Book Review - The Village By The Sea

The Village By The Sea.

Finally, I have finished reading the novel entitled 'The Village By The Sea' written by Anita Desai. For you who have been to matriculation before, I think that you have probably read this novel in the English class. I read the novel back in Johor Matriculation College for the sake of passing the class. There's a big difference in reading it for exam and reading it to really know what's the story is all about.

Synopsis

'The Village By The Sea' is about a poor family in a village called Thul in India. The poor family consists of the drunken father, an ill mother, Lila the eldest sister, Hari the eldest brother and Bela and Kamal the youngest sisters. The problem with the family is the father is a toddy addict. His toddy drinking habit makes him sell his fishing boat and buffalo, to pay his debt to the toddy seller. To make it worse, he has no job to bring food on the table. All he does in the day is sleeping and during the night, he will go out for toddy drink.

Hari, the eldest and single son in the family, feels that the burden to bring food for the family is on his shoulder. He has several options to ease the burden, to work in Biju who owns a big boat with diesel engine, to work in the factory that will be built in the village in near time, or to go to Bombay to find job in the big city.

He get the opportunity to go to Bombay when he follows a group of protestor in a procession to submit pettition to the Chief Minister, to stop the building of the factory in Hari's village. Hari manage to get a job in an eating house in the big city through several occasion. From there onwards, he manage to turn the fate of his family.

Okay, I think, that's enough for me to summarize a little bit about the book. Now I know, it is hard to summarize a book as I never done it before. Hope this will attract you to read the book.

This is my way of learning English, by using it, either through writing or speaking. If you find there's something wrong or funny about this entry in English, please let me know. I really appreciate your attention and the time you spend to correct me.

Thank you. :)

Amirul Faiz Abd. Razak
436500 Bandar Baru Bangi