From My Bookshelf....by Lynn Willoughby

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A Good Indian Wife - Anne Cherian
This novel is a joy to read and we wonder how successful the melding of two different cultures will be.
Heel is a successful doctor in San Francisco, for all intents totally Americanized, complete with a beautiful, blonde girlfriend. However, when he returns to India to visit his sick grandfather, he is outmaneuvered by his family, and finds himself standing next to Leila at a traditional wedding.
Leila is thirty years old and has long ago resigned herself to spinsterhood. She has no idea what to expect when she and Neel are alone in San Francisco. Her sheltered family life has not prepared her for marriage to a virtual stranger, nor for a life in a strange country far from her extended family.
However, Leila shines in this story. She moves beyond doubting herself at every turn and constantly trying to please her new husband. She begins to explore her inner resources and finds her integrity and innate honesty undiminished by Neel's behaviour. Characters with their flaws and uncertainties on display give us a believable tale and expose us to the concept and experience of an arranged marriage.
This is Cherian's debut novel and I look forward to her next.

Brick Lane - Monica Ali
This novel deals with the life of immigrant girls. In particular, we meet Nazeen, an Indian teenager forced into an arranged marriage with a much older man, who is living in London's East End, on Brick Lane.
She depends totally upon her husband as she speaks no English. The issues of love, cultural differences and the vagaries of the human spirit are drawn with complexity throughout the novel. As her husband, Chanu, has no expectations in life, her future stretches long before her and only her correspondence with her sister, Hasina, sustains her at times. On the whole, though, it is Nazeen who is the true survivor, and her developing friendship with Razia is the conduit to understanding the ways of her new homeland. Nazeen is the one who sews to achieve financial security for her family. Chanu becomes increasingly indebted to Mrs Islam, who arrives with her vast bag of patent medicines and easy money, charging huge interest rates to the desperate failures. When she visits, she always comes with her enforcers - her dimwit sons.
The family troubles transcend national boundaries and traditions. It is what makes this a universal story.

In a Far Country - Linda Holeman
This novels has some interesting history and insight into India in the late 1890's, when missionary zealots were trying to convert the multitudes. We catch glimpses of native food, flora, smells, weather and sometimes people, but much of the story line is wasted on banalities.
Pree Fincastle is the daughter of impoverished missonaries working near Lahore. It is the only home she has ever known and when both her parents die she must find her own way in the world. She travels to Peshawar to find Kai, the Ayah's son who has been her only friend, only to find he has another, secret life of rebellion and danger.
The characters are well defined, but I found myself annoyed at Kai's character and the role he plays in this work of historical fiction. What I did like was the descriptions of India. The kindness of Cook at the mission - to Pree, and to the beggar with leprosy. The right of entitlement shown by all the English - whether sending children to be educated in England, their distrust of all things Indian, was graphic and disturbing.
If you like historical fiction you may want to read this, but I have read better books with stronger story lines.

Who Knew?
The Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 was the result of many complex issues, but the final spark was the controversy over ammunition for the new Enfield Rifle. To load the rifle, the Sepoys had to bite the cartridge open. Cartridges were greased and sealed with lard and tallow - regarded as anathema by both Hindu and Muslim Sepoys.