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Wife
"Mukherjee writes with beautiful precision and just the right density of detail. There is an unlikely marriage of Jane Austen and Nathaniel West in her words."
THE VILLAGE VOICE
"Dimple Dasgupta had set her heart on marrying a neurosurgeon, but her father was looking for engineers in the matrimonial ads." So begins the wry story of an obedient daughter of middle-class Indian parents who is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Driven first to shock and then to despair, Dimple lives in a waking dream. And when her fantasies take a violent turn, she wonders where wishes end and reality begins....
THE VILLAGE VOICE
"Dimple Dasgupta had set her heart on marrying a neurosurgeon, but her father was looking for engineers in the matrimonial ads." So begins the wry story of an obedient daughter of middle-class Indian parents who is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Driven first to shock and then to despair, Dimple lives in a waking dream. And when her fantasies take a violent turn, she wonders where wishes end and reality begins....
213 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
7 people are currently reading
553 people want to read
About the author
Bharati Mukherjee
47 books227 followersBharati Mukherjee was an Indian-born award winning American writer who explored the internal culture clashes of her immigrant characters in the award-winning collection The Middleman and Other Stories and in novels like Jasmine and Desirable Daughters.
Ms. Mukherjee, a native of Calcutta, attended schools in England, Switzerland and India, earned advanced degrees in creative writing in the United States and lived for more than a decade in Canada, affording her a wealth of experience in the modern realities of multiculturalism.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Calcutta in 1959 and a master’s degree from the University of Baroda, in Gujarat, in 1961. After sending six handwritten stories to the University of Iowa, she was accepted into the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she studied with Philip Roth and Vance Bourjaily in her first year. She earned an M.F.A. in 1963 and a doctorate in comparative literature in 1969 at Iowa.
After years of short-term academic appointments, Ms. Mukherjee was hired in 1989 to teach postcolonial and world literature at the University of California, Berkeley.
Bharati Mukherjee died on Saturday, January 28, 2017 in Manhattan. She was 76.
Ms. Mukherjee, a native of Calcutta, attended schools in England, Switzerland and India, earned advanced degrees in creative writing in the United States and lived for more than a decade in Canada, affording her a wealth of experience in the modern realities of multiculturalism.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Calcutta in 1959 and a master’s degree from the University of Baroda, in Gujarat, in 1961. After sending six handwritten stories to the University of Iowa, she was accepted into the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she studied with Philip Roth and Vance Bourjaily in her first year. She earned an M.F.A. in 1963 and a doctorate in comparative literature in 1969 at Iowa.
After years of short-term academic appointments, Ms. Mukherjee was hired in 1989 to teach postcolonial and world literature at the University of California, Berkeley.
Bharati Mukherjee died on Saturday, January 28, 2017 in Manhattan. She was 76.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
January 25, 2015
"Stars, Dimple recalled having read somewhere, implode: she felt like a star, collapsing inwardly." p. 109
This is a book about a woman. It's also a book about culture shock, loneliness, and mental illness, set in 1970's Calcutta and New York. It is among the darkest stories I have ever read. The reader floats alongside the woman, Dimple, as she metamorphoses from a timid woman, to a shaken one, to a shattered one. Her mind is falling apart, and there is seemingly nothing that can be done to put her back together again.
Dimple comes from a well meaning family, and marries into a relatively supportive one. But all she can do is seethe with passive frustration and disgust that her adult life isn't what she imagined it would be. When her new husband moves her to New York, they are welcomed and embraced by a warm community of Bengalis and other Indians, including other women who confide in her and men who are attracted to her. For a while she lives in an apartment with another couple who treat her like family, but in Queens when she would rather be in Manhattan. Before long, though, she and her husband are given the opportunity to sublet a swanky Village apartment belonging to a married couple of NYU professors who are away on sabbatical.
Dimple is so lost in her befuddled mind that she unwittingly destroys everything around her, wearing out her host's clothes, killing her hosts' plants, disrupting her friend's aquarium of fish by knocking on the glass. She lives in fear of the great and the small, from a terror of being shot by a gun-wielding American to a fear of stepping on needles in the rug. She feels more remorse for pulling petals off her friend's plastic flower arrangement than she does for her sabotaged pregnancy, and savors the sensation of vomiting over that of sex. Her life revolves around her husband, whose name appears on virtually every page, and she blames him for his lack of romance and for tending to his life course without enough perceived thought or interest toward her.
