Customer Reviews

The Village Bride of Bevery Hills

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Following an arranged marriage to a handsome, likable man, Priya leaves India for Los Angeles. Although she's a college graduate, she's been raised to be a good stay-at-home wife.

Living with her in-laws, Priya finds herself stifled. She spends hours helping with cooking and cieaning, and she's expected to be humble and respectful with her husband's parents. Luckily Priya's mother-in-law encourages her to take a job. She lands a spot as receptionist to a top Hollywood news magazine.

Continuing to be humble and polite beyond Hollywood standards, Priya befriends a coworker who teaches her how to dress. Unfortunately, she has to sneak to her gym to change clothes, because her mother-in-law forbids dressing western-style...except in some old clothes that are beyond vintage and retro.

Because Priya says yes to everything, she gets asked to do all sorts of work for the reporters. Her lucky break comes when she interviews a big star. She does such a great job that she gets promoted fast.

Now her home life gets even more tense. Her husband refuses any kind of counseling. Priya makes her escape and ...well, it's a romance!

Although Priya's rapid rise is hardly typical, it's not impossible. As a career consultant, I've learned that someone who is young, humble and non-threatening can often rise faster than someone who carefully strategizes. And I'm convinced that, as the saying goes, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

Village Bride is a light-hearted book. I Don't Know How She Does It and Revenge of the Middle-Aged Housewife meets Bend it like Beckham and Monsoon Wedding. Enjoyable on its own unpretentious terms. .

Priya is delightful as a young woman who's not ready to ditch tradition but who's no longer willing to be subordinate to her husband. I empathized with her fear of merging on the freeway -- I felt the same way when I learned to drive in California!

Curl up with this book on a cold fall day or pack it in your bag for a long airplane flight.

When I heard Kavita Daswani, author of "For Matrimonial Purposes" had written a second book entitled The Village Bride of Beverly Hills, I eagerly got ahold of a copy as quickly as I could.

In this book, the main heroine Priya has just gotten married (in an arranged marriage) to Sanjay, a well-to-do Indian man living in Los Angeles. As is the tradition in Indian marriages, Sanjay lives with his parents, and as the wife, Priya is expected to take care of the household and try to have children. However, when it doesn't happen (the children part at least), Sanjay's parents decide Priya is to get a job. Priya is only too happy to comply, as she is tired of catering to their every whim. She can't seem to relate much to Sanjay either, with him either always at work or taking his parents' side against her.

Somehow Priya manages to land a glamourous job at a major Hollywood media company, starting as a receptionist and working her way up. Soon she is leading a double life - interviewing famous movie stars, wearing revealing designer clothing, and making friends at work. Then she goes home at night (after changing into her old drab clothing) and is the perfect wife who cleans and cooks. She can't tell Sanjay because he will disapprove. And his family would be angry. SO what's a girl to do? Can she keep up the double life or will it all crumble around her in disaster?

I enjoyed "The Village Bride of Beverly Hills." Once again Kavita Daswani's easy flowing, addictive and intriguing story-telling drew me in. I was able to sympathize with Priya's situation, as she was a pretty likeable character. However, I found a lot of the story to be very unrealistic and unlikely. The author also could have done a better job of researching her subject matter. However, I must say that the story was well-written enough and enjoyable that those factors didn't matter as much as they normally would. I am definitely looking forward to this author's next novel. She has a particular way with words that will keep you reading until the end.

Don't miss it!

I liked this book. Author Kavita Daswani opens the door, without apologies, to a fascinating part of Indian culture-- arranged marriages. The main character, Priya, was likable. While her in-laws were a pain, they weren't so bad that I hated them, and instead accepted them and their traditional ideas at face value. The book was a fun, easy read, and well written. I find myself re-thinking parts, and realizing the subtleties I mised at first read.

While the Hollywood Insider job may not sound plausible to some, I was willing to see it as simply a good example for illustating the point of work vs. family vs. "good Indian girl" vs. being free to make one's own choices.

I look forward to more from Kavita Daswani.

I am not much of a novel reader. But just the title of the book enchanted me. Just the title reminded me of myself - a village bride; educated, yet subdued by traditional believes and customs; educated yet afraid to expose those knowledge.

The author has written it with simplicity, humor, and a touch of suspense, which gave me the enthusiasm to read it in almost one sit. I liked her courage to stand up until her husband realized the true meaning of marriage - it is not one subduing the other; it is not one giving `permission' to the other; marriage is indeed sharing, respecting and giving the space for each other. I liked the way Priya did not fall for the roses, rosy words, nor the diamond ring.

When Priya picked up and went back to India, it sunk my heart. I was so angry with her as I usually am angry with women who are so smart and intelligent but yet break down and fall apart to `keep up with stupid family traditions'.

