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literallykalasin 's review for:
Marriage Material
by Sathnam Sanghera
In this retelling of Arnold Bennett's "The Old Wives' Tale," Sathnam Sanghera has deftly spun a story that is as much about shop life and family dynamics as it is about the immigrant experience during a deeply racist time in British history.
Told from two time periods and perspectives, we are first placed into the present day and introduced to Arjan who has returned to his childhood home of Wolverhampton to run he family shop after the sudden death of his father. He finds himself giving up his London job as a graphic designer (a disappointment to his father and himself) and letting his engagement to Freya, a white girl, fall to the wayside.
The second narrative goes back to the 1960s to Arjan's mother Kamaljit and her sister, Surinder, teenagers helping run their parents' newsagent. Their father, after working many years alone in England, was finally able to send for his wife and daughters only to become bedridden and overbearing. His dying wish was to have his daughters married off -- Kamaljit who never liked school and had only a basic grasp of English seemed resigned, but Surinder wanted more for her life. When she overhears a conversation her mother has with her father's friend asking for her hand, Surinder takes fate into her own hands and disappears.
While there is nothing new in this story in terms of familial expectations and ties, newcomer experiences, and racism, Sanghera is able to tell this story with a sense of irony and deep love that makes this story very readable and heartfelt.
Told from two time periods and perspectives, we are first placed into the present day and introduced to Arjan who has returned to his childhood home of Wolverhampton to run he family shop after the sudden death of his father. He finds himself giving up his London job as a graphic designer (a disappointment to his father and himself) and letting his engagement to Freya, a white girl, fall to the wayside.
The second narrative goes back to the 1960s to Arjan's mother Kamaljit and her sister, Surinder, teenagers helping run their parents' newsagent. Their father, after working many years alone in England, was finally able to send for his wife and daughters only to become bedridden and overbearing. His dying wish was to have his daughters married off -- Kamaljit who never liked school and had only a basic grasp of English seemed resigned, but Surinder wanted more for her life. When she overhears a conversation her mother has with her father's friend asking for her hand, Surinder takes fate into her own hands and disappears.
While there is nothing new in this story in terms of familial expectations and ties, newcomer experiences, and racism, Sanghera is able to tell this story with a sense of irony and deep love that makes this story very readable and heartfelt.