I keep describing novels as "fun to read" books, those I like in the same way as a good cup of coffee or something better than average to eat or meeting someone interesting. I love going into the library and finding new, just published books by authors I haven't read before. Often, after reading the reviews on the back cover, I put them aside, but I am pretty good at choosing and discarding before checking out and I do finish most of those I take home. And I can read them in a day and often do...(sort of a half-hearted apology for reading a lot of fiction lately, I guess.....)
Anyway......
The Newlyweds is about a Bangladeshi woman, Amina, who meets her future husband through an online dating service. She moves to Rochester, NY, marries him, and becomes a US citizen. George, her husband, is a good enough man. They settle in but Amina has always had plans to also bring her parents to the States and that is a big part of this story.
What I like about a novel like this is what I learn about a situation that was never a part of my life. It goes beyond the dynamics of the relationship between George and Amina and her assimilation into American culture, her loneliness and the surprises that catch her up. While it is about specific characters and life in a contemporary mid-sized American city, it also incorporates universal, more global issues. There is a the disparity of life in America and life in Bangladesh, the cultural differences between children and their parents, the distorted opinions of what America is, and the tension created as Amina is torn by Islamic and traditional strictures and her new American consciousness.
Ann Patchett: "A big complicated portrait of marriage, culture, family, and love. Freudenberger never settles for an easy answer and what she delivers is a story that feels absolutely true. Every minute I was away from this book I was longing to be back in the world she created."
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