Wife - Softcover

Mukherjee, Bharati

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140093001 ISBN 13: 9780140093001

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1987

VERY MUCH A CONTRAST TO MUKHERJEE'S FIRST NOVEL, HER SECOND DESCRIBES DIMPLE DASGUPTA'S ATTEMPTS TO COPE WITH HER LIFE IN AMERICA. HER MARRIAGE ARRANGED TO A RESPECTABLE ENGINEER, DIMPLE IMMIGRATES TO THE U.S., BUT CANNOT ADJUST TO THE FOREIGN AND VIOLENT ENVIRONMENT OF NEW YORK CITY. MORE AND MORE SHE RETREATS FROM REALITY, LIVING IN HER OWN TELEVISION-INDUCED FANTASY WORLD UNTIL SHE FINALLY FINDS EXPRESSION FOR HER FRUSTRATION IN A CHILLING ACT OF SELF-ASSERTION.

From the Publisher:

This book still haunts me. In a time when the Western world tends to either romanticize or villainize the customs of India, this book is an honest look into what life can be like for a woman who is not only in an arranged marriage, but also taken out of the only home she has ever known and thrown into not simply the United States, but New York City. As the daughter of parents who moved to this country in the early 70's, I have relatives who have been arranged both here and in India, and have been personally shaped by the conflict of two cultures that are very different. Anyone who has an interest in India, Indian women, arranged marriage, marriage, or just human relationships will be thoroughly moved by this thought-provoking novel that is so authentic, it could be nonfiction.

From the Inside Flap:

jee writes with beautiful precision and just the right density of detail. There is an unlikely marriage of Jane Austen and Nathaniel West in her words."
THE VILLAGE VOICE
"Dimple Dasgupta had set her heart on marrying a neurosurgeon, but her father was looking for engineers in the matrimonial ads." So begins the wry story of an obedient daughter of middle-class Indian parents who is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Driven first to shock and then to despair, Dimple lives in a waking dream. And when her fantasies take a violent turn, she wonders where wishes end and reality begins....