The Marriage Bureau for Rich People
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A writer of charming and breezy prose, Zama pays homage to Jane Austen in a contemporary love story firmly grounded in classic wrangles over family, property and clas s' Emma Hagestadt, INDEPENDENT (‘A witty, affectionate picture of modern India’ )
Kate Saunders, THE TIMES (** ‘If you’re in need of something to chase away the encroaching winter gloom, look no further than this joyous debut’ )
Melissa Katsoulis, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (** ‘A courteous, light read’ )
Catherine Taylor, GUARDIAN (** ‘Charming, warm-hearted and funny, a delightful debut . . . a read treat’ )
Kate Saunders, THE TIMES (** ‘If you’re in need of something to chase away the encroaching winter gloom, look no further than this joyous debut’ )
Melissa Katsoulis, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (** ‘A courteous, light read’ )
Catherine Taylor, GUARDIAN (** ‘Charming, warm-hearted and funny, a delightful debut . . . a read treat’ )
Review
'Charming, warm-hearted and funny, a delightful debut... a read treat'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A very light charming read,
By
This review is from: The Marriage Bureau For Rich People (Paperback)
This book is very charming. Set in modern day India, the Muslim Mr Ali starts up a marriage bureau from home, matching appropriate couples for arranged marriages. Farahad Zama brings in lots of issues from modern day India, with a very light touch: people who cannot afford basic health care; problems with pensions; the ill-treatment of wives and widows - all these serious issues are touched on, without the novel being at all heavy. Zama also explains a lot about marriage tradition, including lots of interesting details about the jewellry the wife must have, the flowers and fruits, the ceremony itself.
The characters are also really charming - I LOVE Aruna in particular, Mr Ali's assistant: but Mr and Mrs Ali and their wayward son are also lovely. You look forward to picking the book up at the end of a hard day and finding out a little bit more about them. The only thing I didn't like about this book is that I felt the style was too simple, and all the characters seemed to have quite similar ways of talking. I think that probably it's because it's a first book and Farahad Zama hasn't quite developed a strong style yet(?). I couldn't help thinking all the way through that probably his next book would be much better written. So I would definitely be tempted to read another book by this author, despite that one reservation.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, but sometimes the writer intrudes upon the story,
This review is from: The Marriage Bureau For Rich People (Paperback)
I enjoyed this story about a marriage bureau in India, although what the bureau does doesn't seem very different from what I understand happens there anyway, with it being quite normal for families to advertise in the newspaper columns for matches for their sons or daughters. It is the characters in the story who make it, as in all good stories.
My only reservation about the book is the way the writer sometimes intrudes by coming in with an explanation of how something happens in Indian culture. I love reading Indian novels and usually they are a bit more discreet, with the reader having to absorb the culture rather than having it handed to them together with an instruction manual. An example of what I mean - '"What is this, madam? I've never had this drink before,' asked Aruna. [I also think the 'asked' is out of place here] 'This is rooh afza. I suppose you can call it rose syrup. It is an old cooling rinkused by Muslims. Most young people don't know about it now - they all drink Coke or Pepsi," said Mrs Ali.' The writing is also sometimes a little stilted, with rather annoying repetitions of names, as in the final paragraph of the novel: 'Mrs Ali looked at him in disbelief for a second. Then tears slowly rolled down Mrs Ali's cheeks . . .' I think 'her' would definitely have flowed better here, but perhaps it is the quirk of an Indian writer. But the main romantic story of Aruna and Ram, which is threaded through the novel with the story of Mr and Mrs Ali's worries about their son's involvement with a protest group, is interesting and well done, although I felt that Ram's wealthy father was rather too quickly convinced by Mr Ali of the rightness of Ram's choice of Aruna, a poor girl, as his wife. This isn't a novel I would keep to read again, but it is one I would recommend to others as a single read that is pleasant and interesting and is light enough to take their minds off the minor concerns of their day.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A good idea with some sparks but generally poorly written,
By Parvati P. (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Marriage Bureau For Rich People (Paperback)
This book starts out well enough with its premise of setting up a marriage bureau in a Southern Indian town, and has a charming small-town feel to it. However, the plot meanders for a while before the story of Aruna, the bureau's assistant takes hold and commands attention. The incessant form filling at the bureau becomes repetitive and dull, and the mundane (often clunky) dialogue of Mr and Mrs Ali detract from what could be an interesting insight into a whole community of people passing through the bureau. Unfortunately, for the most part the characters are cardboard cutouts who all sound the same. The dialogue is really quite poor and in the latter part of the book when Aruna receives a proposal of marriage from the doctor Ramanujan it begins to resemble the dialogue of a B-grade bollywood movie in translation.
The book is billed as a snapshot of India in transition, where caste and religion do not matter quite as much as they once did, and people seek a match by going outside family and village connections to a marriage bureau. However this is a simplistic view of a changing country, as now online marriage "bureaux" are all the rage, and caste issues are more complex and hidden than portrayed here. In the hands of a more proficient writer such subtleties would have come out more, but the writing is simply not able to do justice to the complex themes and dilemmas hinted at in the book. We are left at the end with the tantalising feeling that the book is not really getting to the nub of things. The book read as if it is writen for a teenage audience, with only a few gems of good writing shining through here and there. It is a shame, because the idea of portraying society through its marriage customs is an excellent one.
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