If you ever find yourself confused in writing the plural of mango, you aren’t alone. The spelling issue can cause pause because conflicting guidelines are at play. This species and many other mango tree varieties will be available at Fairchild’s Mango Festival, July 13 and 14. See more information at fairchildgarden.org/mango He was exhilarated by the traveling . . . Aaron could now understand at least a part of it: the excitement of new places opening up his mind, the sense of freedom that anonymity provided . . . "

The Mangifera casturi, among others, are grown at the Fairchild Farm in Homestead, Florida as part of our living collection. The genes of this valuable tree have been used to create new hybrids. Dr. Ledesma is working on a breeding program and hundreds of new trees are the progeny now under evaluation. She is looking for the perfect mango for a new generation — mangoes resistant to diseases than can be grown free of heavy chemical products, but are also delicious and nutritious. Helen Lorraine and T.D. tried to make a fake ending to break up Alice and Truman's row, but Alice knew it was a fake as it was written in chalk. It went like this: Later, Alice is visiting Helen, but she's preoccupied with Truman's preconceived notion of ice cream. She storms off and phones Truman, asking if it was a joke. He proves that it's not by asking his parents and them confirming that he doesn't eat ice cream, so she asks why he won't try some. He responds that he just doesn't think he'd enjoy it, then leaves to finish his dinner. I was taken in by the cover. And guess who went out and bought/planted a mango tree? No, TWO mango trees! Yeah. I am a dangerous reader. It is the end of the 19th century and headman Solomon Dorai of the village of Chevathar in Southern India is desperately fighting against a world that is changing and to hold the remaining members of his family together and for them to uphold the traditional ways of their lifestyle but against the political and social unrest at this period this is nigh on impossible.Wasn't it odd, he mused, that in the midst of death our thoughts turn so persistently to the future." Agony of the Feet: Discussed when Truman says that forming an impression on something without trying it is okay, since he's never dropped a hammer on his foot but is sure he'd dislike it. As the struggle for Indian independence intensifies, the third generation of the Dorai family begin their life journey. Daniel's son, Kannan, moves away from the family home to marry the woman he loves and make a life for himself. And this is where the story rambles a lot as it tries to incorporate too many things that do not seem relevant to what came before.

The Good Book was right: a man must leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife . . . for she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life."You simply must try it, it's so soft and so cheesy" "Please stop talking. You're making me queasy." On the beach, Alice plays fetch with Helen's dogs, while Helen and T.D. play cards. Alice wonders if Truman thinks he won't like ice cream because something "weird" happened to him, like a bug coming out of his ice cream when he was a baby. Then, at school, Alice gives her report on Italy, but adds in a jab at Truman by saying that you wouldn't know how great gelato tastes if you're "prejudiced" against ice cream. The book is divided into three sections, each focusing on one member of the Dorai family. The first book is about Soloman, his attempts to halt the outbreak of caste wars, and his loss of power in the face of a changing India. The second book looks at Daniel, Soloman’s peace loving son, who becomes a famous doctor following in the footsteps of his mentor Dr Pillai, and inventor of Moonwhite Thylam: “make your face shine like the Pongal moon”. There is also Aaron, the angry freedom fighter, and his struggles for India’s independence. The third book, Pulimed, focuses on Daniel’s son Kannan, who falls in love with an Anglo Indian Helen at University in Madras. When his father doesn’t approve of Helen, Kannan leaves his home to become a plantation manager on the tea estates in Pulamed. The men are reasonably well drawn, and Soloman’s physical strength, and attempts to moderate between his traditional role, and the changes taking place around him drive the plot forward, as does Aaron’s anger and pain, which colour his political focus, and make Daniel’s focus on family and internal matters seem more realistic than the flimsy and shifting ethics of the political world into which Daniel refuses to be drawn. Kannan’s attempts to fit into British society, partly a product of his father’s political apathy, and his struggles for self-actualisation in the face of his wife’s unhappiness and British “superiority” are reasonably poignant. Charity is also reasonable interesting as a character, trying to maintain her sense of decorum and pride in a country that dramatically devalues her sex. Her descent into insanity is at least as powerful as Aaron’s pain and role as a political assassin. I read this because I read comparisons to Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, which I loved, but Davidar's book is not in the same league. The House of Blue Mangoes starts out strong and contains some beautiful passages, but overall it is a mess, disjointed, poorly edited, and a little bit pointless. The characters are very one-dimensional and never make any sense. Points of view occasionally change mid-paragraph; new plots come out of nowhere even at the very end.

