Rai, Bali: (Un)arranged Marriage
The book (Un)arranged Marriage was written by the English author Bali Rai in the year 2001.
It has got 272 pages and is about a fourteen year old boy, who lives in Leicester, England. He is called Manjit, or Manny by his friends, and he and his family are Punjabi. Normally, a Punjab boy gets married by an arranged marriage at the age of 17, with a girl he doesn’t know.
When he is fourteen, Manny’s father tells him, that he has already arranged a marriage with him and a girl from India for his seventeenth birthday. At this time, the problems with Manny start. He doesn’t want to get married with a girl he hasn’t seen before, so he protests. Because of this, his older brothers, who are both already married, and his father, who is an alcoholic, beat him very often, and his mother only cries. With his girlfriend Lisa and with his friend Ady he talks a lot about his problems, and both tell him that he should go on protesting. The problems get bigger and bigger for Manny and after some time, he decides to escape from the plans of his family…
I think that the book (Un)arranged Marriage is easy to read and it is also a bit interesting, because you learn something about other cultures. At the beginning it was very exciting to read, but in the end it gets a bit boring.
I think if you like books in which people have to deal with their problems, this book will be the right one for you.
I would give the book *** out of *****, because in the end it was very hard for me to go on reading.
Bali Rai: (Un)arranged Marriage. 272 pages. Signatur: FE.J/RAI, rating: ***
© Maxi Madern 5B (Sept.2008)