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Marriage Material
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD AND LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZEFROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BOY WITH THE TOPKNOT AND EMPIRELAND'Enormously enjoyable' SUNDAY TIMES'A satirical masterpiece' TELEGRAPH'Sanghera's tender and funny book is a cracking and pacy read' OBSERVER'A stunning novel . . . touching and funny and feels so fresh . . . it just leaps off the page. I adored it' DEBORAH MOGGACH'Impressive' GUARDIAN'Entertaining' INDEPENDENTWhen Arjan returns to the Black Country after his father's death, his family's corner shop represents everything he tried to leave behind. But his mother insists on keeping the business open, and Arjun finds himself being dragged back from London, and forced into big decisions about his own relationship. Yet Arjan's story isn't the first and it won't be the Surinder and Kamaljit, two sisters, a generation back in the family, also experienced their own share of betrayals and loyalties, loves and regrets.Praise for Empireland'A fascinating reckoning with a history of empire' GUARDIAN' I only wish this book had been around when I was at school ' SADIQ KHAN'Balanced and insightful ' THE TIMES'This immensely readable book is very timely' FINANCIAL TIMES'An important book' NEW STATESMAN
336 pages, Paperback
First published September 26, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 145 reviews
January 14, 2014
So this is the British Asian (specifically Sikh) small family retailer experience 1960-2010. I bet if I rounded up say ten Goodreaders (that would be fun) and got you all to – er – brainstorm – oh wait, you can’t say that any more – thought-shower is the new term – about what might be in a novel about a Sikh cornershop family 1960-2010 based on The Old Wives’ Tale by Arnold Bennett you’d come up with 95% of everything that happens in Marriage Material, which, by the way, is a really crap title. There are no surprises. Every box is ticked. Every expectation is met.
This is the very bowelly essence of a three star novel. Its three-starriness is profound. Its good-heartedness and casual intimacy, like a series of long catch-up chats with a dear friend, mean it never topples into two star territory. But nor yet does it take wings and soar into the four star skies where swoop the thrilling, dangerous birds of literature. It’s like the family it describes – confined, pinched, harried, penned in by their god-damned dreary bloody corner shop. The author describes his (first) novel as a “remix” of The Old Wives’ Tale which is a fabulous frumious fulsome five star book. I think remixing and rebooting classic novels is an interesting idea (except when it’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) – another one I read, Tom-All-Alone’s, “takes place in the space between Bleak House and The Woman in White” as the author said. It’s all good. More please. But more better please.
I'll give you an idea of how this book plods and clunks somewhat. :
My aunt was eating a salad alone in the living room, while my mother ate sabzi, separately in the kitchen. Of course, this is how shopkeeping families often dine : the need to serve customers means you rarely sit down together, and consequently have little sense of yourselves as a social unit.
Oh how dull! "Social unit"? This might be some kind of excellent observation of shopkeeping families, but it sounds craply tedious and I would have suggested Sathnam press the old HIGHLIGHT DELETE there.
But..... carping aside, will I be reading Sathnam Sanghera’s second novel? Y-y-y-esssssssss.
This is the very bowelly essence of a three star novel. Its three-starriness is profound. Its good-heartedness and casual intimacy, like a series of long catch-up chats with a dear friend, mean it never topples into two star territory. But nor yet does it take wings and soar into the four star skies where swoop the thrilling, dangerous birds of literature. It’s like the family it describes – confined, pinched, harried, penned in by their god-damned dreary bloody corner shop. The author describes his (first) novel as a “remix” of The Old Wives’ Tale which is a fabulous frumious fulsome five star book. I think remixing and rebooting classic novels is an interesting idea (except when it’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) – another one I read, Tom-All-Alone’s, “takes place in the space between Bleak House and The Woman in White” as the author said. It’s all good. More please. But more better please.
I'll give you an idea of how this book plods and clunks somewhat. :
My aunt was eating a salad alone in the living room, while my mother ate sabzi, separately in the kitchen. Of course, this is how shopkeeping families often dine : the need to serve customers means you rarely sit down together, and consequently have little sense of yourselves as a social unit.
Oh how dull! "Social unit"? This might be some kind of excellent observation of shopkeeping families, but it sounds craply tedious and I would have suggested Sathnam press the old HIGHLIGHT DELETE there.
But..... carping aside, will I be reading Sathnam Sanghera’s second novel? Y-y-y-esssssssss.
September 15, 2018
This is explicitly based on Arnold Bennett's wonderful Old Wives's Tale (my review), with a contemporary British Asian twist. There's no need to be familiar with OWT - in fact, I suggest you read that rather than this!
It's had pretty good reviews in the broadsheet press, and in terms of plot, it certainly does what it claims, but it lacks the warmth and writing skill of Bennett, it attempts more humour, and demonstrates every Asian and shop-owning stereotype you can think of. The end result is like the novelisation of the BBC sketch show Goodness Gracious Me. As both are written by British Asians, it's not for me to criticise the portrayal, but it made me feel a little uncomfortable.
There is some character development (only a bit), but exposition is clunky, and the plot is borrowed, so Sanghera is not an author I'll look out for in future.
Note to non-Brits re "Asian": In the UK, "Asian" is not derogatory and refers to those whose families hail from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is not used for those from SE Asia, China, Japan etc.
Image: British Sikh wedding (Source - Getty Images.)
Structure
It's a story of three generations of a Sikh family who run a corner shop (convenience store) in Wolverhampton, narrated by Arjan, the thirty-something grandson of the original owners, Mr and Mrs Bains.
The chapters alternate between the modern day and his mother's childhood and young adulthood, both strands being triggered by a death, leaving a woman at the helm. The first couple of times, the switching wasn't very clear, but in the end, it more or less worked.
The final two chapters tie up the story with an unconvincing and overly dramatic surprise. It ends with what would be a predictable finish, were it not for what just happened in the previous chapter. All very rushed and unconvincing.
Caste, Class, and Race
This book (unlike OWT) is primarily about fitting in, and not fitting in: the eternal immigrant story, compounded by issues of race, Indian caste, and, towards the end, British class. Integration versus identity, and to what extent compromise can be hypocritical. Sadly, it doesn't really have any great or original insights on these tricky but important issues.
Similarly, racism is experienced in many ways, by Asians and, to a lesser extent, from Asians. No surprise, but the characters' reactions to it were neither inured nor intimidated and somehow just didn't feel likely (but what do I know?).
"The need to serve customers means you rarely sit down together [to eat], and consequently have little sense of yourselves as a social unit."
Given that they live above (and in!) the shop, and all help out there, even as children, this is the opposite of what one might assume. It could be the key to so much. But it didn't seem to be.
Asian Culture - especially re Women
Several characters resist aspects of their culture and religion, and some embrace it more at stressful times. Some of the superstitions Mrs Bains (and later, her elder daughter, Kamaljit) fall back on are easy to mock, even though they gain comfort from them.
Parallels are drawn between Punjabi culture and Jewish and royal life, and at times, the exposition was annoying and unnaturally unsubtle - yet I don't feel I've learned much.
What should have been the most interesting strand concerns the role and relationships of women (Bennett managed it a century earlier). All the female characters struggle with this to some extent: who to marry and how, how much education girls should have, how much to defer to one's husband, attitudes of dress, tensions of sisterhood, but most especially, the two determined widows who run the shop at different times (which tallies with Sikh teaching of gender equality).
