Scan barcode
A review by shamuwilson
Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion by Piyali Bhattacharya
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this book. I think it’s a great read for first-gen South Asian women. It touches on a lot of issues that are considered taboo in South Asian culture: sexual orientation, non-traditional careers, abuse, and more. And some of the essays were fantastic. But many of them did not live up to my expectations.
For example, in one of the essays, a woman spends the whole time explaining how she didn’t see herself following her fathers wishes to marry young, and wanted to stay single until she was thirty and wrote books about that etc. In the end, she ends up getting married young just as her father wanted and instead sends the message of “well, I did it like he wanted but I did it for ME not him so it’s fine.” A lot of the stories go like this. Another, for example, focuses on a woman who didn’t want to obey her parents wishes of marrying a Parsi man, but in the end, ends up marrying a Parsi man. It felt silly. What’s the point of including so many essays about rebellion that ultimately actually end in traditional conformity?
I also felt like the majority of essays focused on the same couple of topics, so it felt a bit repetitive at times.
Overall, I think it’s a worthwhile read for South Asian women (if anything to find some comfort in others’ stories of the relatable struggles of being first-gen), but it unfortunately wasn’t as moving or influential as I had thought it might be.
For example, in one of the essays, a woman spends the whole time explaining how she didn’t see herself following her fathers wishes to marry young, and wanted to stay single until she was thirty and wrote books about that etc. In the end, she ends up getting married young just as her father wanted and instead sends the message of “well, I did it like he wanted but I did it for ME not him so it’s fine.” A lot of the stories go like this. Another, for example, focuses on a woman who didn’t want to obey her parents wishes of marrying a Parsi man, but in the end, ends up marrying a Parsi man. It felt silly. What’s the point of including so many essays about rebellion that ultimately actually end in traditional conformity?
I also felt like the majority of essays focused on the same couple of topics, so it felt a bit repetitive at times.
Overall, I think it’s a worthwhile read for South Asian women (if anything to find some comfort in others’ stories of the relatable struggles of being first-gen), but it unfortunately wasn’t as moving or influential as I had thought it might be.