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A review by constantreader471
This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir by Zarna Garg
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.5
4.5 stars rounded down for a book that is an eye opener. Zarna Garg has written an autobiography that is at times, sad, appalling, inspiring and informative. She explains how she grew up in a well off Indian family in Mumbai, India. But then when she was 14 years old, her world changed overnight. Her father informed her that she had to get married to a man that he would choose for her. She refused and he ejected her from his house. India is evidently a male dominated society and her father could do this without consequences. Marriage at age 14 in India is common.
A relevant quote: "In Indian terms, once I hit age twenty, I flipped at exactly midnight from being a precocious child bride to being an over educated nuisance spinster."
By contrast, in the US marriage at age 14 is illegal in almost all states. In the 1 or 2 states that allow it, no child can be forced to marry someone they don't want to marry. When I talked about this subject with my wife she mentioned that there have been newspaper articles about immigrant families from the Middle East or South Asia, who have become entangled with the courts because of trying to force an underage child into a forced marriage.
Zarna lived on the street and sometimes at friends/relatives houses for a year and a half before she gave up and came home to her father. But then fate intervened as a US student visa that she had applied for several months prior was finally approved. With the help of a sibling, she secretly flew to the US.
Once in the US, she was able to extend her stay long enough to get a law degree and meet and marry someone of her own choosing. One more quote: "Indians don't marry for love. We marry for security. If you end up with love, that's a happy surprise. Like a little prize in a cereal box. But Americans demand-nay, worship--"love marriages," which is what Indians call non-arranged marriages."
Then she decides to expand her horizons again at age 40 and becomes a stand up comic. I have watched her on YouTube and she is funny. I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about Indian society and how people live there.
This book was a fast read and has some laugh out loud lines. I recommend it to anyone who likes books with humor.
Some thoughts on those who read this review and think that I believe that the US is a perfect society. It is not and has many flaws, some of which are terrible, including for instance, invading another country on a flimsy excuse of weapons of mass destruction, later proven to be a lie.
#ThisAmericanWoman #NetGalley
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
A relevant quote: "In Indian terms, once I hit age twenty, I flipped at exactly midnight from being a precocious child bride to being an over educated nuisance spinster."
By contrast, in the US marriage at age 14 is illegal in almost all states. In the 1 or 2 states that allow it, no child can be forced to marry someone they don't want to marry. When I talked about this subject with my wife she mentioned that there have been newspaper articles about immigrant families from the Middle East or South Asia, who have become entangled with the courts because of trying to force an underage child into a forced marriage.
Zarna lived on the street and sometimes at friends/relatives houses for a year and a half before she gave up and came home to her father. But then fate intervened as a US student visa that she had applied for several months prior was finally approved. With the help of a sibling, she secretly flew to the US.
Once in the US, she was able to extend her stay long enough to get a law degree and meet and marry someone of her own choosing. One more quote: "Indians don't marry for love. We marry for security. If you end up with love, that's a happy surprise. Like a little prize in a cereal box. But Americans demand-nay, worship--"love marriages," which is what Indians call non-arranged marriages."
Then she decides to expand her horizons again at age 40 and becomes a stand up comic. I have watched her on YouTube and she is funny. I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about Indian society and how people live there.
This book was a fast read and has some laugh out loud lines. I recommend it to anyone who likes books with humor.
Some thoughts on those who read this review and think that I believe that the US is a perfect society. It is not and has many flaws, some of which are terrible, including for instance, invading another country on a flimsy excuse of weapons of mass destruction, later proven to be a lie.
#ThisAmericanWoman #NetGalley
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.