Similarly, the loving but prickly relationship between sisters Kamaljit and Surinder has so much potential for interest, but never rings quite true. And as for Freya... again, so much potential as a character, but not believably fleshed out.
Maybe Bennett was just better at understanding women.
Other Comparisons with The Old Wives' Tale
The author admires Bennett, and he has Surinder class him as one of the great writers, but he doesn't do him justice: I gave OWT 4* and this only 2*.
The structure is very different (not a criticism): OWT is in four sections: childhood, one for each sister's adult life, and a final one when they come together again, whereas this alternates past and present. We learn less about the aunt/sister who goes away and far more about what happens to the grandson of the original owners.
There is also more mention of politics. I seem to remember some things about the local council and mayor in OWT, but nothing significant enough for me to mention in my review. This story though, is framed by Enoch Powell's infamous Rivers of Blood speech, about immigration, a strike by bus drivers who wanted to be allowed to wear turbans, and riots in London in 2011. These mentions felt deliberate, rather than being a natural part of the story.
Plot-wise, it's write-by-numbers, with every significant thing that happens in OWT happening here:
Plot list:
Humour
Much of it felt awkward, based too much on negative stereotypes, but a few incidents were mildly amusing:
* Trying to erase "TALEBAN PEEDO" graffiti, he erased the O first, which didn't improve matters, so then put an S in the space between words, so it looked "like it had started flogging a range of Islamic amphetamines."
* Pizza Express is a good place to end a relationship: it's cheap and has "quick, attentive service, useful for when the shit hits the fan. A certain guaranteed level of busyness, which lowers the risk of a scene. The name - 'Ex-press' - acting as a subconscious primer for the task at hand. Also, there is always at least one diner who is already eating alone and crying."
Quotes
* As an Asian shopkeeper, "You are anyone. Or no one."
* "There are certain places that bristle with sexual tension: libraries, Tube carriages on hot days. But your Asian corner shop... is not one of them."
* "Full-time shopkeeping might not have been so arduous if Bains Stores enjoyed either less or more custom than it did" - either time to do other things, or too busy to notice or care.
* "She wondered whether her main mistake in life had been confusing desire for romance with desire for solitude."
* "I had never met anyone who could combine such warmth with such awkwardness."
It's had pretty good reviews in the broadsheet press, and in terms of plot, it certainly does what it claims, but it lacks the warmth and writing skill of Bennett, it attempts more humour, and demonstrates every Asian and shop-owning stereotype you can think of. The end result is like the novelisation of the BBC sketch show Goodness Gracious Me. As both are written by British Asians, it's not for me to criticise the portrayal, but it made me feel a little uncomfortable.
There is some character development (only a bit), but exposition is clunky, and the plot is borrowed, so Sanghera is not an author I'll look out for in future.
Note to non-Brits re "Asian": In the UK, "Asian" is not derogatory and refers to those whose families hail from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is not used for those from SE Asia, China, Japan etc.
Image: British Sikh wedding (Source - Getty Images.)
Structure
It's a story of three generations of a Sikh family who run a corner shop (convenience store) in Wolverhampton, narrated by Arjan, the thirty-something grandson of the original owners, Mr and Mrs Bains.
The chapters alternate between the modern day and his mother's childhood and young adulthood, both strands being triggered by a death, leaving a woman at the helm. The first couple of times, the switching wasn't very clear, but in the end, it more or less worked.
The final two chapters tie up the story with an unconvincing and overly dramatic surprise. It ends with what would be a predictable finish, were it not for what just happened in the previous chapter. All very rushed and unconvincing.
Caste, Class, and Race
This book (unlike OWT) is primarily about fitting in, and not fitting in: the eternal immigrant story, compounded by issues of race, Indian caste, and, towards the end, British class. Integration versus identity, and to what extent compromise can be hypocritical. Sadly, it doesn't really have any great or original insights on these tricky but important issues.
Similarly, racism is experienced in many ways, by Asians and, to a lesser extent, from Asians. No surprise, but the characters' reactions to it were neither inured nor intimidated and somehow just didn't feel likely (but what do I know?).
"The need to serve customers means you rarely sit down together [to eat], and consequently have little sense of yourselves as a social unit."
Given that they live above (and in!) the shop, and all help out there, even as children, this is the opposite of what one might assume. It could be the key to so much. But it didn't seem to be.
Asian Culture - especially re Women
Several characters resist aspects of their culture and religion, and some embrace it more at stressful times. Some of the superstitions Mrs Bains (and later, her elder daughter, Kamaljit) fall back on are easy to mock, even though they gain comfort from them.
Parallels are drawn between Punjabi culture and Jewish and royal life, and at times, the exposition was annoying and unnaturally unsubtle - yet I don't feel I've learned much.
What should have been the most interesting strand concerns the role and relationships of women (Bennett managed it a century earlier). All the female characters struggle with this to some extent: who to marry and how, how much education girls should have, how much to defer to one's husband, attitudes of dress, tensions of sisterhood, but most especially, the two determined widows who run the shop at different times (which tallies with Sikh teaching of gender equality).
Similarly, the loving but prickly relationship between sisters Kamaljit and Surinder has so much potential for interest, but never rings quite true. And as for Freya... again, so much potential as a character, but not believably fleshed out.
Maybe Bennett was just better at understanding women.
Other Comparisons with The Old Wives' Tale
The author admires Bennett, and he has Surinder class him as one of the great writers, but he doesn't do him justice: I gave OWT 4* and this only 2*.
The structure is very different (not a criticism): OWT is in four sections: childhood, one for each sister's adult life, and a final one when they come together again, whereas this alternates past and present. We learn less about the aunt/sister who goes away and far more about what happens to the grandson of the original owners.
There is also more mention of politics. I seem to remember some things about the local council and mayor in OWT, but nothing significant enough for me to mention in my review. This story though, is framed by Enoch Powell's infamous Rivers of Blood speech, about immigration, a strike by bus drivers who wanted to be allowed to wear turbans, and riots in London in 2011. These mentions felt deliberate, rather than being a natural part of the story.
Plot-wise, it's write-by-numbers, with every significant thing that happens in OWT happening here:
Plot list:
Humour
Much of it felt awkward, based too much on negative stereotypes, but a few incidents were mildly amusing:
* Trying to erase "TALEBAN PEEDO" graffiti, he erased the O first, which didn't improve matters, so then put an S in the space between words, so it looked "like it had started flogging a range of Islamic amphetamines."
* Pizza Express is a good place to end a relationship: it's cheap and has "quick, attentive service, useful for when the shit hits the fan. A certain guaranteed level of busyness, which lowers the risk of a scene. The name - 'Ex-press' - acting as a subconscious primer for the task at hand. Also, there is always at least one diner who is already eating alone and crying."
Quotes
* As an Asian shopkeeper, "You are anyone. Or no one."
* "There are certain places that bristle with sexual tension: libraries, Tube carriages on hot days. But your Asian corner shop... is not one of them."
* "Full-time shopkeeping might not have been so arduous if Bains Stores enjoyed either less or more custom than it did" - either time to do other things, or too busy to notice or care.
* "She wondered whether her main mistake in life had been confusing desire for romance with desire for solitude."
* "I had never met anyone who could combine such warmth with such awkwardness."
