Really wonderful book...lots of beautiful imagery.
A rich, colorful explosion of Indian culture spanning from Madras to Demerara, this novel is so vividly told and so skillfully woven that you'll find yourself visualizing the story as you go along, in full color with surround sound, smells and all.Three children, two countries, three stories, three different decades - separate, yet cohesively bonded into one epic saga.
As lush and as breathtaking as the bougainvillea, the hibiscus, and the vibrant oleanders that enrich the landscape of Madras, India, Sharon Maas weaves a mesmerizing tale of custom, culture, love, and human resiliency in the pages of her novel, OF MARRIAGEABLE AGE.And these accolades come from a guy who wouldn't know a 'sari' from Saran wrap--who before now couldn't even find British Guiana on a world map the size of my brother-in-law's ego.
When I started reading this book, I was sure I would end up awarding it five stars. The writing was lovely, the characters were engaging and the settings were lush and exotic.
It is a joy to come across a writer who can capture the essence and soul of a foreign culture and people and create characters so vividly alive that they remain in our memories like old friends that we've lost touch with and pause to wonder about every so often.Sharon Maas' novel `Of Marriageable Age' is a sprawling epic which moves with fluid rapidity through time and distance to chronicle the lives of three people from pre-war and post-independence India to the maelstrom of hope and conflict that is pre-independence British Guiana.
This is an exquisitely written and superlative, multi-generational novel, delicately woven with gossamer threads of human experience. It is a story of human frailties, passions, and cultural traditions.
When speaking of the book Of Marriageable Age by Sharon Maas it is difficult not to use such words as tapestry, intricate and woven. Each thread of the story seems to be woven in such a way as to create an intricate tapestry which presents a delicate picture of the lives of the characters in this book.
Of Marriageable Age is a cleverly crafted and intricately woven story dealing with the complexities of arranged marriages.Sharon Maas has captured a certain innocence in her writing.
Black Africans, brown East Indians, white Englishmen (and women) -- all come under the scrutiny of writer, Sharon Maas, in her engaging novel, OF MARRIAGEABLE AGE, -- and all are found lacking, that is to say, human. There are no sacred cows here, except, of course, for those contentedly wandering the streets in which this story plays out.
An amazingly beautiful book. If you want to read a book and feel beauty, love, pain, and hope.
When a Man of the West opens the book and tries to make a dent in it, hard time may come. Writing is so different, so slow, seemingly detached, Orient-scented and full of meditation.
Of Marriageable Age is one of the most innovative novels I have ever read. Within this one book, the reader can enjoy a thoughtful look at arranged marriages, travel through the formation of a individual's character from childhood, explore the rich tapestry of multicultural heritages and religions, appreciate the sources of generational conflict, obtain new perspectives on overcoming prejudice, and unravel some delightful mysteries all within an intertwined story line built around the lives of three rather different kinds of characters.
The basic premise of the book is about arranged marriages and the struggle to accept or reject them as families lose their traditions. I finished this book several weeks ago thinking I would like to write a review of it but never having done one, I put it off.
This is a very enjoyable novel with memorable characters. Set in India, England, and Guyana, the story centers around an orphan and his adopted father, the mystically endowed daughter of a cook, an Indian family in Guyana and an English family in India at the end of the British reign.
Being Asian, a lawyer and in an arranged marriage myself , I could certainly identify with the conflicts the characters faced: arranged marriages, search for a potential partner by ones parents, conflict of whether or not to defy ones parents in their insistence on having an arranged marriage, trying to understand their arbitary prejudices they held against different castes and creeds. All of these issues are dealt with in the amazing book.
