Reviews

I read this as my book for Bhutan in the read-around-the-world challenge. I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially the characters and setting. It is not a book to read for beautiful turns of phrase and there are a few typos and similar errors. However, the main character comes through so clearly and so do the people she gets to know and the places she visits.

This is a book that follows the slow (and sometimes less slow) changes over the course of the main character's journey in life. It sometimes circles back to a previous point, or pauses for a while. It's not a book with a clear arc steadily moving forward, and I think the approach the author did use is just what was needed to tell this particular story. I really liked getting to know Tsomo and seeing her journey through both her life and her Buddhist faith.

missbrendareads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

siria's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.5

The Circle of Karma tells the story of Tsomo, who is born in the mountainous kingdom of Bhutan in the 1940s/50s. She experiences a series of misfortunes—two unhappy marriages, a miscarriage, chronic illness—before she finally becomes a Buddhist nun. On the level of craft, this is not a particularly good book. I wasn't really convinced by Kunzang Choden's characters as people (characterisation is wildly inconsistent), and the book is riddled with typos (cooking with "cotiander", houses built with "wooden plants", "mani colleagues", etc.) and other basic issues (I lost track of how many times the narrative shifted from past to present tense and back, sometimes within the space of a paragraph). What interest the book has derives largely from the fact that, at the time of its publication almost 20 years ago, it was the first novel in English (perhaps the first novel?) written by a Bhutanese woman, and from its rich description of daily live in Bhutan before it began to open up to outsiders at all.

pigs4beginners's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

paulap's review against another edition

Go to review page

medium-paced

3.0

Interesting and compelling story of Tsomo throughout her unfortunate life. She was a poor woman in Bhutan that through some unfortunate event travels and develops her life in unexpected ways. I enjoyed it, although I don't know how much it would stay in my memory.

nithyasrin's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

This is an impressive book as it is the first one by a female author out of Bhutan. Learnt a lot about Bhutanese culture.

joshmaher's review against another edition

Go to review page

Bhutan

More...