to any sport, or even any career where someone overcomes personal challenges through sheer gut and determination to become the best in their field. Through all the pain and hardship Li Cunxin endured, he always held out for the goal to achieve something better and to make his family proud. Li Cunxin never complains about anything, dispassionately recounting tales of hunger and hardship that would make our toes curl. It is this positive, hopeful outlook and his stoicism that ultimately makes him succeed where others have tried and failed.

On our bookclub night, we watched the movie to compare it to the book, and I found that the film skipped over two of the most memorable moments in the story for me: the time teacher Xiao prompts Li Cunxin to confront the bullying behaviour of another teacher (which taught him to confront problems head-on); and the moment Li Cunxin realises that communism isn’t the perfect ideal he had been forced to believe all his life. A few of us found that the movie missed some of the messages that stood out for each of us individually in the telling of the story, so whilst the movie was ok, I recommend reading the book first!

I listened to the audio version of this book, and credit must go to Paul English for his wonderful narration – I really appreciated his accurate pronunciation of the many Chinese names, which would have made me flounder in the printed version.

Summary:

All in all, Mao’s Last Dancer was an interesting and humbling read that will appeal to anyone looking for inspiration and hope. Containing fascinating historical details of life under Mao, a strong armchair component, and hidden messages in its pages that will mean different things to individual readers, Mao’s Last Dancer made for a perfect bookclub read.

Audiobook Review: JULIE & JULIA by Julie Powell

Title: Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
Author: Julie Powell
Publisher: Hachette Audiobooks
Read: March 27 - April 8, 2013


Synopsis (Goodreads):

Nearing 30 and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, Julie Powell reclaims her life by cooking every single recipe in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the span of one year. It's a hysterical, inconceivable redemptive journey - life rediscovered through aspics, calves' brains and crème brûlée.

The bestselling memoir that's "irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef" (Philadelphia Inquirer) is now a major motion picture directed by Nora Ephron, starring Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia, the film Julie & Julia will be released by Sony Pictures on August 7, 2009.


My thoughts:

There is a lot of pressure when being asked to choose the next book to be read by all members of our bookclub– and after a run of rather depressing reads which saw our group’s alcohol consumption increase tenfold as we tried to drown our sorrowful reflections in cheap wine, this time the vote was unilaterally in favour of “something funny”. I googled “funny books” into my trusty computer, and perhaps it was the fact that it was just before dinner and my fridge was bare, that Julie Powell’s memoir stood out from the rest.


For those who have not read the book or seen the movie (which by the way I really liked): in her book “Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen” the author Julie Powell writes about her project which involved cooking all 524 recipes from Julia Child’s book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in one year – and writing a daily blog about her efforts, which propelled her to authordom and blogging fame. Why? Because at 29, Julie Powell feels like a failure, and blogging is the creative outlet she chooses to make her feel worthwhile and appreciated by her peers.

Being the intrepid commuter who frankly struggles at times to find enough hours in the day to read all the books I would like to, I ordered the audiobook version from the library and settled into what I hoped would be a funny mouth-watering exposé on delicious food and cooking disasters (being rather disaster prone in the kitchen myself). But I admit that after suffering my way through the first third of the book I almost gave up on it, only keeping going for the simple fact that I could not under any circumstances throw in the dishcloth on my own bookclub choice (even the excuse of “busy at work”, “long hours” or “suffering from the plague” would not get me out of this one). I hated it! As the narrative randomly skipped back and forth between Powell’s childhood (I still don’t really see the connection between her teenage sexual urges or her father’s dirty magazines and her cooking project) I almost preferred a boring silent drive to having to listen to another one of Julie Powell’s expletives (of which there are many) or rants.

However, as Powell focused more on her actual project and less on reflections of past sexual fantasies, the book improved and there were some genuinely funny, laugh-out-loud moments. Julie never denies that she may be somewhat self-centred and suffering from the terrible infliction of sewer-mouth (personally, I can handle swearing, but think that an excess of such does not make for better humour, just makes it sound cheap and nasty). I can accept that. Even the repeated saucepan-throwing and abuse of her long suffering husband can be understood on some level of female-solidarity (anyone who has ever suffered from the monthly hormonal mood swings women have to put up with will know never to attempt a complicated French recipe on those days). Once the book focused on the actual cooking and kitchen disasters I actually quite enjoyed it. I had hoped to see more passion about cooking and food in general from Julie, which would explain the rationale behind her strange project, but some of her descriptions did tickle the funny bone and kept me interested.

My biggest gripe with the audiobook at that stage was the narration. No offence, Julie, but there is a reason why some people make their careers as narrators and others don’t. This should serve as a lesson to other authors who are tempted to narrate their own books – being a good narrator is a gift just as writing a good novel cannot be accomplished by anyone. A good narrator will breathe life into the different characters, giving each a unique voice and drawing the listener into the story. “Julie and Julia” was not the worst narration I have ever listened to, but it wasn’t that far off. Perhaps it didn’t help that I had only just listened to two of the best audiobooks – in narration terms – a short while before, so the bar was set very high.

All in all, Julie & Julia had moments of enjoyment and laughter, even if the beginning nearly saw me fling the CD set out of the car window in despair. On some deep level I related to Julie’s feelings on the verge of turning 30 (what will she do just before the dreaded 40, or, God help us – 50?). Some cooking disasters were hilarious (and familiar –living in rural Australia I know all about flies!), some cringe-worthy, and some made just plainly turned my stomach. I am now very interested to see what others in our reading group thought – no doubt there will be more wine involved, and food (though I will not inflict my own cooking on anyone – I do value my friends too much for that), and hopefully many divided opinions which will make for a lively discussion.

I read this book as part of my 2013 Audiobook Challenge and the 2013 Eclectic Reader Challenge (humour).