Review : The (un) arranged marriage

The (un)arranged marriage by Bali Rai

The book ‘the (un) arranged marriage’ by Bali Rai tells the story of a 13 year-old boy named Manjit (in the book they call him Manny), son of a Punjabi family who lives in Leicester in the UK. Manjit has got a black friend called Ady, with whom he does really crazy things like stealing or skipping classes or smoking. Manjit’s father does not like his friend Ady, with the consequence that father and son fight almost every day. Sometimes he even hits him. A cause for his aggressivity is probably his alcohol consumption. Furthermore his biggest wish is, that Manjit gets married with 17 years, like his both brothers, to a woman he hasn’t ever met. To show his father the rejection about the forced marriage, he stays away from home all day and spends a lot of time with Ady and his girlfriend Sarah. Sarah’s best friend Lisa becomes Manjit’s girlfriend after a while. Time passes and the relationship between Manjit and his parents gets worse, Lisa’s parents accept him, in contrast to Manjit’s parents, who don’t know about this relationship. For a Punjabi boy it’s forbidden to have a girlfriend if they’re not married even if she’s white.

For his father, the only solution is to take Manjit to India where he learns to be a ‘real’ Punjabi. After six weeks, his family left him alone there pretending to go to the airport to look if they can get back their passports because they’ve been ‘stolen’. When his uncle Jag finds out what they’ve done to him, he helps him getting out of this situation. He has been also an outcast of the Punjabi family because he worked outside of India and didn’t get married to an Indian girl too. The first thing what happens when Manjit gets back to England is a really hard welcome home, his father hits him again. The next time, like two months he just stays in his room and doesn’t go out anymore. Finally he accepts the forced marriage because he sees this fact as the only escape from his family. The day of his 17^th birthday everything is prepared for the wedding…

Bali Rai, the author of this book is born in 1971 in Leicester, UK. He’s son of an Indian family which immigrated to the UK. Until now he wrote five books, the (un)arranged marriage, his first one which was published in 2001 and translated into 8 languages,The Crew, Rani & Sukh,The Whisper, The last Taboo and the Angel Collector.

In my opinion this book is a success, it’s written really interesting and with full of sentiments. The reader is able to understand the thoughts or feelings of the narrator and it’s easy to understand his message.