August 1, 2013
Sixty-two year old Mr. Bains, and his , more or less forty-five year old wife, Mrs. Bains ran a shop in Victoria Road in Wolverhampton where they raised their two daughters, Kamaljit, the oldest, and Surinder, the younger more intelligent of the two sisters. England was not a friendly place for immigrants from their former colonies and succeeding in the new country took determination and skill on many levels.
The Sikh religious group were left out when India was partitioned into Pakistan for the Muslim and India for the rest of the people. It led to many of them feeling robbed of their rights and moving to England in the hope of establishing their own homeland, with their caste system and culture intact. However, within the group there was social differences since many of the lower casts members, like Tanvir Banja, a Chanmar boy, immigrated to England to free themselves of this class discrimination, although Tanvir would be employed by Mr. Bains in Bains Stores as a servant again. But events would lead to Tanvir managing to get married to Kamaljit of a higher caste, which would free him at last to become the man he always wanted to be.
The story consists of two parallel narratives being intertwined throughout the book, both starting with the death of the male heads of their households - first Mr. Bains, and then Tanvir Banja, his son-in-law. The tales circle around the women left behind, especially the outcome of the circumstances in which the two girls would have to face hostilities and challenges within their Sikh communities as well as from their hostile white English neighbors in town. At one point the shop doors did not have 'tingling bells' but grating alarms.
At first it was extremely confusing to figure this out since both narratives evolve around the same characters and the same shop, but forty years apart. Tanvir and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan(the narrator of the second tale), who were brought up in the liberal views of his father, Tanvir, and who would clash with the principles and fundamentalist traditions of Dhanda and his son Ranjit. Dhanda was Mr. Bains's closest friend, who, with the latter's help, set up shop with the agreement that they would never become competition for one another. Dhanda was a political activist fighting for the rights of the Indian immigrants to wear their traditional head gear, for children being taught their homeland languages, for Indian cultural events to be allowed in British schools. But he was also a thrifty businessman becoming quite wealthy, while Mr. Bains, and afterwards Tanvir, his son-in-law, would not benefit from the agreement at all.
The reader is never sure what will happen next, and will sit back in awe at the suprising ending.
This is a remarkable tale, very well-written, bathed in the social-, political challenges, cultural debates, interracial relationships, love, cruelty and often satire of this beautiful family.
If you have enjoyed Zadie Smith's "White Teeth" you will absolutely love this book as well. I recommend it with an open mind and heart.
The Sikh religious group were left out when India was partitioned into Pakistan for the Muslim and India for the rest of the people. It led to many of them feeling robbed of their rights and moving to England in the hope of establishing their own homeland, with their caste system and culture intact. However, within the group there was social differences since many of the lower casts members, like Tanvir Banja, a Chanmar boy, immigrated to England to free themselves of this class discrimination, although Tanvir would be employed by Mr. Bains in Bains Stores as a servant again. But events would lead to Tanvir managing to get married to Kamaljit of a higher caste, which would free him at last to become the man he always wanted to be.
The story consists of two parallel narratives being intertwined throughout the book, both starting with the death of the male heads of their households - first Mr. Bains, and then Tanvir Banja, his son-in-law. The tales circle around the women left behind, especially the outcome of the circumstances in which the two girls would have to face hostilities and challenges within their Sikh communities as well as from their hostile white English neighbors in town. At one point the shop doors did not have 'tingling bells' but grating alarms.
At first it was extremely confusing to figure this out since both narratives evolve around the same characters and the same shop, but forty years apart. Tanvir and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan(the narrator of the second tale), who were brought up in the liberal views of his father, Tanvir, and who would clash with the principles and fundamentalist traditions of Dhanda and his son Ranjit. Dhanda was Mr. Bains's closest friend, who, with the latter's help, set up shop with the agreement that they would never become competition for one another. Dhanda was a political activist fighting for the rights of the Indian immigrants to wear their traditional head gear, for children being taught their homeland languages, for Indian cultural events to be allowed in British schools. But he was also a thrifty businessman becoming quite wealthy, while Mr. Bains, and afterwards Tanvir, his son-in-law, would not benefit from the agreement at all.
The reader is never sure what will happen next, and will sit back in awe at the suprising ending.
This is a remarkable tale, very well-written, bathed in the social-, political challenges, cultural debates, interracial relationships, love, cruelty and often satire of this beautiful family.
If you have enjoyed Zadie Smith's "White Teeth" you will absolutely love this book as well. I recommend it with an open mind and heart.
August 7, 2014
This is just so bloody brilliant because it cuts so close to the bone, in creativity, humor n political incorrectness. Yes, Sanghera plays up to the stereotypes of the Punjabi community of northern England, but his accounts are based on real life as can be attested by anyone who has lived there for any length of time. The community is a subset of the wider immigrant community, maintaining certain customs and caste hierarchy which has long since been forsaken by other punjabi communities outside the UK. This book is all at once bold and refreshing. I will certainly look out for this writer's other works.
August 10, 2022
south asian literature is so harrowingly depressing and yet worst part about it is that it isnt dramatized or anything. it’s simply how mournful our existence in the west has been (esp regarding casteism, hate crimes, and immense poverty). someone please recommend a easy read by a white author ab like a couple with communication issues or something lmao.
November 24, 2013
This took a lot of getting into. In fact, it was chapter ten before I actually got my head around the structure of the book and started to enjoy it. The second half of the book was great. The biggest problem was the time shifting. It jumped from the sixties to today but without actually making it clear that this had happened. I found myself completely confused at some points and couldn't even remember who the characters were and what position they held in the narrative. It's possible that I didn't pay enough attention at the beginning (reading back, the information is there) but I just couldn't lose myself in the story.
The writing is great and the research pays off in that I came away understanding a lot more about sikhs than I did before I started.
The ending was sudden and left me feeling as though there was unfinished business. In fact, given the situation before the final chapter, the ending didn't really come off as convincing at all.
Overall, I enjoyed it and I'm very curious to see what others make of the story, but can't give it more than two stars.
The writing is great and the research pays off in that I came away understanding a lot more about sikhs than I did before I started.
The ending was sudden and left me feeling as though there was unfinished business. In fact, given the situation before the final chapter, the ending didn't really come off as convincing at all.
Overall, I enjoyed it and I'm very curious to see what others make of the story, but can't give it more than two stars.
December 12, 2016
This is my second book from this author and I am a real fan. He writes from his own experience as a second generation Asian growing up, escaping and being forced back in Wolverhampton by family ties and culture, which he thought he managed to escape from. The story evolves around the family of a typical Asian corner shop, its owner and family and the wider Indian community. It's about looking back on how it was to live and grow up both in Enoch Powell's Black Country during he "Rivers of Blood" riots as well as in the Thatcher's 80s as an Asian kid. But prejudice does not only exist in this story between white and Asian (and vice versa), but this story takes up the huge problems and inequalities which come with the Indian cast system, which the Asian community clearly has brought with them to the UK. It is also about the story of women and girls role, what makes them the best Marriage Material. Education in this case is a BAD thing.
It is easy to read this book and to just stipulate that the problems are all within the Asian community, which holds especially their girls back. However, for me at least, it had very clear synergies with some of my own experiences in the Germany's 80s and I know white girls during this time in the UK and I am sure elsewhere, were fighting the same fight.
For the past 30 years I have been in a mixed race/religion marriage, which I am happy to say, is very happy, but bridging especial cultural differences has not always been easy, especially for me as a "white, European" being accepted into an "Iranian, Islamic" culture. And just like in this book, it's the women, who are most difficult to convince that inter-cultural and racial cooperation, friendship and marriage is a good thing for both! Why this should be is difficult to say, but if you grow up with a narrow scope for your own life, maybe it is more difficult to let others have more freedom, I don't know.
