Reviews with content warning for Torture - Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens

Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

11 reviews

bee_eviljoy36's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book holds a mirror up to Australia's racist past and present and the view is not pleasant.

It follows the stories of residents and staff of a nursing home called Cinamon Gardens in Sydney. Many of whom are refugees that fled Sri Lanka which was undergoing genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The stories unfold slowly in a gut wrenching and emotional tail of finding forgiveness for the decision made while under extreme trauma.

Content Warnings

kirstym25's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

linda3's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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ree333's review

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Content Warnings

elsaschuster's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I am not a clever reader. I like fluffy books, mysteries with no real consequences and romances. Part of why I read is to escape the world around me. But every now and then I pick up a book that is clever and digs into the world around us and this book was that. It was not an easy read, but it was a very worthwhile one.

It started out quite slow but by the middle of the book I was hooked and I cannot stop thinking about it. What a delight to read such well written and rounded characters. What a delight to read such a variety of characters. This is an incredible portrayal of Australia, that calls our society out exactly as it should.

Graphic violence, depictions of racism, depictions of cis white men acting like cis white men. Also, lots of light spots, calm moments and quite funny one-liners.

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stanro's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This is the recent Miles Franklin prize-winner and I’m onto it. Moments of humour. Graphic racist violence. Politics of the self-serving kind. Insight. That’s just in Australia. The violence in Sri Lanka is more naked and government sponsored. And there are many well-drawn characters.

“Black July” appears. I scurry to Wikipedia for a brief overview of it. Familiar plot, whether Russia and Eastern Europe against Jews, or Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany, also against Jews. And I think of Ruanda and Biafra (Adechie’s excellent Half of a Yellow Sun returns to mind). Now, in northern Sri Lanka, it’s merely a different setting. My heart is heavy.

Later on there is a retelling of someone’s experience of Black July. My heart is even heavier.

And with the recurring discussion about China’s role around the world, it is interesting to hear of China’s military base in southern Sri Lanka and the use by Sinhalese against Tamils of Chinese weapons - all part of the tightening grip of the “pearl necklace.”

In the course of the novel, Chandran is obviously proud of her Tamil culture and its history. She provides sketchy notes for this ignorant reader. I am forced by this to realise that though I’ve heard of the Tamil Tiger Liberation Front and though I’ve met refugee Tamils as teacher unionists, I am abysmally ignorant of any of what she sets out or that they experienced. I’m embarrassed. And I’m thoroughly hooked into this book, with its characters and their back stories and present difficulties and I’m keen to see what happens to them.

“(N)ational identity, territorial sovereignty and self-determination are grounded in history. Who was here first won’t determine who will be here last, but it will help us understand who has the right to be here at all. … Possession of land is nine tenths of the law. Possession of history is nine tenths of the future.” Of course I think of our history wars in Australia. I am firmly on the side of acknowledging our pre-colonisation peoples and their culture. And their rights.

As I read on, I think this book is both a doorway to truths about Sri Lanka and an allegory for Australia. And at times a very clear statement about Australia.

This book has characters to cherish and worry about, politics, history, racism, mystery and learning new things. I think it flags a little while it traces a Human Rights Commission case, using that as a means to become rather didactic. Having used that and similar conciliation arenas professionally several times, I recognise the veracity of her descriptions of procedure and the emotional journeys of participants while there.

After this slowing down of the book’s pace, there is a rapid building of momentum to a conclusion where several important loose threads are woven into the final tapestry of the book. Some of this I find heartbreaking.

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran displaces several outstanding books as my most-liked and most engaging book of 2023. Still, it’s only mid-August.

Content Warnings

danajoy's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

The beautiful, whimisical cover and cosy sounding name makes this novel appear to be a light choice. Based on those you'd likely be forgiven in believing that this was a warm, safe, story about a nursing home.

This is instead a deeply important but difficult and confronting story about survival, racism and violence. The content is highly confronting.

The Sri Lankan civil war is not a topic I was very aware of.

This story is brutal and important.

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katiiekhaos's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is beautifully written and has a rich world and characters, however I found myself getting confused with the multiple time lines and so many main characters. I wanted to love this one more, however I can tell the author is incredibly talented and will definitely pick up more of their books in the future.

Content Warnings

jouljet's review

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

rhi_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Content Warnings

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