“A moving and polished novel that highlights Rao’s literary promise.”—Kirkus ReviewsTara moves to the American South three years after her arranged marriage to tech executive Sanjay. Ignored and lonely, Tara finds herself regressing back to childhood memories that have scarred her for life. When she was eight, her parents had left her behind with her aging grandparents and a schizophrenic uncle … grandparents and a schizophrenic uncle in Mangalore, while taking her baby brother with them to make a new life for the family in Dubai.
Tara’s memories of abandonment and isolation mirror her present life of loneliness and escalating abuse at the hands of her husband. She accepts the help of kind-hearted American strangers to fight Sanjay, only to be pressured by her patriarchal family to make peace with her circumstances. Then, in a moment of truth, she discovers the importance of self-worth—a revelation that gives her the courage to break free, gently rebuild her life, and even risk being shunned by her community when she marries her childhood love, Cyrus Saldanha.
Life with Cyrus is beautiful, until old fears come knocking. Ultimately, Tara must face these fears to save her relationship with Cyrus—and to confront the victim-shaming society she was raised within.
Intimate and deeply moving, Purple Lotus is the story of one woman’s ascension from the dark depths of desolation toward the light of freedom.
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This is a beautifully written novel that story that straddles two worlds India and the southern United States offering a unique perspective of life as an Indian immigrant woman. Purple Lotus by Veena Rao is the story of Tara who immigrates from India to Atlanta, Georgia to be with her husband Sanjay. Theirs is a horribly ill-suited arranged marriage. Tara finds herself lost in a new country with an abusive husband and an unfortunate lack of self-confidence. Eventually, she makes friends in her new community giving her the courage to leave her husband and make her own life in her new country. Some might argue that Purple Lotus is more of an immigrant story than a southern story, but I’d point out that Rao beautifully captures the experience of someone fresh to the South, that the south is more than its traditions, that the South with its world-renown hospitality has room for all. Tara’s story of empowerment will steal your heart. Don’t miss it.
Veena Rao has written a beautiful and inspiring book. She does an excellent job of illustrating the pressure put on the main character, Tara, by her Indian family. Through Rao’s careful depiction, the reader understands not only the demands put upon Tara, but also the way that Tara internalizes those views. It is all the more inspiring then, when Rao reveals how Tara can slowly come to understand her own worth, and eventually act upon it.
In addition, I’d like to note the very believable effects on Tara of the fact that her parents basically abandoned her to the care of her grandparents for several years. My mother had this happen to her, too, and the experience can seriously hinder a person’s ability to believe in herself. I was so happy to see Tara finally overcome this.
The depressing traditions of many cultures towards women and marriage have been written many times, but I was thrilled by Tara’s story in Purple Lotus. Her perseverance through the first decades of her life, when her parents and husband either abandon and/or ignore her, is written in a fresh voice that keeps you cheering for her, even in those moments when she acts according to those traditions rather than her own needs. When in the end she finds her voice and life as she wants is that much more gratifying for all that she’s lived through to get there.
I picked up this book and could not put it down. It is an insightful look into the heart of a psychologically and physically abused woman who bravely surmounts her own patriarchal culture to demand her own freedom.
In this book we accompany Tara, an Indian woman, who leaves her family and everything familiar to her, to travel to America’s deep south to join an Indian man in a pre-arranged marriage. Ms. Rao writes with an emotional intensity about the details of Tara’s life. I felt personally drawn into Tara’s struggles and successes as if they were my own. The descriptions are intimate and sensuous. I didn’t want the book to end. I highly recommend this for an engaging read.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Each flower has its own story and paves its own journey. Author Veena Rao, in her debut novel Purple Lotus unravels the resilience of her protagonist Tara, who, much like the title flower, rises from the mud, blooms out of darkness and radiates into the world, in a soothing tone of absolute resolve to remain unaffected by the sludge that surrounds her.
Tara, the lotus (literal translation), finds herself in murky waters right from the get-go, when her parents move to Dubai in pursuit of a bright future for the family, leaving behind Tara with her aging grandparents and a schizophrenic uncle in Mangalore, while taking her baby brother with them.
