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1st out of 27 books
—
8 voters
Love Marriage
by
V.V. Ganeshananthan (Goodreads Author)
In this globe-scattered Sri Lankan family, we speak of only two kinds of marriage. The first is the Arranged Marriage. The second is the Love Marriage. In reality, there is a whole spectrum in between, but most of us spend years running away from the first toward the second. [p. 3]
The daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants who left their collapsing country and married in Americ...more
The daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants who left their collapsing country and married in Americ...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
April 8th 2008
by Random House Trade Paperbacks
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The story of a family of the Tamoul diaspora through the eyes of a daughter trying to make sense of her life, her parents and her origins. This is a classic for a first novel, the quest for where we came from and trying to figure out where we are and where we are going. I didn't know much about Sri Lanka history, the Tamoul, the social upheavals, etc.
It's also about someone not fitting into the country where she is born and not really connected to the place people assume she is from. The best p...more
It's also about someone not fitting into the country where she is born and not really connected to the place people assume she is from. The best p...more
This was an interesting novel written from the perspective of a young girl who was born in America of Sri Lankan parents. The main character, Yalini, is the only child of parents who met after they each left Sri Lanka and settled in the United States. The book is written in very short chapters that make it easy and quick to read. The title of the book refers to the marriages of most people of Sri Lanka - the Arranged Marriage and its opposite, The Love Marriage, and all of the variations and in...more
(3 1/2 stars)
Love Marriage was certainly a solid first novel. Ganeshananthan explores not only the life of a young Sri Lankan woman living in America, but also the lives of several generations of her family and the history of her country.
One thing I enjoyed about this novel was the structure. Ganeshananthan focuses each section on a certain character and their ancestors, so that the reader discovers much more about them. All of this background (which is detailed, but not overwhelming) builds up...more
Love Marriage was certainly a solid first novel. Ganeshananthan explores not only the life of a young Sri Lankan woman living in America, but also the lives of several generations of her family and the history of her country.
One thing I enjoyed about this novel was the structure. Ganeshananthan focuses each section on a certain character and their ancestors, so that the reader discovers much more about them. All of this background (which is detailed, but not overwhelming) builds up...more
subtle, moving, sharply perceptive debut novel about a sri lankan/american family's coming to terms with the cost of sri lanka's war. loved the clean, unfussy language, the complex weaving of various family narratives, the hard-eyed look at the unending reach of war, and the funny/compassionate/complex take on the blurry line between love marriage and arranged marriage. while this was a political novel in that it engaged very seriously with the presence of explosive political events in very priv...more
A novel and a meditation on the role of marriage in Sri Lankan culture, especially in the diaspora. The author uses an unusual structure in her book--not typical chapters, but sections of a few pages or less with the beginnings indicated by type treatment only. As a book designer I appreciated the simplicity and elegance of the design. As a reader I at first wasn't sure I liked it--old habits die hard, even for someone who reads a lot of contemporary fiction and doesn't mind the occasional postm...more
This novel starts out trying to chronicle the spectrum of marriage types that lie between Love Marriage and Arranged Marriage, and in the process goes on to tackle a myriad of issues ranging from the Sri Lankan civil war and the Tamil Diaspora to family history and relationships to exile and home to customs and ceremonies, and ends up as a smattering of all of the above with no coherent focal point. It also left me wondering whether this was a novel being narrated in memoir format as claimed, or...more
he book takes place in the US and Canada, but deals with the history and marriages of a Sri Lankan family. The book is seen through the eyes of a girl, who was born on the day of 'Black July' in Sri Lanka, when violence against the Tamils began to escalate. The girl is safe though, with her parents who had a love marriage, and who lives in the US. Her mother brother however, her uncle, joins the Tamil Tigers, and in the present day he's come to Canada to die, bringing his daughter, the protagoni...more
This book is not only poetically written, it is quite informative on the situation occurring with the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. However, ultimately, as a novel, Love Marriage fails. Its vignette style is very difficult to follow in places, especially where the names and identities of the characters begin to blur together. The narrator, Yalini, is a rather flat excuse for a character, and the fact that she exists at all confuses me, as the style seems more first person omniscient than anything e...more
This is a brilliant and amazing read. The author crafts an engaging story; others have described it here. I, however, will speak to the writing. V.V. has taken seemingly ordinary English words and placed them in a blend that is musical and poetic. Her sentences and paragraphs had me in awe and delight. There are no tricks or contortions. Simple words have been masterfully put together. They conveyed perspective, emotionally tugging and creating a mental surprise. There was dynamic tension and so...more
J'ai lu ce livre en français. Excellente traduction mais il faut dire que le style est simple. Livre fort intéressant pour qui ne connait rien sur les Tamouls et le conflit au Sri Lanka. La famille et les effets de la famille sur la vie des autres surtout lorsque sa vie se déroule à l'extérieur du pays d'origine. Les coutumes, le mariage comme fil qui relie les habitudes et coutumes et permet d'introduire les différents personnages. Une approche originale..... Ce livre donne le goût de lire autr...more
Jul 30, 2011
Rashad Raoufi
added it
its the familiar south asian immigrant story to usa,abit like the namesake by jhumpa lahiri.
