Twenty-seven year old Priya returns to her native India for a visit
during the season that mango fruit ripens, a treasured memory from
her childhood. It is then that Brahmin caste women churn into
frenetic activity. Mango fruit must be pickled, a chore involving
women, gossip, intense physical labor, and talk of marriage. For
Priya and her brother, Nate, sucking on a mango stone recalls a
feeling they term HAPPINESS. The succulent flavor evokes abject
pleasure.

Priya, now a resident of Silicon Valley, carries with her to India
the knowledge that she has fallen in love with an American. Steeped
in old family tradition, her parents and grandparents put pressure
on their unmarried daughter to wed, saving them from bitter
embarrassment. Arranged marriages are the norm --- with a suitable
mate from one's own caste. Priya's dilemma becomes personal torment
when she cannot tell her family that she is engaged to an
American.

THE MANGO SEASON is a panorama of Indian tradition. Malladi
artfully places Priya in a situation between two opposite worlds.
She reverts to childhood when faced with the knowledge that she
will break her grandfather's heart with the betrayal of loving a
foreigner. Unable to shake the strong yoke of her domineering
mother's demands upon her, she gives in to the idea that she will
meet a young Indian man who desires a wife. The young woman must
ultimately decide between dogmatic tradition and heartfelt
emotion.

Malladi uses the mango as a symbol of the disparity between two
traditions. She intersperses recipes throughout her chapters for
delicacies like Avakai (South Indian Mango Pickle), Mango Pappu
(lentils), Rava ladoo and Aloo Bajji. Sanskrit ceremonial words of
enlightenment are quoted to emphasize religious traditions that
guide the family, and numerous Indian words are used in italics. An
occasional peek backwards is necessary to refresh the reader's
memory about terms quoted.

THE MANGO SEASON is a dramatic portrait of a modern woman's anguish
over her inability to blend her two worlds. The story is told with
beautiful word pictures. Malladi's imagery makes one thirst for a
juicy topping of HAPPINESS to end the story, a rich ripe mango. For
insight into the Hindu world, THE MANGO SEASON is highly
recommended. How one's place in a caste society dictates his or her
entire future is depicted well in this dramatic narrative.