As she goes about sabotaging her ideals and her marriage and herself (eating beef, having an affair with an attractive young American, eating only when food (such as a bowl of nuts) is within effortless reach), Dimple begins to make a list of ways to commit suicide. She can only manage to think of nine, although the reader can easily see that her high rise apartment might provide the tenth and easiest of all. The concept of turning to the compassionate and supportive strangers she has inherited as her new social circle, eludes her. As her mind disintegrates, Dimple can no longer discern between reality and her hallucinations, and she needs a way out. It isn't a surprise. The reader has been prepared for a tragedy, and that is what the reader gets.
It's a sad but beautiful masterpiece of a novel.
This is a book about a woman. It's also a book about culture shock, loneliness, and mental illness, set in 1970's Calcutta and New York. It is among the darkest stories I have ever read. The reader floats alongside the woman, Dimple, as she metamorphoses from a timid woman, to a shaken one, to a shattered one. Her mind is falling apart, and there is seemingly nothing that can be done to put her back together again.
Dimple comes from a well meaning family, and marries into a relatively supportive one. But all she can do is seethe with passive frustration and disgust that her adult life isn't what she imagined it would be. When her new husband moves her to New York, they are welcomed and embraced by a warm community of Bengalis and other Indians, including other women who confide in her and men who are attracted to her. For a while she lives in an apartment with another couple who treat her like family, but in Queens when she would rather be in Manhattan. Before long, though, she and her husband are given the opportunity to sublet a swanky Village apartment belonging to a married couple of NYU professors who are away on sabbatical.
Dimple is so lost in her befuddled mind that she unwittingly destroys everything around her, wearing out her host's clothes, killing her hosts' plants, disrupting her friend's aquarium of fish by knocking on the glass. She lives in fear of the great and the small, from a terror of being shot by a gun-wielding American to a fear of stepping on needles in the rug. She feels more remorse for pulling petals off her friend's plastic flower arrangement than she does for her sabotaged pregnancy, and savors the sensation of vomiting over that of sex. Her life revolves around her husband, whose name appears on virtually every page, and she blames him for his lack of romance and for tending to his life course without enough perceived thought or interest toward her.
As she goes about sabotaging her ideals and her marriage and herself (eating beef, having an affair with an attractive young American, eating only when food (such as a bowl of nuts) is within effortless reach), Dimple begins to make a list of ways to commit suicide. She can only manage to think of nine, although the reader can easily see that her high rise apartment might provide the tenth and easiest of all. The concept of turning to the compassionate and supportive strangers she has inherited as her new social circle, eludes her. As her mind disintegrates, Dimple can no longer discern between reality and her hallucinations, and she needs a way out. It isn't a surprise. The reader has been prepared for a tragedy, and that is what the reader gets.
It's a sad but beautiful masterpiece of a novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 9, 2018
It was interesting and well done and I really enjoyed it. I think you could argue that it went on for too long and not enough happened but that didn't really bother me. I think it really hit it's stride right after the wedding, then it loses it a bit, then again at the end. I can't say I'm super passionate about it but I'm glad I read it. The writing style I really liked too. Would recommend.
September 12, 2023
Bharati Mukherjee's "Wife" is an exploration of the cultural identity of the ideal Indian woman and her inability to find a sane corner when she has changed passports but cannot let go of the inherent Calcutta morals that were deeply rooted in her soul. The protagonist, Dimple Basu always complained that her husband didn't love her enough because she was not 'fat and fair'. Like most immigrant wives who supported their husband's American dream, Dimple found herself growing listless everyday. Americanness was something she was not able to grasp, as to her it was about women wearing pants, eating pizzas and murder. The glamorous future in America that was in her head was shattered by the immigrant experience that made her into a woman who found very little things to like in life. She was suffocated with her husband and the cultural shock that she received after growing up in a middle class bengali home. She fails to overcome what America doesn't have to offer and chooses her version of the American identity that was gruesome and vile.
"Women on television got
away with murder" is the closing statement of the novel, hinting at a final quest for hope for Dimple. Does she escape like the women do on television? Or will the little Ballygunge circle in America continue talking about how the Basus failed to be Americans for a really long time? To an onlooker, Dimple might just appear to be a failure. But she is another woman that the Indian culture brainwashed into believing that she was nothing if not the ideal Indian wife.
