For Matrimonial Purposes by Kavita Daswani

This was just the book I was looking for. I had the great fortune of hanging out for an hour or so at Indigo today, by myself. This is a rare treat, as usually I am pulled by a small child to the children's section and get just a small look through at books I would be interested in. I picked up 4 books and a journal. Three of the books were by Daswani. I had never heard of her before, but the write ups and recommendations sounded good (one was by Jennifer Weiner, an authour I enjoy). I'm glad I found them. This first book is chick lit with the flavour of India. I've mentioned before my love of India and Indian culture. So I really didn't know how I could go wrong (unless it turned out to be horribly written, which it wasn't). The premise of this story centres on Anju, a single Indian lady into her 30's and not married. A Hindi mother's nightmare. To compound her problem (or perhaps to solve it), Anju ventures out of India to New York. Much of the story focuses on the obsession in the Hindu culture for a woman to be married and well matched. It also tells Anju's story of living unmarried, torn between the live she loves in New York and the family and their wishes for her back in India. I very much enjoyed this book and look forward to my next read by Daswani.