Arranged Marriage: Stories

Divakaruni's first collection fo short stories reveals the literary strength of a much more seasoned writer. This isn't to say that Divakaruni doesn't have her fair share of writing experience -- indeed, she is an accomplished poet and novelist, and has won numerous awards. But the short story genre is a different beast, and requires different techniques for a writer to truly succeed.

This collection of short stories focuses on (as the title suggests) arranged marriages, specifically the traditional marriages favored among many South Asian families. While it is to be expected that the different stories in this volume each provide a different take on arranged marriage, what I found particularly remarkable was the variety of perspectives show more Divakaruni presented throughout. Through several strong female protagonists, Divakaruni presents both favorable and unfavorable glimpses into arranged marriage, as well as into the South Asian American immigrant experience.

Though her perspective is perhaps influenced a bit heavily by her own Westernization and adoption of American culture, I found her views relatively well balanced. Certainly she asserts women's strengths through her highly complex female protagonists, but in doing so she does not necessarily defy the culture in which she grew up. Instead, she seems to blend elements from the two seemingly disparate cultures to arrive at a mix of viewpoints that presents real-to-life women dealing with real-to-life issues. Stereotypes abound, to be sure, but she overcomes them with intricate insights into the precise experiences of some truly compelling characters.

No brief summary can really do justice to this collection, which is full of unexpected developments and charming characters. Given that it deals with such weighty issues, I can't promise that it'll be a fun read, but I was charmed and intrigued and highly encourage others to try it out. show less

In her debut collection of short stories, Divakaruni explores the ways in which women raised with traditional values try to balance the realities of a new existence in America.

I love short stories and there are some really great ones in this collection. Most deal with the push/pull a woman experiences when she feels honor bound to long-held traditional beliefs, yet tempted to break free in a new country with very different rules. The women in these stories struggle to find their place, sometimes suffering great loss while breaking free from the restraints of centuries of tradition. They range from college students living with relatives, to young brides, to single professional women, to long-married middle-aged wives and mothers.

The show more women may be different form one another, and very different from me, but I was able to connect to each and every one of them. We share the struggle between living up to others’ expectations and following our own dreams. show less

The writing is not bad; good even. It's the stories that pull the book down to two stars. I found most, if not all, of the stories really depressing, and hard to connect to. It was more like an observation. The one that I possibly enjoyed the most was the one with the maid servant - not because the story was uplifting but because it was an engaging and relatively "lively" story.

I also found that the book lacked to make a statement. Both arranged marriage and "love" marriage situations are shown to be miserable. It didn't really reflect "arranged marriage" in modern India at all. As someone who grew up there in the 90s, the world presented in this book is mostly foreign to me. This book is a confused pile of depressing stories and fails show more to make an impact or take a stance. If this book was a person, I would tell it: "Have a dream... but pick one!"

Hopefully her other works are better. show less

I normally love her work, as most of it is uplifting w/ a mixture of spirituality & magical realism. This book of short stories fell short for me.

It was because there was nothing redeeming about the misogynistic culture and feudal expectations that the women in these stories had to live with & endure.

Lyrical as the writing was, the romance of India was portrayed for what it is/was.... oppressing.

I'm glad I read it, but it left me wanting one of her other "feel good" stories.

Arranged Marriage is a collection of short stories, the author’s first book of prose. At the time of its publication, she had just won the 1994 Santa Clara Arts Council Award for Fiction and the 1994 Award for Poetry from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation. She has since written several well-received novels.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni immigrated from India, and has lived in San Francisco most of her adult life. This book of stories is entirely about Indian women, some living in India, and some in the U.S. All the stories have human relationships at their heart – relationships with husbands, mothers, lovers, and children. Every story in a short space of time strips away the outer trappings of a relationship and gets to the show more emotions that give it shape. There is not a shallow story in the book.

One of the greatest benefits most non-Indians can receive from the book is to learn how Indian cultural practices affect the lives of women. Judging from the stories of the book, their lives are affected in many ways, some obvious, some subtle. The practice of arranged marriages is touched upon in most of the stories of the book. The place of a wife in the husband’s parents’ family is discussed. The role of a wife in marriage is painted in many of the stories. The importance of children, the disgrace of being a single woman, the behavior expected of married women, the importance of parental approval, all are understood in the context of powerful storytelling. Yet, many of the stories are about Indian women living in the U.S., many of whom who have yearned for and adopted more liberal Western habits. The stories about these women often describe the can’t-win situation many of them are in. If they decide to keep all the cultural mores of their homeland, they also must then voluntarily submit to a subservient position in life. If they throw off their cultural bonds and fly, they fear leaving their beloved families behind – and often their fears are well-founded. And as some of the stories show, the old traditions are in some ways comforting – that’s probably why they have lasted for hundreds or thousands of years. Abandoning them means taking risks with life that can lead to great disappointments. The Western ways offer freedom, but there is no safety net. The Indian woman in the West faces momentous decisions those born here never have to make.