"Women on television got
away with murder" is the closing statement of the novel, hinting at a final quest for hope for Dimple. Does she escape like the women do on television? Or will the little Ballygunge circle in America continue talking about how the Basus failed to be Americans for a really long time? To an onlooker, Dimple might just appear to be a failure. But she is another woman that the Indian culture brainwashed into believing that she was nothing if not the ideal Indian wife.
February 6, 2009
i met Bharati Mukherjee once at a reading she gave in berkeley, and she signed this copy for me. though lesser read, this is my favorite book of hers. in it there is the immigrant fear of the impatience/intolerance of the natives, but there is also, and more meaningful to me when i read it, the wife's fear of the impatience/intolerance of her husband. this book has the most stunning finale i have ever encountered...blew the breath right outta me.
October 25, 2019
The Yellow Wallpaper for Immigrants. Horrific and sad, and a very pragmatic look at how mental illness goes overlooked in housewives.
April 26, 2019
Where to start?
I'll be honest if I were the one who had gotten this this book I wouldn't have picked it up. However, since it was a book my mom had bought and that I had seen just casually lying around I thought why not?
Right off the bat I hated Dimple and most of the characters. Dimple was too spoiled and immature. Amit was just an around jerk and everything wrong with eastern cultures.
Because I dislike stating books and not finishing them, I tried to push through with this book. Some parts were interesting and others made me want to through the across the room.
I think there could have been more detail to the end but I guess it was the authors intention to keep the think on the after events (which I still am). An I wish there were interactions between Dimple and Milt (honestly he was the only character I somewhat liked) and their relationship. I also didn't like how certain events were mentioned but not elaborated upon.
Overall, I can't say I regret reading it. Very insightful on the eastern culture and arranged marriages, and mental illness. I don't recommend Wife to those easily triggered or dealing with mental illnesses (Bulimia, anorexia, depression, suicidal thoughts...etc)
P.s. this is my first actual written out review.
I'll be honest if I were the one who had gotten this this book I wouldn't have picked it up. However, since it was a book my mom had bought and that I had seen just casually lying around I thought why not?
Right off the bat I hated Dimple and most of the characters. Dimple was too spoiled and immature. Amit was just an around jerk and everything wrong with eastern cultures.
Because I dislike stating books and not finishing them, I tried to push through with this book. Some parts were interesting and others made me want to through the across the room.
I think there could have been more detail to the end but I guess it was the authors intention to keep the think on the after events (which I still am). An I wish there were interactions between Dimple and Milt (honestly he was the only character I somewhat liked) and their relationship. I also didn't like how certain events were mentioned but not elaborated upon.
Overall, I can't say I regret reading it. Very insightful on the eastern culture and arranged marriages, and mental illness. I don't recommend Wife to those easily triggered or dealing with mental illnesses (Bulimia, anorexia, depression, suicidal thoughts...etc)
P.s. this is my first actual written out review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 19, 2017
I read a lot of diaspora literature, and this book really stands out for me. Bharati Mukherjee is much better known for "Jasmine" (also definitely worth a read) but for some reason, Wife - and its climactic ending - really made an impression.
January 4, 2022
A sobering look at emigrating to New York in the 1970s. Dimple struggles to be the ideal wife and decide what is real and what is fantasy in the surreal world of Manhattan in 1975. While slow going at points the final few pages make it all worth while.
February 20, 2024
2.5
Erratic, psychotic at times, sociopathic for certain
But no real feelings, just the vapidity of one self-centered lonely housewife transported from Calcutta to NY
The obscure ending did nothing for me
Erratic, psychotic at times, sociopathic for certain
But no real feelings, just the vapidity of one self-centered lonely housewife transported from Calcutta to NY
The obscure ending did nothing for me
July 7, 2018
Sad, makes me think of my mom :"(
July 5, 2019
Picked this up while killing time at Myopic Books and . . . I’m still unsure what I just read.
December 5, 2019
This was a really weird, well written novel that I was not expecting.
December 13, 2020
A realistically told story of Dimple Basu, an Indian immigrant wife in the U.S. The loneliness, the alienization, the frustration that lead to near-madness and violence are captured well.
February 13, 2023
Not one of Mukherjee's best, this does aptly show difficulties in adjusting to new culture.
