Arranged Marriage
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 9780552996693 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 9780552996693 Global Overview for this book
4 journalers for this copy...
I have enjoyed this book, each short story left me feeling I wanted to know more about the characters.
Got the book yesterday. Thank you very much!
20/12/08: Finally read the book. It is a collection of short stories about different Indian women living in the United States. The variety of stories and women is great and very interesting.
Overall I think the book is nice but not exceptional. Thanks for sharing.
20/12/08: Finally read the book. It is a collection of short stories about different Indian women living in the United States. The variety of stories and women is great and very interesting.
Overall I think the book is nice but not exceptional. Thanks for sharing.
Arrived today. Thanks CITIBELLE for including me in the bookring, and quak for posting it to me! Happy New Year everyone, with health, happiness & lots of good books!
(By the way, I don't see a list of participants in the j.e. above, who do I send the book to next?)
Very readable selection of stories, but overall I don't feel that they touched me in a lasting way.
I can't quite pinpoint what's lacking here, except by attempting a comparison between this collection and Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. The subject matter is identical, and yet these two writers have different approaches. Divakaruni's writing is more literal, as if she is reciting stories to an audience. Lahiri's style is more cerebral, the stories are to be read for hidden nuances insinuated between the words. I'd have to say that maybe Divakaruni is closer to 'home' in her narratives, as if her intended audience is Indian or displaced Indian. Lahiri on the other hand crafts her fiction in the manner of the Anglo/European literary genre. I'm not saying one is better than the other; certainly though I've been 'trained' to read (rather than listen) in a particular way, so that it's easy for me to say that I find something absent in Divakaruni's stories.
"A Maidservant's Story" is the standout, probably because it creatively makes use of the oral tradition, by placing a recited story within a story. Even though the first person is used in most of the segments, I always felt that the voice is narrating rather than reflecting, so that there was a lack of complexity in the other stories. In "A Maidservant's Story" there are two voices, and two stories, peaking at the point where the two narratives become one.
I can't quite pinpoint what's lacking here, except by attempting a comparison between this collection and Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. The subject matter is identical, and yet these two writers have different approaches. Divakaruni's writing is more literal, as if she is reciting stories to an audience. Lahiri's style is more cerebral, the stories are to be read for hidden nuances insinuated between the words. I'd have to say that maybe Divakaruni is closer to 'home' in her narratives, as if her intended audience is Indian or displaced Indian. Lahiri on the other hand crafts her fiction in the manner of the Anglo/European literary genre. I'm not saying one is better than the other; certainly though I've been 'trained' to read (rather than listen) in a particular way, so that it's easy for me to say that I find something absent in Divakaruni's stories.
"A Maidservant's Story" is the standout, probably because it creatively makes use of the oral tradition, by placing a recited story within a story. Even though the first person is used in most of the segments, I always felt that the voice is narrating rather than reflecting, so that there was a lack of complexity in the other stories. In "A Maidservant's Story" there are two voices, and two stories, peaking at the point where the two narratives become one.
Here!
29 March 2009 - Oh this was an amazing set of short stories- possibly more so because part of them are set here locally and it is very easy to visualize the locations for me. =) I will be sending this back with Sister of My Heart and Mistress of the Spices to Citibelle thus finishing both rings unless otherwise directed.
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Ok to wild release per Citibelle.
Sent to eicuthbertson for PttW R13
29 March 2009 - Oh this was an amazing set of short stories- possibly more so because part of them are set here locally and it is very easy to visualize the locations for me. =) I will be sending this back with Sister of My Heart and Mistress of the Spices to Citibelle thus finishing both rings unless otherwise directed.
--
Ok to wild release per Citibelle.
Sent to eicuthbertson for PttW R13