Before you think this is a very depressing story, it is that only in parts, others are very funny. The protagonist description of both cultures and ways of lives and reasons for doing things can be hilarious and I had to laugh very often. If you don't let it hurt you, ignorance can be funny, never mind where it comes from. Sanghera writes also in a very loving and respectful way of his communitie(s), he does clearly now manage to feel at home in both. He has a great love for his family despite everything.
Great book, really good writer, would recommend it to anyone interested in these subjects.
It is easy to read this book and to just stipulate that the problems are all within the Asian community, which holds especially their girls back. However, for me at least, it had very clear synergies with some of my own experiences in the Germany's 80s and I know white girls during this time in the UK and I am sure elsewhere, were fighting the same fight.
For the past 30 years I have been in a mixed race/religion marriage, which I am happy to say, is very happy, but bridging especial cultural differences has not always been easy, especially for me as a "white, European" being accepted into an "Iranian, Islamic" culture. And just like in this book, it's the women, who are most difficult to convince that inter-cultural and racial cooperation, friendship and marriage is a good thing for both! Why this should be is difficult to say, but if you grow up with a narrow scope for your own life, maybe it is more difficult to let others have more freedom, I don't know.
Before you think this is a very depressing story, it is that only in parts, others are very funny. The protagonist description of both cultures and ways of lives and reasons for doing things can be hilarious and I had to laugh very often. If you don't let it hurt you, ignorance can be funny, never mind where it comes from. Sanghera writes also in a very loving and respectful way of his communitie(s), he does clearly now manage to feel at home in both. He has a great love for his family despite everything.
Great book, really good writer, would recommend it to anyone interested in these subjects.
September 8, 2016
an interesting novel looking at 3 generations of a family running a cornershop in the fictional district of blakenfields in wolverhampton from the overly racial tensions of the late 1960's to the modern day and liked the family dimensions between each family member and the hardships they go through for love and honour.
January 28, 2014
This promising debut novel was part of the Waterstones Eleven for 2013, please see my previous post HERE. It is a contemporary work of fiction set in Wolverhampton which follows the lives of a British Asian (specifically Sikh) family who own a corner shop and have two daughters. Kamaljit is the elder sister and possibly more traditional than her younger sister, Surinder who is desperate to carve a career for herself away from the familial duties of the shop. Their father, Mr Bains is ill and spends most of his time in bed upstairs leaving the running of the shop to his wife, daughters and some family friends. The girls mother is a devout Sikh and takes great pains to try and arrange for both of her daughters to be married off. This is terrible for Surinder, who wants to carry on with her studies at school, and feels guilty for wanting to better herself against the traditional Sikh values.
The other narrative of this story is set slightly in the future, when the daughters have married. Our narrator is Arjan, who is the son of Kamaljit and her husband Tanvir, currently managing the family shop. Arjan is desperately worried about his mother who is left behind to run the business, and he questions her coping strategies after the loss of her husband. There is also a bit of a mystery going around surrounding Surinder, who eloped with an English salesman and hasn't been heard from since. Arjan ends up giving up his job as a graphic designer to help his mother and ends up re-evaluating his life and uncovering old family secrets threatening his own relationship with his fiancee Freya.
There is so much going on in this novel that at times it can be difficult to keep up, however it moves along at a nice pace keeping the reader interested as to what will come next. Parts of this story were very intriguing, especially the difference in Sikh castes and how individuals from lower castes are viewed and treated by other Sikhs. I also thought the issue of race was very well handled and there were certain parts that made me quite disgusted, as I believe racism of any kind is abhorrent. However, the author kept a nice balance of humour that did not make light of race issues, but put a smile on my face nevertheless.
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.com
The other narrative of this story is set slightly in the future, when the daughters have married. Our narrator is Arjan, who is the son of Kamaljit and her husband Tanvir, currently managing the family shop. Arjan is desperately worried about his mother who is left behind to run the business, and he questions her coping strategies after the loss of her husband. There is also a bit of a mystery going around surrounding Surinder, who eloped with an English salesman and hasn't been heard from since. Arjan ends up giving up his job as a graphic designer to help his mother and ends up re-evaluating his life and uncovering old family secrets threatening his own relationship with his fiancee Freya.
There is so much going on in this novel that at times it can be difficult to keep up, however it moves along at a nice pace keeping the reader interested as to what will come next. Parts of this story were very intriguing, especially the difference in Sikh castes and how individuals from lower castes are viewed and treated by other Sikhs. I also thought the issue of race was very well handled and there were certain parts that made me quite disgusted, as I believe racism of any kind is abhorrent. However, the author kept a nice balance of humour that did not make light of race issues, but put a smile on my face nevertheless.
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.com
June 9, 2014
Sathnam Sanghera’s first novel, for me as a reader, brought back similar memories to his memoir The Boy With The Top Knot. As an adult with Pakistani heritage, I found myself resonating with Arjan’s non-existant Punjabi, the sometimes claustrophobic-ness of Asian family links and his dilemma on marriage within or outside the culture. As a reader, it was difficult to keep in touch with the story at times but not overly distracting to the point it affects your reading. The book touches upon issues of racism, caste system, marital dilemmas and reflects upon the riots of 2011. When it dealt with the caste system, you got to see how unfair and discriminatory it is. There are some uplifting moments: I revelled in Surinder not being intimidated by her drunken husband and forging an income for herself in spite of the regular arguments with her husband; Kamaljit’s strength to keep working in the shop; Arjan and Freya finally getting married and the shop being sold to bring closure. The surprising element of the book, for me, was the ending in which Ranjit didn’t hesitate go all “Bruce Lee” on Arjan in the disabled cubicle and the story had its shock elements (although not majorly massive for me) of Arjan’s studies supported by Mr Dhanda and issues surrounding Tanvir’s death. The book does prey upon cultural points, as expected but it does add to the whole feel. As someone with South Asian heritage, it feels nostalgically refreshing to read stories, moments or little touches back to the old days. Sathnam has delivered a very enjoyable first novel for myself.
March 15, 2021
This is as rough around the edges as you’d expect any first novel to be, but it’s also got a lot going for it - easy to fall for characters, well-researched background, and a plot that keeps you going. And you know what, I’m not an unbiased reader. I would’ve lapped up any story about immigrant Punjabi shopkeeping families struggling with their livelihoods and identities, simply because there are not nearly enough of these. This had the added advantage of being well-written. The outcast character is always perhaps a little cliche in such narratives, but I really felt seen in Surinder’s realisation that what she actually had always wanted was not love but solitude. I loved the way Sanghera examined the hypermasculinity and over abundance of aggression in Punjabi culture, not to mention the complex dirt on Gurdwara politics, which may be most notorious in England but is more than recognisable in diasporic Punjabi communities everywhere. I’m also glad the writer didn’t shy away from an exploration of caste divisions, a somewhat taboo topic given the birth of Sikhism was meant to shed the yoke of casteism. It would’ve been easier to write a novel solely about immigrants experiencing racism in the UK. That’s certainly an integral part of this book, but Sanghera has taken on a much bigger project in telling the full story genuinely and from the heart.
January 9, 2014
"Intensely average" said a review on Amazon, and I have some sympathy with that.