The part that was unbelievable for me was how Priya could keep the salary from her husband. In Indian marriages, in general, it is the husband who takes the paycheck from his wife and banks it. Priya, especially the Village bride that she claims she was, being under the control of her in-laws, how did she manage to do that? Also when she went back to her parents, it was especially her grandmother who supported her and stood up against Sanjay from taking her back. Normally, a family of such `village' tradition would encourage their daughter to obey and just follow and do whatever their husband tells them, even if the `jerk' abused her physically and mentally. Having brought up in a traditional family - village girl - these things were unbelievable. Anyway, it is a novel. So I guess I can't ask too many questions. But it indeed was a great read.

I would recommend this book not as a novel but as an inspirational book for the many `Village Brides' to come out and stand up for what they believed and be themselves.

The Author did a great job.

Although the novel had piked my interest with the opening chapter, and is a definite entertaining read for a lazy Sunday afternoon, I have too say the novel is quite one-dimensional. Disregarding the improbability of the occurrences (besides all novels hope to add to our imaginations), the characters were grossly underdeveloped, with each chapter rehashing the same side of every persona, but in a different situation. There were few if any metaphors to develop depth to the story. However, several typical Indian sterotypes were displayed (although commonly addressed in many East-West books). Given that the story was written in first person through the eyes of Priya, her thoughts and observations seemed to be as simple-minded as the character herself. Overall a fun, light hearted read, with one dimensional characters and a one dimensional storyline, very much so like a typical Bollywood movie. Recommend it if you'd like a story spoon fed to you.

East-West stories, especially about assimilation, are a favorite of mine. When I saw this book, I thought perfect. Yes, the story is about a young Indian bride coming to the US after her arranged marriage. Her adjustment to life here seems to move much faster than the typical immigrant experience. What seems to be within days of her arrival, she has a driver's license and looking for a job. Her meteoric rise to the top at the magazine also feels a bit contrived. Also the turn to therapist friend Steve, seemed hokey.

The living arrangement with Priya's in-laws, however, was believable. Who would have expected a culture clash within the culture. Too bad that the characters weren't developed more fully. With a little more effort, the relationships between Priya and her in-laws could have been a bit more interesting, especially between Priya and her sister in law, Malini. The struggle was there, but never fully fleshed out.

"The Village Bride" was an easy read.This book satisfied my need to read something light between more serious reads (a literary sorbet, if you will). For a more realistic picture of Indian or Indian-American women's experiences, read Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies" or Chitra Divikaruni's "Arranged Marriage."

The book is quite good. It plateaus in the middle when Priya the daughter is just going back and forth to work and home. But then, things take a turn for better or for worse.

I realized how Tradition can get in the way of an 'ideal marriage'. However, tradition is not all negative, I just hated her husband's family for not recognizing her as a human being.

But I guess, that is what happens to a traditional Indian wife when she is at the whims of her husband's parents. Even more upsetting is that I know this type of situation happens everyday. As a woman, I don't sit well with that. And as a American, I don't have to deal with that crap.

I was somewhat skeptical of her rise to so quickly in the entertiament industry. Of course it is fiction, so I went along with the ride anyway.

I like the concept.

Priya is new to America, having moved to California from India after an arranged marriage in which she met her husband, Sanjay, a week before their wedding. She is now expected to be a proper Hindi wife, living with her in-laws and doing all the cooking and cleaning. When she does not immediately become pregnant, she must find a job to help support the family. Priya finds a job at a Hollywood entertainment magazine that she knows her husband and in-laws would not approve of and now finds herself living a secret double life and feeling torn between tradition and Western ways.

I loved this book and found Priya a very refreshing character. Not claiming to be perfect, she still manages to be a moral, well spoken and well educated woman which you don't always find in chick lit novels. The plot is excellent and I imagine that similar situations do exist in real life with women trying to hold on to traditional ways but also wanting to be successful in their careers. This novel loses one star for me, by leaving what I feel is an important question unanswered with regards to Priya's job at the end. Besides that, great! Recommended as a beach read that will make you think a little bit.

I found this originally at Books-a-Million on the $3 shelf. I normally don't like chick-lit because it's overdone in the sex area, but this was nicely done. Only drawback is language in some parts, but the storyline was nicely put together and kept me wanting to know what happened next. The narrative is not bogged-down by extensive descriptions. Flashbacks are placed appropriately when they will most benefit the reader. Incidentally, it helped me to understand the mindset of the private Indian family that recently moved across the street from me.

Priya's story is about an Indian woman who moves to America, but I think anyone who has ever felt taken for granted can empathize with her adventures working at a snarky office in Beverly Hills. I know what it is like to have women act friendly to my face, and then say bad things about me behind my back. It seemed like Priya did not have a lot of real female friends she could turn to, besides her sisters and Krishma. I love the Indian theme, but what stands out in this book is how women from all walks of life could be more supportive of each other.