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(Un)arranged Marriage Book

A moving story of alienation and identity, (Un)arranged Marriagefollows teenager Manny as he struggles to maintain his links to hisfamily and live his own life.The toilets in the motorwayservice station at Leicester Forest East stank of disinfectant. But atleast they were warm compared to the biting wind that was kicking upoutside in the car park - where my two brothers Harry and Ranjit werewaiting for me. Waiting to take me to Derby, to a wedding--mywedding. A wedding that I hadn't asked for, to a girl who I didn'tknow. On the morning of his marriage, which alsohappens to be the morning of his 17th birthday, Manny looks back on his rebellious teenage years. From the age of 13 he has found that the values of the Leicester Punjabi community from which he comes have little relevance to him. … read more...He has nothing in common with his brothers or parents. Manny's older brothers appear to him to glory in their ignorance while his father is a hypocritical, violent drunk. His mother is a remote figure who appears only to ask what he wants to eat or to cry hysterically at his disobedience. Knowing that he is expected to follow the same path as his brothers into an arranged marriage at the age of seventeen and a blue collar job, Manny makes the decision to try to make himself the most unsuitable suitor possible, the bridegroom that no-one will choose for their daughter. Finally though, it is a family trip to India which irrevocably sets Manny's mind on the course he had always suspected that he would have to take. Written in the first person, (Un)Arranged Marriage feels very much as if it is inspired by personal experience, if not of Manny's specific situation then of his environment. The characters inhabit an unsentimental, realistic world, a world where kids often don't try quite hard enough at school and families cannot bridge the huge generation gaps between them. Perhaps what is most striking about Manny is his complete alienation from the Punjabi culture which his family are trying so hard to preserve, and his overwhelming detachment is skillfully captured here. The culture that Manny inherited is completely eclipsed as he embraces the Western culture he finds everywhere outside his home and which offers him the choices he desperately wants. --Rachel EdissRead More read less...

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  Set partly in the UK and partly in the Punjab region of India, '(Un)arranged Marriage' is a perceptive look at a young man's fight to free himself from family expectations and an arranged marriage he doesn't want.

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  MANNY WANTS TO BE A FOOTBALLER. OR A POP STAR. OR WRITE A BESTSELLER. HE DOESN'T WANT TO GET MARRIED...'Harry and Ranjit were waiting for me - waiting to take me to Derby to a wedding. My wedding. A wedding that I hadn't asked for that I didn't want. To a girl who I didn't know...If they had bothered to open their eyes they would have seen me: seventeen angry upset but determined - determined to do my own thing to choose my own path in life...' Set partly in the UK and partly in the Punjab region of India this is a fresh bitingly perceptive and totally up-to-the-minute look at one young man's fight to free himself from family expectations and to be himself free to dance to his own tune.

• ISBN0552547344
• ISBN-139780552547345
• AuthorsBali Rai
• Published3 May 2001
• PublisherCorgi Childrens
• BindingPaperback (Book)
• Number of Pages272
• Edition
• Format

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