The good: It gives a lot of insight into British Sikh culture, which I knew nothing about. It's a light read, funny in places and touching in others. Good research into life in Wolverhampton in the 1960s and 70s, and the modern day parts are vivid and clearly based on personal experience.
The bad: it felt quite shallow, and Sanghera often seemed to be going for cheap laughs. Apart from the above, there was nothing really original or surprising here, and after all the rave reviews I expected something more. The characters weren't compelling; Surinder and Kamaljit were well drawn, but I didn't find Arjan particularly sympathetic. The end was predictable apart from a melodramatic twist in the penultimate chapter.
Still, it gets three stars from me as it was a quick, fairly pleasant read. I suspect I'd have enjoyed his memoir more.
The good: It gives a lot of insight into British Sikh culture, which I knew nothing about. It's a light read, funny in places and touching in others. Good research into life in Wolverhampton in the 1960s and 70s, and the modern day parts are vivid and clearly based on personal experience.
The bad: it felt quite shallow, and Sanghera often seemed to be going for cheap laughs. Apart from the above, there was nothing really original or surprising here, and after all the rave reviews I expected something more. The characters weren't compelling; Surinder and Kamaljit were well drawn, but I didn't find Arjan particularly sympathetic. The end was predictable apart from a melodramatic twist in the penultimate chapter.
Still, it gets three stars from me as it was a quick, fairly pleasant read. I suspect I'd have enjoyed his memoir more.
April 22, 2022
Marriage Material by Sathnam Sanghera, first published in 2013, is a reworking of Arnold Bennett’s The Old Wives’ Tale. The protagonists of Bennett’s 1908 novel are two sisters, Constance and Sophia Baines. In their youth, the siblings work in their mother’s drapery shop, but then Sophia elopes with a travelling salesman, while Constance marries Mr Povey who works in her mother’s shop. The two are reunited in old age.
Sanghera essentially borrows the general drift of the story, along with some of the more granular plot details, and refashions them as the gently comic saga of a British-Asian family running a corner shop in the West Midlands, with the Baines sisters replaced by Surinder and Kamaljit, daughters of an immigrant Sikh family. The novel alternates between the present (early 2010s), as represented and recounted in the first person by Arjan, the prodigal son of the owners of “Baines Stores”, and the “historical” account of Surinder and Kamaljits coming of age. The stories intertwine at the end.
The contemporary segments of the novel are presented in the knowing, comedic voice of Arjan, a character who would not have been out of place in a Nick Hornby novel. The funny, self-parodic narration elicits smiles and chuckles, but the book also has more earnest undercurrents about the challenges of the immigrant experience in the UK. This element comes to the fore in the segments about Surinder and Kamaljit, and their respective histories.
Ultimately, Marriage Material is a feel-good novel, in which Sanghera even manages to slip in some elements of the mystery and thriller genre before cruising towards an optimistic ending. Overall, an entertaining but thoughtful read by the author of Empireland.
3.5*
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
Sanghera essentially borrows the general drift of the story, along with some of the more granular plot details, and refashions them as the gently comic saga of a British-Asian family running a corner shop in the West Midlands, with the Baines sisters replaced by Surinder and Kamaljit, daughters of an immigrant Sikh family. The novel alternates between the present (early 2010s), as represented and recounted in the first person by Arjan, the prodigal son of the owners of “Baines Stores”, and the “historical” account of Surinder and Kamaljits coming of age. The stories intertwine at the end.
The contemporary segments of the novel are presented in the knowing, comedic voice of Arjan, a character who would not have been out of place in a Nick Hornby novel. The funny, self-parodic narration elicits smiles and chuckles, but the book also has more earnest undercurrents about the challenges of the immigrant experience in the UK. This element comes to the fore in the segments about Surinder and Kamaljit, and their respective histories.
Ultimately, Marriage Material is a feel-good novel, in which Sanghera even manages to slip in some elements of the mystery and thriller genre before cruising towards an optimistic ending. Overall, an entertaining but thoughtful read by the author of Empireland.
3.5*
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
December 3, 2024
5 stars! Marriage Material is an intimate, tender, funny piece of quasi-autofiction that peers into the experience of three generations of a Punjabi family living in Britain. I couldn’t help but fall in love with the narrator - the writing ranges from drily witty to snort-out-loud funny, yet it’s treatment of issues like racism and xenophobia is serious and thoughtful.
April 25, 2023
loved it!
Beautifully written, I could relate so well with the dynamics within the family struggling as migrants and yet how the individuals were more dimensional than what might have been apparent from the initial impression, the wider dynamics within the Sikh migrant community (this may well have been the Muslim community really) and of course the protagonist’s monologue was delightfully relatable…… I could keep going on, but listening to Sanghera on the empire podcast I did expect nothing less impressive… thank you so much
Beautifully written, I could relate so well with the dynamics within the family struggling as migrants and yet how the individuals were more dimensional than what might have been apparent from the initial impression, the wider dynamics within the Sikh migrant community (this may well have been the Muslim community really) and of course the protagonist’s monologue was delightfully relatable…… I could keep going on, but listening to Sanghera on the empire podcast I did expect nothing less impressive… thank you so much
September 30, 2013
SATHNAM Sanghera, author of The Boy With The Top-Knot, has just become The Man With The Top-Notch Novel Under His Belt.
For his debut novel, Marriage Material, is an unputdownable and thoroughly rewarding read - and not just because it's the most accurate and interesting evocation of cornershop life since the TV sitcom Open All Hours.
Like most journalists who write novels, Sathnam majors on authenticity and credibility; although it's a work of fiction, everything in it feels like it did happen, or could have happened, and he never resorts to coincidence but supplies us instead with first-rate realism.
In some ways, the subject matter is bleak - cultural in-fighting, control-freak families, and racism - but Sathnam presents it to us so engagingly, so engrossingly, that we can't stop turning the pages.
It's ostensibly a tale about a Sikh family running a cornershop in Wolverhampton, set partly in the present and partly in the Sixties and Seventies when Enoch Powell's Rivers Of Blood speech set the cat among the pigeons in a country that was largely, to our retrospective shame and embarrassment, deeply and openly racist.
The Sikh culture doesn't come out of it terribly well, but neither does the dominant and intolerant white culture of the time.
And should anyone misguidedly use this book (or Boy with the Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton) as a stick to beat the Sikh culture with, they might be well advised to look in the mirror and examine their own culture's shortcomings first.
Take arranged marriages and obsession with money, for instance. Sikhs and other British Indians may be criticised by some on both counts, but if you took arranged marriages and enquiries about how many pounds a year a potential suitor makes out of Jane Austen's novels, she'd have had precious little left to write about for her mostly white English audience of the time.
And before anyone scoffs at the characters in Sathnam's novel for hating each other and worse because they're from different castes, take a look at the white British bigots in Northern Ireland who behave exactly the same in the 21st Century and still have to live either side of so-called Peace Walls to stop them beating the Hell out of each other in the name of the same forgiveness-preaching God that they both claim to believe in.
Although Sathnam doesn't quote it in this novel, I couldn't help thinking of Gandhi's reaction when he was asked what he thought of English civilisation.
"It would be a very good idea," he said.
That aside, the novel is a lid-lifter on what it was like - and is like - to be a British Sikh. In much the same way that Goodness, Gracious Me! transformed the image of British Asians and made national treasures of Meera Syal, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir and Nina Wadia, this novel and Top-Knot are seminal works that will change anyone who reads them.