The seed of abandonment seeped into Tara’s being at a tender age reaps its bounty as she is bound in a loveless and abusive marriage with Sanjay, who lives in Atlanta. Her trials continue to mount as Sanjay’s indifference gradually turns into violence and Tara is forced to accept kindness of American strangers to fight Sanjay, only to be pressured by her patriarchal family to make peace with her circumstances.
Tara’s path takes a turn for the better, when, in a moment of truth, she discovers the importance of her own esteem and worth, setting herself free from conforms of her community as she reconnects and eventually marries her childhood love, Cyrus.
Rao, the journalist, shines through in the final pages of her novel, wrapping up with a fitting “article” by Tara that confronts a victim-shaming society. “Not all monsters are egregious. Some stay hidden in plain sight,” writes Rao’s Tara, pointing to not just to the perpetrators of crime against women, but also a spiteful society and venomous close circle of the victim, that crushes the victim’s spirits, driving them into a deeper abyss of despair.
This charmingly simplistic chronicle explores the many dimensions of the human mind, women in particular. Tara, at the beginning of the novel loses her favorite doll, Pinky. Opening with Mark Twain’s elucidation of grief that equates a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of crown, Rao charmingly connects Tara’s anguish of a seemingly simple loss that becomes part of being, rearing his ugly head even in the happiest of times. What Tara does with those fears and how it shapes the woman she molds into, culminates into a rousing finale of self-realization. “I was expected to exist for society. I chose to live, To love.”
Rao’s strength in writing is her ability to maintain the mellow milieu even as she powerfully propagates empowerment, confronts social stigmas and deals with deeply disturbing feelings of dejection, rejection, and desertion with grace and poignance. Rao scores extra brownie points for the character development of Tara and her ensuing transformation. Never rushed or overtly dramatic, the growth is refreshingly organic and effortlessly relatable.
I particularly enjoyed the bonding between women, who, despite their own shortcomings, offer courage, companionship and care to each other, forging sisterhood far beyond blood and borders.
The tranquil tone of the narrative that navigates the odyssey of one woman who discovers her own self and strength, offers the same delight as watching a purple lotus weather the storm, dance in the rain and stands unwavering, even when the wind torments her fragile frame.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review:
Rao’s debut novel Purple Lotus explores the various dimensions of a woman’s life, human behaviour, societal norms and the consequences of traumatic and abusive events in one’s life. This story highlights the stigmas attached with various life decisions, fears, rejection and feelings of loneliness. Also, this book portrays the inner strength of a woman who discovers herself in the best way she could when her loved ones are against her.
The story of this book revolves around a protagonist Tara who gets married to Sanjay, a techie working in Atlanta. Because of the pending Visa, Tara stays back in India after her marriage. Sanjay calls her for a month but later, the calls stop coming. Suddenly after three years, Sanjay calls Tara and requests her to come to Atlanta. Tara goes there on her parent’s request only to find out the darker side of Sanjay. In the story swinging back and forth, we get to witness Tara’s present and her childhood events as Tara keeps going back to her childhood memories because the abandonment in her life started from there.
With time, Tara finds herself in a moment of self-discovery and freedom. While being independent and enjoying her own company, Tara’s life gets beautiful. She finds someone who loves her more than anything else. But wait, not every story has the same happily ever after. The final chapters take a twist that hooks you to the story even more.
In the final pages of her book, Rao won my heart by making me cry, happy cry, sad cry and angry cry. An act of Tara’s moulds her life into a completely different way. The story ends unconventionally but beautifully.
My take:
This book is well written with parallel stories as the story keeps shuttling between Tara’s present and childhood. The transition is smooth because it never loses the connection. The language is lucid and gripping. Some best things I loved about this book are, cultural references, theme variation, the embedding of some amazing books as Tara finds her solace in books in troubling times of life, raw emotions, to the point character description and the believable plot.
Speaking of the pace, it is very much constant throughout the book except at a point I feel the story to be rushing, but thankfully, it got back to the regular pace.
To conclude my review, I highly recommend this if you love reading books around themes of empowerment, female voice representation and self-realisation. Go for
This story moved me! An illuminating examination into a woman’s lot in India, her transformation/awakening in America, and her struggles to realize her self worth. Gorgeous writing & compelling structural narrative between the main character as a woman & a child.