Arranged Marriage does not claim to be about every female Indian immigrant to the West. However, the stories do come from a depth of feeling and knowledge of life that rings true in every way. One cannot read this book without being moved by story after story, and people unfamiliar with Indian culture will learn much. The stories:

The Bats: An Indian child’s abused mother tries to separate herself from her husband, and has difficulties breaking the ties.

Clothes: A woman comes to the U.S. from India to be with her new husband. He struggles financially to run a small store, and she is determined to be a good and helpful wife. Her life turns out far differently from what she’d planned.

Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs: A young woman comes to the U.S. to attend college, and lives with her aunt and uncle. She is enamored of the new clothes and Western ways, and does not understand why her uncle, who she understood has a great job in America, is unhappy with his life and keeps his wife in the house. She finds she is young and has more to learn than she thought.

The Word Love: A young woman living in the U.S. is placed in a bubbling cauldron of choice – live with the man she loves, or maintain a relationship with her tradition-oriented mother in India. Need the choice be made? If it is forced, how may the consequences be borne?

A Perfect Life: A happy single woman climbing the corporate ladder encounters a runaway child who changes her life forever.

The Maid Servant’s Story: A powerful and complex story that reveals the life-long effect that male dominance in society has on the emotional lives of those in their care, affecting even children a generation away from abuse of familial power.

The Disappearance: The story of a traditional Indian man in America whose Indian wife has left him for another. Can he break from his world-view sufficiently to understand why?

Doors: A young Westernized Indian woman and a traditional but relatively liberal Indian man enjoy a blissful marital union in the U.S. Then one of the husband’s good friends comes to live with them for some months, bringing his raw traditional values with him.

The Ultrasound: Two married women, old friends, become pregnant, one in the U.S., one in India. One of them faces a desperate choice.

Affair: A woman’s husband seems to be losing interest in her. Is it because she would not adopt the Western way of life? Is it too late?

Meeting Mrinal: A recently-divorced woman, left by her husband for someone flashier, must also come to grips with her son’s anger and growing independence.

Some of the stories are very sad. Some are hopeful. Every story pulls you deep into a life. One of the themes of this book and others the author has written since is that life is usually not as we would wish it. Sometimes we cannot change it. When we can change it, we must try, and we must do our best for others who likewise stumble through life no matter how happy they may seem when we view them in our ignorance. When we are just a little lucky, we will find sustenance in our relationships with others, and we will survive and grow. As one of her stories ends: “The glasses glitter like hope. We raise them to each other solemnly, my son and I, and drink to our precious, imperfect lives.” show less

Arranged Marriage is a lovely collection of short stories which offers multiple perspectives of arranged marriage from Indian and Indian-American points of view. I enjoyed it on a literary level, and I also liked seeing the topic of arranged marriage portrayed this way, having grown up in a Western culture and not really having any idea of the complexity or normalcy of many arranged marriages.


I read this in graduate school, and at the time I had actually moved in with a boyfriend after only knowing him for a few weeks, so we were going through a lot of the same things the characters were, getting to know a person on an intimate level after already combining households. I'm glad to report that our relationship lasted, we got married and show more have been together for almost seven years, much like many of the characters in this wonderful collection of stories. show less

This book is a collection of 11 short stories - each one dealing with a serious issue - such as infidelity, divorce, the immigrant experience, putting our relationship in front of our own selves, children - all set within the context of Indian culture. Because they were short stories, they presented vignettes. For most of them, I wanted to know what happened before or after. I suppose that is also the sign of a good story.

The stories were presented as a commentary on Indian society and the role/rights of women. However, many of the issues transcended culture and could occur in different contexts. The issues may be bigger or exacerbated by cultural traditions. However, they do exist outside of that cultural context as well.

The only other show more thing I wish is that some of the stories had presented the joy that can be found in relationships and in some cultural traditions. That would have rounded out the stories of sadness and struggle. show less