But that risks making the novel sound like it belongs on the Worthy But Dull shelf. It's anything but!
Sanghera's characters are lovable and loathable, engaging and infuriating, and, most importantly, we can't help caring about them.
The central character deserves a sequel or two, just as David Nobbs did with Henry Pratt, and Sathnam must surely have enough material to go the distance.
This novel is beautifully and intelligently written, witty and thought-provoking, and I can't wait to see what Sathnam does for an encore.
For his debut novel, Marriage Material, is an unputdownable and thoroughly rewarding read - and not just because it's the most accurate and interesting evocation of cornershop life since the TV sitcom Open All Hours.
Like most journalists who write novels, Sathnam majors on authenticity and credibility; although it's a work of fiction, everything in it feels like it did happen, or could have happened, and he never resorts to coincidence but supplies us instead with first-rate realism.
In some ways, the subject matter is bleak - cultural in-fighting, control-freak families, and racism - but Sathnam presents it to us so engagingly, so engrossingly, that we can't stop turning the pages.
It's ostensibly a tale about a Sikh family running a cornershop in Wolverhampton, set partly in the present and partly in the Sixties and Seventies when Enoch Powell's Rivers Of Blood speech set the cat among the pigeons in a country that was largely, to our retrospective shame and embarrassment, deeply and openly racist.
The Sikh culture doesn't come out of it terribly well, but neither does the dominant and intolerant white culture of the time.
And should anyone misguidedly use this book (or Boy with the Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton) as a stick to beat the Sikh culture with, they might be well advised to look in the mirror and examine their own culture's shortcomings first.
Take arranged marriages and obsession with money, for instance. Sikhs and other British Indians may be criticised by some on both counts, but if you took arranged marriages and enquiries about how many pounds a year a potential suitor makes out of Jane Austen's novels, she'd have had precious little left to write about for her mostly white English audience of the time.
And before anyone scoffs at the characters in Sathnam's novel for hating each other and worse because they're from different castes, take a look at the white British bigots in Northern Ireland who behave exactly the same in the 21st Century and still have to live either side of so-called Peace Walls to stop them beating the Hell out of each other in the name of the same forgiveness-preaching God that they both claim to believe in.
Although Sathnam doesn't quote it in this novel, I couldn't help thinking of Gandhi's reaction when he was asked what he thought of English civilisation.
"It would be a very good idea," he said.
That aside, the novel is a lid-lifter on what it was like - and is like - to be a British Sikh. In much the same way that Goodness, Gracious Me! transformed the image of British Asians and made national treasures of Meera Syal, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir and Nina Wadia, this novel and Top-Knot are seminal works that will change anyone who reads them.
But that risks making the novel sound like it belongs on the Worthy But Dull shelf. It's anything but!
Sanghera's characters are lovable and loathable, engaging and infuriating, and, most importantly, we can't help caring about them.
The central character deserves a sequel or two, just as David Nobbs did with Henry Pratt, and Sathnam must surely have enough material to go the distance.
This novel is beautifully and intelligently written, witty and thought-provoking, and I can't wait to see what Sathnam does for an encore.
March 6, 2017
I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it. I grew up in Wolverhampton at much the same time as this book is based and felt 'foreign' enough although I had only moved from Ayrshire so it was really interesting to see things so vividly portrayed from the point of view of an immigrant Sikh family. The characters in the novel are so credibly drawn and come to life on the page so that you feel you know them.
Interesting, too, to see, yet again and in a completely different situation, how one brief, chance encounter can change the path of your life.
Some excellent passages here and there which you'd want to read out loud and share, such as the list comparing characteristics of Sikh and Jewish families-priceless.
Interesting, too, to see, yet again and in a completely different situation, how one brief, chance encounter can change the path of your life.
Some excellent passages here and there which you'd want to read out loud and share, such as the list comparing characteristics of Sikh and Jewish families-priceless.
July 2, 2023
Very descriptive, setting the scene of the trials and tribulations faced in 70s, 80s Wolverhampton.
October 6, 2013
In this retelling of Arnold Bennett's "The Old Wives' Tale," Sathnam Sanghera has deftly spun a story that is as much about shop life and family dynamics as it is about the immigrant experience during a deeply racist time in British history.
Told from two time periods and perspectives, we are first placed into the present day and introduced to Arjan who has returned to his childhood home of Wolverhampton to run he family shop after the sudden death of his father. He finds himself giving up his London job as a graphic designer (a disappointment to his father and himself) and letting his engagement to Freya, a white girl, fall to the wayside.
The second narrative goes back to the 1960s to Arjan's mother Kamaljit and her sister, Surinder, teenagers helping run their parents' newsagent. Their father, after working many years alone in England, was finally able to send for his wife and daughters only to become bedridden and overbearing. His dying wish was to have his daughters married off -- Kamaljit who never liked school and had only a basic grasp of English seemed resigned, but Surinder wanted more for her life. When she overhears a conversation her mother has with her father's friend asking for her hand, Surinder takes fate into her own hands and disappears.
While there is nothing new in this story in terms of familial expectations and ties, newcomer experiences, and racism, Sanghera is able to tell this story with a sense of irony and deep love that makes this story very readable and heartfelt.
Told from two time periods and perspectives, we are first placed into the present day and introduced to Arjan who has returned to his childhood home of Wolverhampton to run he family shop after the sudden death of his father. He finds himself giving up his London job as a graphic designer (a disappointment to his father and himself) and letting his engagement to Freya, a white girl, fall to the wayside.
The second narrative goes back to the 1960s to Arjan's mother Kamaljit and her sister, Surinder, teenagers helping run their parents' newsagent. Their father, after working many years alone in England, was finally able to send for his wife and daughters only to become bedridden and overbearing. His dying wish was to have his daughters married off -- Kamaljit who never liked school and had only a basic grasp of English seemed resigned, but Surinder wanted more for her life. When she overhears a conversation her mother has with her father's friend asking for her hand, Surinder takes fate into her own hands and disappears.
While there is nothing new in this story in terms of familial expectations and ties, newcomer experiences, and racism, Sanghera is able to tell this story with a sense of irony and deep love that makes this story very readable and heartfelt.
August 12, 2014
3.5 stars
I'm not familiar with The Old Wife's Tale by Arnold Bennett that is purportedly the inspiration for this story. Which means I've probably missed something vital in understanding and appreciating this book.
Without knowledge of the forerunner, this is the story of Arjan Banga's family and corner shop in Wolverhampton (my own hometown), and the generations that have grown up and worked there, from his grandfather who set it up with his young wife, to aunt Surinder, mother and father,
and onto his own schooldays and memories centred there.
I enjoyed the details of shop life. Of Asian life. Of immigration and the world of Enoch Powell's Wolverhampton. As a child of the 80s I was blissfully unaware of this history in my own childhood years there, so Sanghera did have a lot to show me.
I did find the back and forth of the narrative confusing on audiobook, never quite sure what time period I was in for a while. And I'm afraid the Black Country accent of the narrator seriously grated with me - not so much his "Wolver-rampton" as his "Dud-Loy" (Dudley). But that's not a comment on the book.
The story of mixed caste and mixed race love is also a good tale. Surinder an interesting character, Arjan himself not as strong as her or his parents and grandparents, despite narrating.
Quite eye-opening in parts. Preferred 'The Boy in the Topknot' but did like this ode to my own childhood home. Will be looking up the Arnold Bennett book.
