Customer Reviews

The Bride

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I read this book while living in Pakistan. As an american woman married to a Pakistani man and living in Islamabad's middle class, I could readily identify with many characters in this book. Most books written about this culture are usually judgemental or are from a western viewpoint and therefore erroneous.

The Bride begins at the time of The Partition, when India and Pakistan became two separate, independent countries following centuries of British rule. Because of unexpected events, an older unmarried Pathan man becomes the foster father of a Punjabi infant girl. He settles with the infant girl in Lahore (Punjab). As he gets older he fondly remembers his childhood in the NWFP. He sees the girl getting older and arranges a marriage for her with a Pathan family in NWFP. Against her will, she is married to a man she has never met and moves to a land she has never seen. She desperately wants to return to her kind foster father and escape the harsh and brutal living of the NWFP.

You will have to read this excellent book to find out how this story unfolds.

Punjabi and Pathan cultures are very disparate. The Punjab is a well-travelled, flat terrain farming province. The NWFP is mountainous and closed off to the outside world. The punjabi society is one of many cultures, ideas, religions and people. The NWFP society tends to be much more clannish, traditional, not accepting of change. Ms. Sidhwa does an excellent job of portraying both cultures and how they impact the life of this young girl. The conclusion of the novel is a realistic scenario, one that a young woman in today's Pakistan would face if in the same situation. Additionally, Ms. Sidhwa's portrayal of a young american woman is deadly accurate, and, in my opinion, a scathing commentary on the ignorance, self-centeredness and ethnocentrism of the first-world.

for those of you that dont know, this bk was republished under the title "the pakistani bride." "ice man candy" was also republished under the title "cracking india."
this is an amazing bk though, already wrote the review for the other though

A slow starter, but an excellent read. The main characters are a man, Qasim, who marries when he is 10 years old and a child, Zaitoon, who loses her parents when she is 5. Qasim becomes Zaitoon's father and we watch them become older in a newly-formed Pakistan. Zaitoon turns 16 and a marriage is arranged for her. It's a beautiful story that touches upon certain aspects of India that I've found are glossed over in other Indian novels: the underground and bad arranged marriages.

Through her characters in The Bride, Bapsi Sidhwa introduces and combines vastly different worlds seamlessly. The novel is infused with pathos through understated humour but overwhelming humanity. The result is that rarest of commodities, "a good read".