it just adds the tamil conflict angle on it, its a decent novel, nothing great about it, the narrator is hard to realte to, the style maybe too confusing and theres complete lack of dialogue, unusual for a western novel. it gets interesting towards the end but then i think the attempt to try a marquez style anecdotal stories about family members lack the great writers eloqunce and skill. still its interes...more
it just adds the tamil conflict angle on it, its a decent novel, nothing great about it, the narrator is hard to realte to, the style maybe too confusing and theres complete lack of dialogue, unusual for a western novel. it gets interesting towards the end but then i think the attempt to try a marquez style anecdotal stories about family members lack the great writers eloqunce and skill. still its interes...more
V.V. Ganeshananthan wrote this in a very unique style that took me a while to get used to. Once I got used to the writing, though, I enjoyed the way it flowed, and the way she wove the different stories together. For me, the most interesting part was reading about the Sri Lankan history. I have very little knowledge about any of the events she discussed in her book, and after (and while) reading the book, I spent a lot of time learning about them on the internet. Overall, it was an enjoyable rea...more
A story of many generations of a Sri Lankan (predominantly Tamil) family, told by a girl in the youngest generation currently living in Canada. It's fiction, but read like a documentation of her family history. The titled is misleading insofar as any romance of parents, aunt and uncles, etc. is told from a distance, as handed down by generations. That being said, I smiled many times throughout the book, and shuddered as well, for the novel doesn't shy away from the horrific violence in Sri Lanka...more
V. V. Ganeshananthan est diplômée d’Harvard et de l’université Columbia. Le sari rouge, son premier roman, a été sélectionné par l’Orange Prize for fiction.
« J’ai de la chance : j’ai grandi en sécurité, entourée d’affection. Aucun gouvernement n’a envoyé de soldats dans mon village. Je n’avais pas peur de voir ma maison brûler ni de perdre mes photos. Je n’avais pas peur de mourir ni de manquer de nourriture. Jamais je n’ai fait la queue pour une ration de riz ni dormi dans un temple. J’ai vécu...more
« J’ai de la chance : j’ai grandi en sécurité, entourée d’affection. Aucun gouvernement n’a envoyé de soldats dans mon village. Je n’avais pas peur de voir ma maison brûler ni de perdre mes photos. Je n’avais pas peur de mourir ni de manquer de nourriture. Jamais je n’ai fait la queue pour une ration de riz ni dormi dans un temple. J’ai vécu...more
The story revolves around Yalini, a first generation American woman born to Sri Lankan Tamil parents. She is forced to grapple with her family’s harrowing history of displacement and products of violence, as her ex-terrorist uncle lands at their doorsteps. To me, the narrative's integrity doesn’t lie in the author's ability to uphold a certain kind of objectivity or an artificially ‘balanced’ view. It comes from the author's determination to tell a story that has been constantly under-rated - an...more
I wrote a longer review on this, then facebook lost my goodreads acct... can't recreate it... but simply put, this was a fabulous opportunity for a writer to give insight inside the Tamil Tigers, and is horribly disappointing for being so poorly written. The writer tries to do that "I'm being artistic, so not going to connect the dots" -- but it really comes across that she is not competent or knowledgeable enough with her material to actually give any insider insight. I wanted to like this book...more
Love Marriage is a wonderful, but perhaps misleadingly titled first novel. While love and marriage are very much at the heart of the text, it is not precisely a love story, so much as it is an examination of love in all its sorts: romantic, familial, love of country and people, and so forth.
Yalini, the narrator, is the American-born daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants. Like many children of immigrants she finds herself torn between her parents' culture and the culture she has grown up surrounded...more
Yalini, the narrator, is the American-born daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants. Like many children of immigrants she finds herself torn between her parents' culture and the culture she has grown up surrounded...more
May 02, 2009
Claire S
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Claire by:
People interested in the ideas explored (listed in review).
Love and Marriage: Review
This review may contain spoilers, I didn’t check that box because it isn’t really that kind of book. However if you’re a reader who likes to know things only via the author, and beforehand to know only what’s on the book covers, you probably don’t want to read this.
This novel of a family tapestry woven with many threads including those of terrorism will impact you not due to the intensely sensational nature but instead due to it’s quiet intensity. The aspects of terroris...more
This review may contain spoilers, I didn’t check that box because it isn’t really that kind of book. However if you’re a reader who likes to know things only via the author, and beforehand to know only what’s on the book covers, you probably don’t want to read this.