Shout-Out: Blue Mangoes is a parody of Green Eggs and Ham, with its weird art style, rhyming narration, and plot of one creature insisting that another eat some weird food. Strange Minds Think Alike: Despite having opposing views, both Alice and Truman manage to end up saying, "It's not the ice cream; it's the principle of the thing." Blue mango’s new foliage is bright red, like that of so many tropical plants (an interesting story in its own right), always eye-catching against the deep green, strappy, classically tropical foliage of the mango. It’s known to be resistant to anthracnose, and loves our wet sub-tropical climate. The fruit may be small compared to other mangoes, but hey, it’s blue! A truly exhilarating book because it has many layers of complexity. It may be a little difficult for people not of Indian origin to fully comprehend some of the social issues relating to caste. And aside from all of this there's the Indian War of Independence as another layer, one we are told to ignore because Daniel does not like politics and hence Kannan doesn't either. Yet, the British identity conflict forms the basis of Kannan finding his place. This doesn't quite tie up. Usually when your lead characters don't care about something, you tend to not care too, so Freddie and the laddies and that goddamn Mrs.Stevenson (who ironically gets two chapters of character development when so many other characters could've used some!) don't bother you too much except as a bunch to be tolerated.

MENU↗

A wonderful epic that centres all around the Dorai family's adventures and lives and is finally brought full circle in an exciting climax involving Kanaan.

The book might as well be called Dysfunctional Fathers and Submissive Mothers. I did have a problem with the way there was no strong motivation for Daniel and Kannan to return to Chevathar. I don't buy the 'male lineage love in DNA' crap. Daniel was pretty much brought up by his mother and his maternal grandfather, so why not show this loyalty to Nagerkoil, where his mother was from? Wasn't he 50% from there too? As for Kannan, there was no connection with Chevathar for him. We’re all sort of aware of the multitude of mango varieties, even available at your average supermarket. “Cogshall,”“Champagne,”“Angie,”“Haden” are names we may have seen. Try “Fairchild” if you haven’t already—it’s wonderful. But not to worry if you don’t know all the mango varieties, there are only about 600. This multigenerational family epic follows the tradition of Vikram Seth's A SUITBALE BOY and Gabriel Gárcia Márquez's ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. The novel, however, possesses neither the lucidity of Seth nor the sheer poetry of Márquez. It portrays village life in South India at the turn of the nineteenth century brilliantly, covering the rituals, festivals, large family celebrations and also the caste conflicts and ugly war mongerers who stir up trouble for their own advantage.The narrative is never propelled by stakes larger than the machismo of each generation’s patriarch (to whom one of the book’s three parts is respectively devoted), diminishing its significance to strictly parochial, and its women to unquestioning, sentimental caricatures. It is difficult to empathise with these privileged men who seem to be driven by precious little besides their shallow pride—particularly ugly is their self-interested endorsement of British colonisation or complete disengagement with national politics (Aaron being the only exception, but even his struggle is relegated to the margins). What I really liked about the writing was that there was little exposition and explanation. For example, Davidar does not explicitly the reader things like the fact that a wedding thaali comes from Hindu practices but is used by Tamil Christians as well. He also does not point out to the way people are named from both the Bible and Hindu scripture: Apart from Solomon, Daniel and Aaron, there is Ramadoss (meaning one who serves Ram) or Kannan (the diminutive associated with Krishna). Davidar doesn't try to explain how India functions and that is the best thing about the book. If the reader is as clueless as the beleaguered British - portrayed with both sympathy and simmering anger in the book - the author doesn't seem to mind. The first is that the shorter spelling ( mangos) is generally preferred in the U.S. Because the spelling is so common, some educators and style authorities may perceive the longer version, mangoes, as incorrect. What’s new here, the latest literary news, plus fresh giveaways every month. Sent out just once a month, for free.