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Samskara
Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man | U. R. Ananthamurthy
5 posts | 6 read | 3 to read
Samskara is one of the acknowledged masterpieces of modern world literature, a book to set beside Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North. Taking its name from a Sanskrit word that means "rite of passage" but also "moment of recognition," it begins when Naranappa, an inhabitant of a small south Indian town and a renegade Brahmin who has scandalously flouted the rules of caste and purity for years, eating meat, drinking alcohol, marrying beneath him, mocking God, unexpectedly falls ill and dies. The question of whether he should be buried as a Brahmin divides the other Brahmins in the village. For an answer they turn to Praneshacharyah, the most devout and respected member of their community, an ascetic who also tends religiously to his invalid wife. Praneshacharyah finds himself unable to provide the answer, though an answer is urgently needed since as he wonders and the villagers wait and the body festers, more and more people are falling sick and dying. But when Praneshacharyah goes to the temple to seek a sign from God, he discovers something else entirely--unless that something else is also God. Samskara is a tale of existential suspense, a life-and-death encounter between the sacred and the profane, the pure and the impure, the ascetic and the erotic.
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batsy
Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man | U. R. Ananthamurthy
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batsy Sylvia Townsend Warner 4y
batsy Margarita Liberaki 4y
sprainedbrain I‘m voting for 4y
See All 31 Comments
sisilia I vote for (edited) 4y
vivastory Splendid choices! As a Lolly Willowes fan, my vote is for The Corner That Held Them 4y
Reviewsbylola My vote is for 4y
Liz_M I'm voting for the only one I own: 4y
Cathythoughts Oh I must keep an eye out for the choice ! ✨✨✨ 4y
Cathythoughts I‘m not in it , but I‘d like to read your pick 👍🏻❤️ 4y
batsy @Cathythoughts Ooh yes, please do join in for the discussion if you can 😘 4y
erzascarletbookgasm I‘m not in the club either but I‘ve always taken an interest in the books being read and reviews posted. I have one of the books up for voting, if selected, I‘ll like to read along 😊 4y
BarbaraBB My vote goes to the one I have a copy of! 4y
GatheringBooks Ooh! Interesting choices! I vote for 4y
LeahBergen Ooo, this is such a toughie! They all sound good but I have the Townsend Warner and the Liberaki sitting on my shelves ... so for no other reason than it being summer, I‘ll vote for 4y
Theaelizabet I‘ve read, and loved, The Corner That Held Them. Samskara sounds fascinating, but I think my mood these days is more (edited) 4y
saresmoore Great picks! I‘ve been in the mood for Greece, so my vote is for 4y
Suet624 I‘m with @LeahBergen. I own The Corner and I like all the choices but I think I‘m in the mood for (edited) 4y
emilyhaldi Three Summers is a great choice! But since I've already read it, my vote goes to 4y
merelybookish Another vote for 4y
BarbaraBB I think we have a winner? I am happy with the outcome. Great choices @batsy and good to have you back @Theaelizabet 💕 4y
Theaelizabet @BarbaraBB Thanks so much!❤️ 4y
Leftcoastzen Nice choices , I missed the vote. 4y
batsy Sorry about that @Leftcoastzen but it does look like we have a clear summery winner 🌞 @vivastory 4y
batsy @vivastory I was hoping for a reason to buy The Corner That Held Them 😂 But who am I kidding, I'm still going to add it to my cart sometime soon! 4y
vivastory @batsy I've been buying a lot of books lately, but The Corner That etc might accidentally wind up in my cart when I order the Mitford book this weekend 📚📚📚😂 4y
vivastory @batsy Just doing my part for the economy... 4y
batsy @vivastory Same! A service, really 😂 4y
Tanisha_A I just ordered a copy online. May try to join you all. 😁 4y
Tanisha_A Oh wait, i ordered a copy of Samskara but that's not the winner. Let me try to find a copy of three summers. 4y
batsy @Tanisha_A Yup, the winner is Three Summers. Do join us if you can! 🌞 4y
62 likes31 comments
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erzascarletbookgasm
Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man | U. R. Ananthamurthy
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You see why I can‘t log in more hours for my #24in48 ?
The family wanted to go out for dinner. Thereafter hang out at the mall. And of course I forgot to bring my book. I visited the book store, surely, and was delighted to see a #nyrb book! Haven‘t read any reviews on Litsy but I was excited to own my first #nyrb ! 😆 The other one sounds good on the blurb.
@batsy nyrb book at Bookxcess, can you believe it? Only saw this title though.

batsy Oooh, great find!! 😍 I hope we see more NYRBs there over time 😁 5y
LauraJ Time well spent! 5y
RachelAmphlett The Birdwatcher is astounding - he really brings to life the setting of Dungeness. It‘s such a strange place in real life. 5y
78 likes3 comments
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Mtroiano
Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man | U. R. Ananthamurthy
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Book mail is the best mail! #nyrb #nyrbclassics

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Hobbinol
Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man | U. R. Ananthamurthy
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Yea! Book mail! This is January's NYRB selection. I'm very excited about it (even though I haven't read last month's selection yet and I was very happy about that one too, but I know y'all know how that goes). I only just joined and am happy to report that this is definitely the book club for me!

vivastory Hmm.. seriously considering joining. 8y
shawnmooney Oooh, this sounds great - and I wasn't aware NYRB had a subscription service! I will have to check into that. (Happy new year, by the way… :-) 8y
shawnmooney Yikes – I won't be joining anytime soon: it's $150 a year for Americans but $365 for people living outside of America or Canada. What a rip off! I could buy 12 of their books for a fraction of that off Amazon or anywhere else… 8y
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Hobbinol @shawnmooney Egads! That's quite a gouging! Too bad. I got a special deal (I think for the same price), wherein they offered a subscription to the Paris Review and NYRB for a low price. They only offer it once a year and I kicked myself when I didn't get it last year. But if I lived in--say, Japan--I wouldn't feel so encouraged. Happy New Year to you AND your fiancé!!! 8y
Hobbinol @vivastory They have such enviably good taste in under-appreciated world lit. 8y
vivastory @hobbinol They're fantastic. Definitely one of my favorite publishers. 8y
45 likes6 comments