Love Marriage

Having lived almost two decades in the Jaffna Peninsula of Sri Lanka, I wa very pleased to find the novel a very accurate statement of the background of the current conflict between the LTTE(Tigers) and the government. It was probably a wise decision to make the narrator, Yalini--whose name refers to the Yal, the harp symbol of Jaffna--not the center of attention. Her parents, who met and married in the USA, are the characters who have experienced the brunt of the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka. She introduces the problem of support for or reaction against the LTTE with a brother of her mother, who from Jaffna threatened Yalini's father, a doctor, who dared to become engaged to her mother, without the benefit of the traditional go-betweens. This situation is relieved when the brother, well-placed in the LTTE and who is dying of cancer, is released from the organization to go to Canada for medical help from his once maligned brother-in-law. He also brings with him his own daughter, a convinced Tiger, to give in marriage to a man who has been organizing support for the LTTE in Canada. Without making her book an apology for either the pro or the con case, the author presents the problem as it affects her characters' lives. It is a well-written novel and an amazing achievment in evenhandedness. Dr. Bob

This is a really wonderful account of a family separated by oceans and war. The writing is first-rate and the voice is wise and compassionate. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to know more about the human aspects of foreign conflict, as well as just a splendid lesson on how to write a novel. V.V. Ganeshananthan is one to watch and I can't wait for her next.

This was an excellent debut novel by a young writer I've been following for awhile. Her style in this writing is pithy and sparing and creates a certain warmth of environment that is infectious and simultaneously endearing. Although I have a good deal of personal knowledge of Sri Lanka, I have several friends and coworkers who have enjoyed the book without much of the backstory I've been privy to. Overall, a stupendous book on a topic much overlooked in today's new novels.

Yes, there are a fair number of rhetorical flourishes in this first novel that may not suit everyone's taste, particularly since the story would draw the reader in effectively even if they weren't there. Yes, it may seem odd that the story's protagonist is arguably its least compelling character (although she is redeemed somewhat through her link to another character late in the novel), or that for a substantial part of the later chapters, not much actually happens. But there's so much good happening here that I recommend V.V. Ganeshananthan's "Love Marriage" wholeheartedly. The episodic, almost staccato manner in which the story is told works effectively, both as a way of flitting between points in time and vividly rendered spaces in the characters' hearts and as a way of muting the effect of the aforementioned rhetorical flourishes. The limning of the two worlds Yalini straddles is skillful, with the Sri Lankan parts being particularly effective (I actually found myself wanting more of the Sri Lankan story, particularly the Tigers, than we get). The stories of a number of the supporting characters in this novel--aunts and uncles and cousins--are three-dimensional and compelling, and the place Yalini and her family's arc ultimately takes us is not to the clear conclusion that one might expect (and that some of the marketing material curiously hints at) but it is a place that I found consistent with the story's realism and nuance and the substantive themes woven throughout. Solid stuff, overall.

If I was going to write a novel about my experience as a Sri Lankan American and the two cultures, this is exactly what I would hope it would be like in both content and writing style. Actually that's an understatement: this is more than what I could possibly hope such a novel to be. Ganeshananthan's story-telling skill is superb and her literary voice is honest, sincere, intelligent, and eloquent. This is a FANTASTIC first novel and I am eagerly awaiting the second, go VV! Definitely read this book, I sense a budding Arundhati Roy in this woman....