I'm not familiar with The Old Wife's Tale by Arnold Bennett that is purportedly the inspiration for this story. Which means I've probably missed something vital in understanding and appreciating this book.
Without knowledge of the forerunner, this is the story of Arjan Banga's family and corner shop in Wolverhampton (my own hometown), and the generations that have grown up and worked there, from his grandfather who set it up with his young wife, to aunt Surinder, mother and father,
and onto his own schooldays and memories centred there.
I enjoyed the details of shop life. Of Asian life. Of immigration and the world of Enoch Powell's Wolverhampton. As a child of the 80s I was blissfully unaware of this history in my own childhood years there, so Sanghera did have a lot to show me.
I did find the back and forth of the narrative confusing on audiobook, never quite sure what time period I was in for a while. And I'm afraid the Black Country accent of the narrator seriously grated with me - not so much his "Wolver-rampton" as his "Dud-Loy" (Dudley). But that's not a comment on the book.
The story of mixed caste and mixed race love is also a good tale. Surinder an interesting character, Arjan himself not as strong as her or his parents and grandparents, despite narrating.
Quite eye-opening in parts. Preferred 'The Boy in the Topknot' but did like this ode to my own childhood home. Will be looking up the Arnold Bennett book.
Read
April 26, 2021A pleasant but disappointing read. The Old Wives' Tale is one of my favourite books - read it in my teens, 20s and 30s (and will probably read it again now after this), and I was excited to read this re-telling/re-imagining of OWT as an Asian shopkeeping family.
Unlike Bennett, Sanghera doesn't seem to like any of his characters nor the culture he is writing about, so the story lacks the warmth of the original.
I liked: that the plot sticks close - remarkably close - to the OWT; the early chapters that focused on the sisters Kamaljit and Surinder; some of the humour (Taleban Speed); and that it doesn't ignore the open racism that was a feature of the 70s.
I didn't like that every Asian stereotype is included here: the shopkeepers / doctors, downtrodden wives and daughters, slightly ineffectual husbands and sons, thugs etc etc etc. There's also huge amounts of exposition, and volumes of info-dumping about the political situation, the characters, the business, and about sikh / punjabi culture. I also disliked the shift from the sisters to Arjun whose whiny self absorption got tedious pretty quickly. The last two chapters were dreadful
Unlike Bennett, Sanghera doesn't seem to like any of his characters nor the culture he is writing about, so the story lacks the warmth of the original.
I liked: that the plot sticks close - remarkably close - to the OWT; the early chapters that focused on the sisters Kamaljit and Surinder; some of the humour (Taleban Speed); and that it doesn't ignore the open racism that was a feature of the 70s.
I didn't like that every Asian stereotype is included here: the shopkeepers / doctors, downtrodden wives and daughters, slightly ineffectual husbands and sons, thugs etc etc etc. There's also huge amounts of exposition, and volumes of info-dumping about the political situation, the characters, the business, and about sikh / punjabi culture. I also disliked the shift from the sisters to Arjun whose whiny self absorption got tedious pretty quickly. The last two chapters were dreadful
August 21, 2014
I picked this up hoping for a moving and entertaining novel of British Asian family life. While it delivers on one level - a predictable but appealing story of immigrant life in 1970s Wolverhampton contrasted with the next generation's more assimilated life in London and the connections that draw the latter back to the former - I found it a bit disappointing. The plot was scanty, centring largely on an auntie, disowned after marrying a white man in the late 70s, who is rediscovered by her nephew 40 years later with surprising ease. There is a late rushed denouement to another plot strand about the narrator's father, but it is almost a postscript rather than a source of dramatic tension. The lack of event would not matter so much if the characterisation was profound and engaging but unfortunately I found it rather thin and undeveloped. It could have been redeemed by beautiful prose or brilliant dialogue but unfortunately it had neither. The author based his novel on Arnold Bennett's Old Wives Tale and I confess that my lack of familiarity with that acknowledged classic has hampered my enjoyment but I would hesitate to recommend this to anyone in the same position.
November 15, 2017
The story of a Sikh family, corner shop owners in Wolverhampton, told over three generations.
After the sudden death of his father, Arjan Banga leaves his job as a graphic designer in London to return to Wolverhampton. Failing to persuade his mother to sell the business, he finds himself back in the family shop confronted with a way of life he thought he’d left behind.
Caught in an identity crisis, Arjan revisits the past, hangs out with his dubious old friend Ranjit, endangers the relationship with his fiancée back in London and discovers his long lost aunt Surinder.
In a parallel narrative we meet Surinder and her sister Kamaljit, growing up as shopkeeper’s daughters, their respective marriage choices leading to two completely different outcomes.
Told with great warmth and humour, this is a wonderful book about the joys and strictures of a Punjabi family and community, reflecting the changes (or lack of) in culture and society over 50 years. Although the novel is quite ambitious and not shying away from sensitive subjects, it is thoroughly engaging an absolute delight to read.
After the sudden death of his father, Arjan Banga leaves his job as a graphic designer in London to return to Wolverhampton. Failing to persuade his mother to sell the business, he finds himself back in the family shop confronted with a way of life he thought he’d left behind.
Caught in an identity crisis, Arjan revisits the past, hangs out with his dubious old friend Ranjit, endangers the relationship with his fiancée back in London and discovers his long lost aunt Surinder.
In a parallel narrative we meet Surinder and her sister Kamaljit, growing up as shopkeeper’s daughters, their respective marriage choices leading to two completely different outcomes.
Told with great warmth and humour, this is a wonderful book about the joys and strictures of a Punjabi family and community, reflecting the changes (or lack of) in culture and society over 50 years. Although the novel is quite ambitious and not shying away from sensitive subjects, it is thoroughly engaging an absolute delight to read.
April 28, 2014
You know when you find a new author you love and go back to their earlier works, but find they aren't quite as good as the one you've just read? That's how this novel felt. I enjoyed it, it's a good story (although nothing particularly new) and the main character and his immediate family are really well drawn. However a couple of the supporting cast felt slightly two dimensional and some of the prose is a little clunky. I don't think that this is the best novel Sathnam Sanghera will write but it's a good start, and I'll definitely look out for the next one.
August 1, 2016
This wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped it would be, the title is relevant as you read through but it's subtle.
I read a lot of reviews from people who announced it was a blatant rip off of Alan Bennett's The Old Wives Tale, but if you read the end of the book, the author actually says it's based on that.
Wasn't really sure what I was reading about, it
flitted from one story to the next and neither were overly gripping. It's unfair to say that but I like to get my teeth into something.
A big fan of reading about Asian culture in Britain so three stars for it.
I read a lot of reviews from people who announced it was a blatant rip off of Alan Bennett's The Old Wives Tale, but if you read the end of the book, the author actually says it's based on that.
Wasn't really sure what I was reading about, it
flitted from one story to the next and neither were overly gripping. It's unfair to say that but I like to get my teeth into something.
A big fan of reading about Asian culture in Britain so three stars for it.
January 5, 2017
An epic story spanning three generations of a Sikh family working in a corner shop in Wolverhampton, England. The author writes of discrimination, family values, striving to be accepted in contemporary England. I really enjoyed this book from start to finish.