This novel of a family tapestry woven with many threads including those of terrorism will impact you not due to the intensely sensational nature but instead due to it’s quiet intensity. The aspects of terroris...more
I almost immediately fell in love with the staccato rhythm of the blunt sentences and short chapters in V. V. Ganeshananthan’s first novel, Love Marriage. Love Marriage is the aggregate love story of narrator Yalini’s Sri Lankan ancestors, a compare and contrast of the many different forms the social contract of marriage can take. The stories of each pair of relations form a series of lovely vignettes, many of which have a beautiful internal symmetry: in one story Yalini’s father grows up thinki...more
TIGER BURNING BRIGHT
Gail Tsukiyama
A Review of Love Marriage
By V.V. Ganeshananthan
Random House
IN SPARE, LYRICAL PROSE, V.V. Ganeshananthan’s debut novel tells the story of two Sri Lankan Tamil families over four generations who, despite civil war and displacement, are irrevocably joined by marriage and tradition. At the heart of the story is American-born Yalini, 22, the only child of Tamil immigrants. Her father eventually becomes a doctor, her mother a teacher; they make their new life in the U...more
Gail Tsukiyama
A Review of Love Marriage
By V.V. Ganeshananthan
Random House
IN SPARE, LYRICAL PROSE, V.V. Ganeshananthan’s debut novel tells the story of two Sri Lankan Tamil families over four generations who, despite civil war and displacement, are irrevocably joined by marriage and tradition. At the heart of the story is American-born Yalini, 22, the only child of Tamil immigrants. Her father eventually becomes a doctor, her mother a teacher; they make their new life in the U...more
An Ameircan-born daughter of Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants, Yalini has always been caught between cultures. Now off at college, she is asked to rejoin her family and help to care for her estranged uncle, Kumaran, who has come to spend his final dying days with his family. As Yalini looks after her uncle, she begins to record the history of her family and the relationships and conflicts that have shaped it. Yalini struggles to identify with the traditions and history of her family and find her plac...more
I would not have finished this book if I hadn't been reading it for a review. Here is the LibraryThing Early Reviewer Review I wrote:
This book explores the story of a family across time, geography, and culture. It is told from the perspective of the daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants, Yalini, who struggles with what it means to exist in two cultural worlds.
The book is full of historical information about the Tamil Tigers and the political history of Sri Lanka. Unfortunately this historical inform...more
This book explores the story of a family across time, geography, and culture. It is told from the perspective of the daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants, Yalini, who struggles with what it means to exist in two cultural worlds.
The book is full of historical information about the Tamil Tigers and the political history of Sri Lanka. Unfortunately this historical inform...more
Love Marriage is the story of Yalini, an American born daughter of a Sri Lankan family. She and her family care for her dying uncle she had never met and through this she learns and keeps a record of the past generations of her family and the turmoil in Sri Lanka.
I really enjoyed the writing style of this book, little vignettes about her different relatives, usually related to if they got married/how/to who. I especially liked the story of Yalini's, father's mother, Tharshi. At first these litt...more
I really enjoyed the writing style of this book, little vignettes about her different relatives, usually related to if they got married/how/to who. I especially liked the story of Yalini's, father's mother, Tharshi. At first these litt...more
A look at the life of a Sri Lankan-American girl torn between her comfy life in the United States and the war-torn Sri Lanka that her family is still very much tied to. The author has an unorthodox style of painting a portrait of a certain event pivotal to each character's life in a single chapter, however lengthy or brief it needs to be, and left unnumbered. Sounds like the story may be tricky to follow, but it is so easy to follow.
A nice quick and somewhat interesting novel about two-sides of a family divided by time and distance - one stayed in Sri Lanka and spent decades in the Tamil Tigers movement and one moved to the US and followed the war through news reports...interesting when the two young cousins meet and have difficulty bridging the gaps in their experience and the lens through which they understand their Sri Lankan heritage.
Good read with a strong story-line. However, I felt as though there were several characters at different points in time, and it was difficult to follow. Also, I felt as though we'd get more of a character "wrap up" of the heroine at the end which we did not.
But the portrayl of the Tamil community was fantastic. Really strong young auther and impressive showing for a first novel.
But the portrayl of the Tamil community was fantastic. Really strong young auther and impressive showing for a first novel.
The novel explores the ways in which war(in this case the civil war of Sri Lanka) affects not only the ones directly involved but the families and even the forthcoming generations. And not just war. Its all about how the characteristics, attitudes and even philosophies run down generations in a family. That's what makes a family tree in the real sense. An interesting insight into war affected families, trying extremely hard to detach themselves of all traces of the dark past, but in vain afteral...more
This novel started out strong but I never connected to the narrator enough to get well-invested. The story was about others more than her so we don't really get to connect with her until close to the end. The character of the father could have kept me going as well but the story turned toward the uncle who just I just didn't care for. Lovely writing though.
This is one of those books where the narrator in the present is kind of dreary and unlikeable, but the flashbacks are intriguing and you think, "I want to know more about those characters and those situations!" There is a lot of interesting history regarding Sri Lanka, and for that I was glad to have read the book.
This could have been a great book. The plot was very intriguing but the writing style severely hampered it. I had trouble with the shifting story lines and sorting out who was who. Also, the first person narrator was not a very strong character and she could have used more fleshing out.
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