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Rating: 
Summary: Another Land, Another Time
Review: "Persian Brides' is the first novel by Israeli-born Dorit Rabinyan. Rabinyan was only 21 at the time that she wrote the book. The novel won the 1999 JEWISH QUARTERLY Wingate Literary Award. "Persian Brides" takes the reader to a fictional Persian village in the early 1900's. The story focuses on 15 year old Flora, her 11 year old cousin Nazie, and their family, the Hanoums. Flora, is a headstrong girl, with perhaps a bit too much vanity. She rejects many suitors that come to her family proposing marriage. Nazie, who is treated like a servant by her aunt (Flora's mother), sees all this activity and longs to be married herself. The novel is full of culture and folklore and it was very interesting to read about the traditions and rituals that the family followed. The writing was beautiful and full of great imagery. I feel that the book would have been better with a touch more character and plot development. We read this book in my book group and there were mixed feelings on it. Some people didn't like it at all due to the limited plot and others enjoyed the writing and the magical imagery. I personally, love reading about other cultures and their traditions, folklore, superstitions and beliefs, so I found that aspect of this book very satisfying. One example of an interesting tradition in Flora's village is that mothers shout from the rooftop to let the neighborhood know when their daughter has their first menstruation. Flora's mother also performs nighttime inspections of Flora to be sure that she is still 'pure'. Can you imagine?! And you thought your mother was bad! The novel will make you smile at some of the other traditions and superstitions that Flora and her family live by.
Rating: 
Summary: Myths, curses, and neighborhood feuds personify this tale!
Review: In a milieu where women's realms are very much relegated to the household and the children, it's easy to see where the world becomes very small and horizons don't extend much past the immediate environs. Miriam Hanoum's queendom is inhabited by nosey neighbors upon whom she is always wishing various plagues and ills because of past or anticipated injuries. Miriam's daughter Flora is both her pride and her personal bane. She is pretty, spoiled, disobedient...and pregnant by a ne'er do well husband who has "skipped town". Nazie is the story's Cinderella, orphaned by Miriam's in-laws. Nazie is both servant and poor relative who is charitably taken in and becomes the family's obligation. Lowly though her station she pines for marriage, a woman's natural role. However, her diminutive size, very young age and lack of menses make her ineligible. Moussa, the Hanoum's only son, will be her eventual spouse when proof can be established that she is physically ready, in other words can bear children. The plot to this story is very thin. It is the cultural aspects and the humourous ways in which they are related that make it readable. Because it is a translation, the reader also wonders what's missing. What is it that I don't understand about time, place, culture and traditions that would give me more of a framework for additional appreciation? The most enjoyable part of the novel comes at its very end, when poor, pregnant, bloated Flora goes in search of her smelly, ignorant, yet very wily groom. Dragging her heavy body to a seaside town where they honeymooned, Flora finds her husband...married to another woman! His excuses are very entertaining and even poor, non-too-bright Flora, "catches on" that she's been bamboozled. All told, entertaining but sometimes hard to follow.
Rating: 
Summary: Magical Realism destroys Another Novel
Review: Let's face facts, magical realism has run its course and now most of what is published is just not up to par -- so many good writers turn their prose into mush by writing the magical realist drivel that they believe their readers still want. Aside from the works of Gabriel Garcia Marguez and a handful of other authors, most writers just can't pull it off.
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