Description:

From Publishers Weekly

All the commonplaces of culture clash are on display in this second novel by Malladi (A Breath of Fresh Air), about an Indian woman who hides her engagement to an American man from her traditional Brahmin family. "I had escaped arranged marriage," begins Priya Rao, "by coming to the United States to do a master's in Computer Sciences at Texas A&M, by conveniently finding a job in Silicon Valley, and then by inventing several excuses to not go to India." At 27, having run out of excuses, she returns to her home city of Hyderabad and runs headlong into a dizzying array of parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Tormenting Priya is a secret: Nick, her American fiance. She is afraid to tell anyone about him, fearing she will be disowned, and even agrees to meet an Indian man her parents would like her to marry. Malladi succeeds in giving a vivid sensory impression of the south of India, its foods and climate and customs, but Priya's family falls neatly into stock types: the overbearing mother who wants Priya to marry within her caste; the hip younger brother who represents the next, Westernized generation of Indians; the catty aunt who constantly criticizes her niece. Awkward prose ("lethargy swirling around her like an irritating mosquito") is a distraction, and melodrama takes the place of nuanced plotting-a final twist is particularly egregious.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Teens will identify with the family dynamics portrayed here, but those from foreign cultures will be most affected by this story of love and family. When she returns to India after seven years, Priya Rao, 27, faces the harsh reality of prejudice and culture clash. Besides religion, caste, and financial status, there is the matter of skin color. Lighter is better, and Priya is considered "dark." Hyderabad seems hotter and dirtier, and her family as intractable as ever, but mango season, the frenetic preparation of pickles and other delicacies from the fruit that ripens in southern India's midsummer, is her favorite time. Ma, a "super nag," quickly makes clear that it is time for her daughter to marry a "nice Indian boy," best of all, a Teluga Brahmin from a family they have chosen, though Priya has veto power once the two have met. How can she tell them that she is engaged to her American lover? She has returned for that purpose, and to reconnect with home and family. [...]
Molly Connally, Chantilly Regional Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.