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meenakshisankar's review against another edition
4.0
This debut novel by the author is set in Srilanka, and follows the life of Yalini, who left the island nation in 1983, on the day of the violent racial outburst against the Tamils, living with her parents in the USA. She tries to strike a delicate balance between the traditions of her ancestors and the attractions of the modern world she has adopted. She, a practicing physician in the US, is summoned to Toronto to care for her uncle who has left the Tamil Tigers organization and is counting his final days due to cancer. Her friendship with her uncle’s daughter, and her ruminations about her extended family’s struggles due to their displacement across the globe and the violence in their lives is powerfully illuminated. She explores the spectrum of love marriages and arranged marriages across the four generations of family members. Very poignantly and beautifully written.
rekhainbc's review against another edition
4.0
Nice short read, told me a lot about Sri Lankan Tamils and what it is to be Tamil...
ryner's review against another edition
2.0
Yalini is a young woman whose family emigrated from Sri Lanka during the Sri Lankan civil war, and she narrates the stories of her relatives and ancestors.
The stories of are presented in no particular order with respect to timeline and characters, and I found it challenging to keep track of who was who. For the size of the book, Love Marriage took me a disproportionate amount of time to get through. It is essentially a lot of background information and no plot -- not my kind of fiction book.
The stories of are presented in no particular order with respect to timeline and characters, and I found it challenging to keep track of who was who. For the size of the book, Love Marriage took me a disproportionate amount of time to get through. It is essentially a lot of background information and no plot -- not my kind of fiction book.
kazen's review against another edition
4.0
A lyric telling of one family's Tamil diaspora experience. Ganeshananthan does a wonderful job following the lives of varied family members before, during, and after the 1983 "Black July" riots. There's a family tree in the first few pages but you won't need it - she lovingly details each person and drops hints just when you need them.
This book really spoke to me as my college roommate of two years was Tamil and I could see a lot of her family in the narrative. They also fled Sri Lanka and started a new life in Canada. They may or may not have had ties to the Tamil Tigers (I could only guess). Well-meaning relatives kept setting her up with "nice Tamil boys" whenever she was home from college, trying for the oh-so-desirable Proper Marriage. And much like Yalini's friend I was cut loose once she moved on. (I miss ya, B.)
Reading about this family's journey filled in so many gaps in my knowledge about Sri Lanka and would be an excellent introduction to the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict for anyone. I love that Ganeshananthan embraces the complex nature of the war, emphasizing that everyone did what they thought was right even though the definition of "right" was different for every person. Yalini spends a lot of time and energy coming to terms with her Uncle's affiliation with the Tigers and what it means for her soon-to-be-married cousin. How, even though they are so closely related by blood, their circumstances led them to be very different people.
The language throughout is lyric and flowing. I marked some passages because they're beautiful and others because they're simply true.
I absolutely loved this book and am so glad that I read it. I feel like a (slightly) better person, a bit more knowledgeable about the world and the struggles that many have gone (and continue to go) through.
This book really spoke to me as my college roommate of two years was Tamil and I could see a lot of her family in the narrative. They also fled Sri Lanka and started a new life in Canada. They may or may not have had ties to the Tamil Tigers (I could only guess). Well-meaning relatives kept setting her up with "nice Tamil boys" whenever she was home from college, trying for the oh-so-desirable Proper Marriage. And much like Yalini's friend I was cut loose once she moved on. (I miss ya, B.)
Reading about this family's journey filled in so many gaps in my knowledge about Sri Lanka and would be an excellent introduction to the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict for anyone. I love that Ganeshananthan embraces the complex nature of the war, emphasizing that everyone did what they thought was right even though the definition of "right" was different for every person. Yalini spends a lot of time and energy coming to terms with her Uncle's affiliation with the Tigers and what it means for her soon-to-be-married cousin. How, even though they are so closely related by blood, their circumstances led them to be very different people.
The language throughout is lyric and flowing. I marked some passages because they're beautiful and others because they're simply true.
"It would be false to say that there is a beginning to the story, or a middle, or an end. Those words have a tidiness that does not belong here. Our lives are not clean. They begin without fanfare and end without warning. This story does not have a defined shape or a pleasant arc. To record it differently would not be true."
I absolutely loved this book and am so glad that I read it. I feel like a (slightly) better person, a bit more knowledgeable about the world and the struggles that many have gone (and continue to go) through.
writerlibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
The story of a family of the Tamoul diaspora through the eyes of a daughter trying to make sense of her life, her parents and her origins. This is a classic for a first novel, the quest for where we came from and trying to figure out where we are and where we are going. I didn't know much about Sri Lanka history, the Tamoul, the social upheavals, etc.
It's also about someone not fitting into the country where she is born and not really connected to the place people assume she is from. The best part is the disconnection and the sorrow of the narrator who is very much aware of her not fitting in. Not American but raised the American way and removed from her family traditions, even beliefs.
It's interesting, compelling, it has a voice, a flow for the reader to grab on to and be let through the lives of people, in my case, that I wanted to learn more about. As far as first novels go, it's a good one. It has problems : the structure of the narration doesn't always work, I got annoyed at the flashback but not really flashback trick really fast. But overall I enjoyed it.
It's also about someone not fitting into the country where she is born and not really connected to the place people assume she is from. The best part is the disconnection and the sorrow of the narrator who is very much aware of her not fitting in. Not American but raised the American way and removed from her family traditions, even beliefs.
It's interesting, compelling, it has a voice, a flow for the reader to grab on to and be let through the lives of people, in my case, that I wanted to learn more about. As far as first novels go, it's a good one. It has problems : the structure of the narration doesn't always work, I got annoyed at the flashback but not really flashback trick really fast. But overall I enjoyed it.
dkeane2007's review against another edition
4.0
"All families begin with a marriage, and all marriages begin with a family" A lyrical look at a family and all the marriages that have been a part of the history.
zwadhwani's review against another edition
2.0
So I had a like/dislike feeling (love/hate was too strong) for this book. Parts of it were really great and well written and had me intrigued. Other parts were either annoyingly written in terms of a repetitive style or seemed out of place in the book or were just off the wall. As such, the book didn't come together as well as it could have. That all being said, I appreciated having the chance to read this story and hear this tale ... I haven't had much of a chance to learn more in depth about the politics in Sri Lanka and so this was an interesting take. Would haev prefered to have given this 2.5 stars.
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