Another derivative piece of literature from another unoriginal South Asian(female) author. Frankly, I wasn’t really surprised by the unoriginality of the writing and the stories. You can smell the plot from miles away. Mostly they are about the oh-so oppressed females, hailing from traditional Indian backgrounds, stuck/duped/coaxed/forced in loveless arranged marriages(because that’s what good Indian women do, as Mrs. Divakaruni repeats incessantly).
And then the stereotypes pour in: the nostalgia of India, the mention of curries, the cold and misogynist Indian husbands(read: males), the charming knight in shining armor(read: Caucasian male) who "save" them from their cold and misogynist Indian husbands(The repeat was intentional.I just wanted convey my feeling of reading the stories in the book), the use of Hindi/Bengali words sprinkled in the sentences to evoke "exoticness"(Why the hell write "girgitis" instead of the simpler substitute "lizards"?) As I read these books, I sometimes wonder if these writers know each other and perhaps vowed at one point to churn out trite and predictable novels one after another? I would skip "Arranged Marriage: Stories" entirely and focus on good South Asian writers.Rohinton Mistry comes to mind