Read
July 12, 2023Good book
April 3, 2025
it has it's sharp moments, but drags on at some parts . Not much happens but I think that's kind of the point.
July 24, 2025
A somewhat twisted, wicked little novel. The characters come off as slightly flat and unrealistic at time, and it has somewhat sadistic overtones at times, but is well-written.
February 5, 2016
About a young woman who marries and relocates to another part of the world, and is dizzy with the new and strange surroundings with all the anchors left behind - friends, parents, her own home and country and culture - like a child just experiencing a roller coaster ride.
Applicable to more than just this one character and in fact to a whole lot of women that go through it, and have always done, to follow their men to other shores and across the lands, in the last few hundred years. One could say, forever, but travel was slow before that and relocating to another part of the globe faraway was a phenomena that began only with the whole sale migration to the continents across Atlantic.
I have not said "with Columbus's discovery of America" because both parts of the phrase are in fact inaccurate.
Not only all sorts of people knew of those continents and were not only living there but had a superior civilisation, even people of Europe knew and were not only trading and fishing (look at the globe, and how close the continent is to Greenland and how close that is to Iceland, and that to northern British isles and Scandinavia) - but in fact Vikings (or people by another name from that part of the world) were living as far south as Massachusetts, for a few centuries.
And besides, "America" was the name given, not the continent discovered; the land, the continents probably had a name that the native Americans called it by, and was wiped out by Europe.
So migration is a complex phenomena, from antiquity to this story, affecting lives.
Applicable to more than just this one character and in fact to a whole lot of women that go through it, and have always done, to follow their men to other shores and across the lands, in the last few hundred years. One could say, forever, but travel was slow before that and relocating to another part of the globe faraway was a phenomena that began only with the whole sale migration to the continents across Atlantic.
I have not said "with Columbus's discovery of America" because both parts of the phrase are in fact inaccurate.
Not only all sorts of people knew of those continents and were not only living there but had a superior civilisation, even people of Europe knew and were not only trading and fishing (look at the globe, and how close the continent is to Greenland and how close that is to Iceland, and that to northern British isles and Scandinavia) - but in fact Vikings (or people by another name from that part of the world) were living as far south as Massachusetts, for a few centuries.
And besides, "America" was the name given, not the continent discovered; the land, the continents probably had a name that the native Americans called it by, and was wiped out by Europe.
So migration is a complex phenomena, from antiquity to this story, affecting lives.
February 16, 2015
3.5/5 stars
If I didn't read the prembule from Melani Budianta, I probably lost in the last scene and the twist. But the bunga-rampai itself also gave the spoilers, so yeah....it didn't surprised me anymore.
What can I say about Dimple? I sympathized her and annoyed by her in the same time. I sympathized for her loneliness, her willing to be an obedient wife and also felt the culture shock in the new country. But her complaints annoyed me. She sounds like a spoil girl!
But this book, like other India's books I've ever read, always gave me new things in their simple sentences. Like this one that made me smirked:
Sebuah pernikahan yang sempurna. Seratus lima lembar foto membuktikannya [page 21]
HA!
In our culture nowadays, a happy wedding also need a big and lots pictures as a proof. And some people said there would be 'something' hidden if there's no pictures in your own wedding. Like a wedding certificate is not enough (malah curcol :p).
Well, I probably would read another book from Mrs. Mukherjee after this book. I love how she wrote the details little by little until the big pictured appeared in my mind. Wonderful!
If I didn't read the prembule from Melani Budianta, I probably lost in the last scene and the twist. But the bunga-rampai itself also gave the spoilers, so yeah....it didn't surprised me anymore.
What can I say about Dimple? I sympathized her and annoyed by her in the same time. I sympathized for her loneliness, her willing to be an obedient wife and also felt the culture shock in the new country. But her complaints annoyed me. She sounds like a spoil girl!
But this book, like other India's books I've ever read, always gave me new things in their simple sentences. Like this one that made me smirked:
Sebuah pernikahan yang sempurna. Seratus lima lembar foto membuktikannya [page 21]
HA!
In our culture nowadays, a happy wedding also need a big and lots pictures as a proof. And some people said there would be 'something' hidden if there's no pictures in your own wedding. Like a wedding certificate is not enough (malah curcol :p).
Well, I probably would read another book from Mrs. Mukherjee after this book. I love how she wrote the details little by little until the big pictured appeared in my mind. Wonderful!
