Mer's Take on the Marriage Bureau

I finished this book while on the road somewhere between Baker and Barstow, CA (one of the less attractive stretches of I-15...I wasn't driving while reading, by the way!). One of the great things about driving through Nevada is that the highways are so wide and so straight that even a person prone to car sickness like me can read in the car (while riding in the back seat no less!).

I agree with Kris about the writing style, but once I got past it I had a good time reading. I thought the comparison to Jane Austen on the back cover was a bit of a stretch, but like others have said I definitely see some Bollywood film potential going on here. I liked the characters Zama created. I thought they seemed very natural. I thought it was interesting that many/most of the really traditional people disapproved of "love marriages" and did not think they would last. I also thought it was so interesting how the arranged marriages meant so much to the family's status and how the bride's dowry was so significant. India is fascinating to me. I would love to read more books about it (actually when we were driving to CA I told my dad we were reading a book about India and he recommended The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott...apparently they are great. E.M. Forester's A Passage to India is also really good.) It would be fun to read multiple books as a group on a topic like this.

Good choice Ivy! This was fun.