May 7, 2024
This tale is centred around three generations of the Bains family, an immigrant Sikh family, and the cornershop which they run in Wolverhampton. The chapters of the story jump between the present and the 1960s. Somehow, it took me a while to cotton on to this, and to the relationship between the present-day characters and their 1960s relatives, so at the outset I found the book all rather confusing. But that was likely me just being slow.
My enjoyment of the book increased as I progressed. It has some strong characters - especially sisters Kamaljit and Surinder. Although Kamaljit is very traditional and in some ways bound by superstitions, her sister may appear braver by pushing the boundaries and making her own way in the world, it turns out that Kamaljit in her own way had huge strength of character to keep the family business running. The present-day narrator is male, but a large part of the book is about the role of women. In both tales, the male head of the family has died and it is left to the women to keep the business afloat. Big themes are raised such as education for women, arranged marriage, hate crime and the caste system.
Some parts of the narrative seem a little awkward and after a dramatic scene close to the end of the story, there is strangely no real follow-up and the book suddenly rounds off. However I loved some of the light-hearted moments, such as Arjan, the narrator, ending relationships in Pizza Express as the 'Ex' in the title seems appropriate.
I doubt it will be a book that lingers in my memory, but I enjoyed my time with the Bains family and a small insight into the life of a Punjabi family.
My enjoyment of the book increased as I progressed. It has some strong characters - especially sisters Kamaljit and Surinder. Although Kamaljit is very traditional and in some ways bound by superstitions, her sister may appear braver by pushing the boundaries and making her own way in the world, it turns out that Kamaljit in her own way had huge strength of character to keep the family business running. The present-day narrator is male, but a large part of the book is about the role of women. In both tales, the male head of the family has died and it is left to the women to keep the business afloat. Big themes are raised such as education for women, arranged marriage, hate crime and the caste system.
Some parts of the narrative seem a little awkward and after a dramatic scene close to the end of the story, there is strangely no real follow-up and the book suddenly rounds off. However I loved some of the light-hearted moments, such as Arjan, the narrator, ending relationships in Pizza Express as the 'Ex' in the title seems appropriate.
I doubt it will be a book that lingers in my memory, but I enjoyed my time with the Bains family and a small insight into the life of a Punjabi family.
June 4, 2025
It's 1968 in Wolverhampton and the Bains sisters, Kamaljit and Surinder, have been living in the UK for a few years now. But since their fathers stroke they have had to look after the Bains store alongside their mother and Tanvir, the boy who helps in the shop.
Mr Bains wants to marry the girls off, but Surinder is a good student and wants to pursue a further education and the last thing she wants to is an arranged marriage...so she makes a plan.
It's now 2005 in Wolverhampton and Arjan Banga has just lost his father. He is a successful graphics designer in London and is engaged to Freya, but he is still having doubts whether Freya be able to understand the duty Arjan feels towards his Mother and his father's shop.
Thus their stories intertwine through time, bonded by family and duty. Following a family through three generations in love, grief, marriage, duty, mixed-race relationships and identity.
This was a clever story, weaving between the two timelines, we slowly build a picture of how the past and present are connected. The author has a humour which goes throughout but also being able to lean into the more emotional and nuanced moments.
Both Arjan and Surinder fight between dual identities and how they fit into this larger puzzle called life. While Kamaljit does everything by the book (her parents book) and still life can deal a blow.
In the background of the story is the Sikh struggle for identity in Britain and how it changes and sometimes stays the same throughout the span of the decades. A real look at the immigration experience in the 60's. My own dad coming to the UK in the 60's this felt close to home.
This story looks at the complexities of a mixed relationship and the difficulties it can bring to the couple and those around them. Each character may not always be loveable and they make questionable choices but they are human and feel relatable. This made this read and enjoyable one and I look forward to reading Sanghera's non-fiction works soon.
Favourite quote(s):
"It seems odd, looking back, that i accepted her return so uninquisitively. But I think I did so in part because she was only doing what I had done, and in part because she was a Punjabi woman, and the defining characteristic of Punjabi women, after all, is self-sacrifice."
Mr Bains wants to marry the girls off, but Surinder is a good student and wants to pursue a further education and the last thing she wants to is an arranged marriage...so she makes a plan.
It's now 2005 in Wolverhampton and Arjan Banga has just lost his father. He is a successful graphics designer in London and is engaged to Freya, but he is still having doubts whether Freya be able to understand the duty Arjan feels towards his Mother and his father's shop.
Thus their stories intertwine through time, bonded by family and duty. Following a family through three generations in love, grief, marriage, duty, mixed-race relationships and identity.
This was a clever story, weaving between the two timelines, we slowly build a picture of how the past and present are connected. The author has a humour which goes throughout but also being able to lean into the more emotional and nuanced moments.
Both Arjan and Surinder fight between dual identities and how they fit into this larger puzzle called life. While Kamaljit does everything by the book (her parents book) and still life can deal a blow.
In the background of the story is the Sikh struggle for identity in Britain and how it changes and sometimes stays the same throughout the span of the decades. A real look at the immigration experience in the 60's. My own dad coming to the UK in the 60's this felt close to home.
This story looks at the complexities of a mixed relationship and the difficulties it can bring to the couple and those around them. Each character may not always be loveable and they make questionable choices but they are human and feel relatable. This made this read and enjoyable one and I look forward to reading Sanghera's non-fiction works soon.
Favourite quote(s):
"It seems odd, looking back, that i accepted her return so uninquisitively. But I think I did so in part because she was only doing what I had done, and in part because she was a Punjabi woman, and the defining characteristic of Punjabi women, after all, is self-sacrifice."
June 27, 2021
I've read many books about Asian life, taking place in both Asian countries as well as those of immigrants and 2nd or 3rd generation Asians in Britain, but the latter always taking place in London. This book was very different as it took place nearly completely in Wolverhampton, a town in the Midlands, and covered the history of a few different Asian families who own and run corner shops there at different times between the 1950s and the present (circa 2011). It was fascinating learning about how Sikh culture isn't supposed to have castes, yet apparently many still carried them over from India, even having separate temples for different castes. I also learned about why so many corner shops are owned and run by Asians and the whole dynamic of the sort of communities they run them in and how they've been treated over the years. No surprise, but it's pretty awful. I've definitely had my eyes opened to a sub-culture of Britain that I knew nothing about. It was interesting to see the way that people from the same family treated each other based on who they interacted with, but also how things have changed over time as well.
Overall, it was a very different book than I was expecting and had quite a dark twist just before a neatly tied up ending.
Overall, it was a very different book than I was expecting and had quite a dark twist just before a neatly tied up ending.
November 20, 2017
I will give my utmost appreciation to this book for two reasons: Mr Sanghera is an intriguing writer, and two, the book is not only well written (I insist) but also exceptionally funny. I have recently come from Wolverhampton, I know a Bains and I have had contact with his British-Indian family, so all his emotions, debates, cry outs, curiosities, pains, etc. (it is an emotional book) are not all unfamiliar to me. The family cocoon and its intrigues and conflicts are exposed in a colorful way, and although based on personal experience, I believe they are widely true. It was a pleasure to step into cliches (all Indians are shop-owners, the white person is accepted in the family but it depends on how traditional that is, etc.). I think there is a lot to learn from it. And certainly a lot to remember, like the true acceptance and integration of migrants in the U.K. and elsewhere. Reversely, the new comers also struggle to adapt and to brake free from their home-grown habits. Will humanity ever get rid of these? I don't think so. In which case, "Marriage Material" will still be a brilliant book, years from now.
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