January 29, 2014
This novel was, uh, quite odd. The story of a young woman in 1970s Calcutta, who has an arranged marriage and then moves to New York City, where she deals with frustration and miscommunications with her husband, culture shock, isolation, and possibly... depression? Schizophrenia? I don't know. The end of the book gets really weird and she starts having hallucinations and no longer being able to differentiate between reality and fantasies.
The beginning of the book was quite good! A very well-written, vivid portrayal of a young woman who doesn't know what she wants out of her life. The early parts of the NYC section were also good, though there's not much plot, and the characters and dialogue are excessively stereotypical of the 70s. The last paragraph- literally! just that one paragraph!- of the book comes out of nowhere and really upends a lot what came before for me. Not particularly recommended.
The beginning of the book was quite good! A very well-written, vivid portrayal of a young woman who doesn't know what she wants out of her life. The early parts of the NYC section were also good, though there's not much plot, and the characters and dialogue are excessively stereotypical of the 70s. The last paragraph- literally! just that one paragraph!- of the book comes out of nowhere and really upends a lot what came before for me. Not particularly recommended.
February 28, 2023
p. 43 "She did not want to carry any relics from her old life; given another chance she could be a more exciting person, take evening classes perhaps, become a librarian. She had heard that many Indian wives in the States became librarians."
Stories of women's lives have been among my favorite reads. This powerful story is of a woman sent off to a life she did not want with a man she did not want to a country she did not want. Day after day of sitting in an apartment with nothing to do and nowhere to go, contemplating nine ways of killing herself. A dark story that left me feeling sad for women without choices.
The ending? Was it real or was it fantasy? Dimple seemed lost and confused about what was real and what was not real. I was left unsure about the ending.
Stories of women's lives have been among my favorite reads. This powerful story is of a woman sent off to a life she did not want with a man she did not want to a country she did not want. Day after day of sitting in an apartment with nothing to do and nowhere to go, contemplating nine ways of killing herself. A dark story that left me feeling sad for women without choices.
The ending? Was it real or was it fantasy? Dimple seemed lost and confused about what was real and what was not real. I was left unsure about the ending.
January 15, 2009
"Wife" is about the struggle of a young Bengali woman, Dimple Basu, first in adjusting to her arranged marriage and then to leaving her home in Calcutta for New York City. One must keep in mind that the novel was written in the 1970s, thus the references to consciousness raising groups, the debate about women working outside the home, and the agonizing over women wearing pants! The main character, as a housewife, doesn't have a lot to do and is essentially lazy, but she gains our sympathy nonetheless.
January 12, 2016
Really enjoyed this novel. Such a dark tale that chronicles an Indian woman who's migrated to America with a husband of arranged marriage and her descent into worthlessness, unhappiness and insanity. You constantly bear the frustration of the main character as you read this and at the same time you find yourself as helpless as they are to intervene and make things better.
Definitely worth the read and a fantastic commentary on arranged marriage stereotypes for Indian couples in the 1970's.
P.S. Takes a while to kick into gear, but you won't be disappointed.
Definitely worth the read and a fantastic commentary on arranged marriage stereotypes for Indian couples in the 1970's.
P.S. Takes a while to kick into gear, but you won't be disappointed.
November 24, 2012
Endingnya ? Twisted, yeah...siapa sangaka setelah sedikit mati gaya kebosanan, ternyata novel ini punya gigitan di akhir cerita. Yang saya suka dari novel ini adalah, mengakhirinya dengan sebuah kegagalan sekaligus pembebasan diri pada karakter utamanya yang bisa dibilang tidak terlalu menyenangkan dan pengkhayal.
Apakah Cinderella itu ada? *nyengir* :D
Apakah Cinderella itu ada? *nyengir* :D
March 24, 2013
I picked up several books about India to prepare for a trip later this year. This book, however, is less about India than it is about one woman's immigration from India to NYC and her stuggles. It is very dark.
June 28, 2007
A brave story telling about culture that seemed not logic for somepart of people on their own places...
October 17, 2008
lagi-lagi tentang perempuan. ke mana para lelaki?
January 7, 2010
I would say it's a high 3, but I hesitate to go as far as 4. It was really good, though, aside from the outdated 70s feminism, and the slight Plathishness about the whole thing.
July 17, 2012
I found myself initially really disliking the main character, but as I moved along in the book I began to relate to her a little more.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews