Arranged Marriage

Description

For the Indian-born girls and women torn between old- and new-world values in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s exquisitely wrought debut collection of stories, the possibility of change, of starting anew, is at once terrifying and filled with promise: a child, only vaguely aware of the reasons behind her mother’s desperate flight from their home in Calcutta, briefly tastes genuine happiness in the loving household of her mother’s uncle before returning to the tense, threatening atmosphere of her father’s house; a young bride’s fairy-tale vision of California is shattered when her husband is murdered and she must face the future on her own; a student arriving in the city of “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs” is brought face-to-face with the horrifying reality of Chicago’s mean streets. Moving from the story of a childhood adventure in India to a poignant portrait of a middle-aged divorced woman determined to succeed in San Francisco, Arranged Marriage subtly chronicles the accommodation – and the rebellion – women undergo as they balance old treasured beliefs and surprising new desires.