Book Review: The Newlyweds

The Newlyweds: A Novel by Nell Freudenberger (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. 337 pp)

Nell Freudenberger (b. 1975) is an American novelist, who graduated from Harvard. Her other books include The Dissident and Lucky Girls. Her short stories have been published by The New Yorker, and she has several book reviews published with The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Vogue.

Newly Wed

I’m a newlywed, and happily so. As I write this, I’m still in my first year of marriage, nearing my one-year anniversary. Truthfully, being married (to my wife, anyway) is absolutely wonderful. We’ve had a few hardships, but not many in the scheme of things; my wife and I have been blessed in this regard. Some marriages, however, encounter great hardships in their first few years. Many friends of mine have told me “the first year is the hardest”. Thankfully, I haven’t found that to be the case.

In The Newlyweds , Nell Freudenberger tells the story of a Bangladeshi Muslim who marries an engineer from America after they meet on an online dating website similar to eHarmony. It’s not exactly a stereotypical love story. Fruedenberger explores the themes of a new marriage and the hardships within, but she also navigates cultural differences in somewhat similar vein to The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Cross-Cultural Online Dating

Amina, the main character, is based loosely off of a woman that the author met on a flight from New York City to Rochester. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Freudenberger states,

"I found myself sitting next to this young woman and I was curious about her and her husband, who were holding hands...When I heard her story that they had met on this international marriage brokerage website I was so curious, and thought what a different courtship that is from mine. I started to think about what it would be like for her to leave Bangladesh for the first time to come to Rochester to live, and I couldn't get it out of my head."

Resulting in The Newlyweds, a study emerges in how a couple’s unmentioned expectations can develop in a marriage and separate them over time. At first, everything is bliss, and Amina is thrilled.

“She hadn’t believed there was a man on earth—much less on AsianEuro.com—who would satisfy all her mother’s requirements, but George came very close” (14).

Unspoken Expectations

Half arranged marriage and half mail order bride, Amina maintains uncompromising ideals of how the marriage should work. She is fighting for both her mother’s expectations and her own, chief among which is the goal of bringing her parents to America to live with the newlyweds. George, her husband, has his own motives and ideals about the marriage—sex, money, and practicality in general.

Despite the noticeable friction in the marriage, the first part of the novel has a very sweet undertone to it, aligning very close to what one might call “the honeymoon phase”. Soon, things start to unravel, and unmentioned dark truths begin to emerge in the marriage.  

“If these numbers were correct, Kim had gotten pregnant in February of 2004—right here in Rochester. A month later, George had decided to buy a three-bedroom house in a genteel suburb known for its excellent school district. He had moved in immediately...” (142).

Turmoil & Duality

Photo by Joy Candido

With no intent of prying into her husband’s life, Amina soon discovers that George was once in a relationship with her friend Kim, and he had impregnated her during their courtship on AsianEuro.com. 

As a result of learning this truth, Amina struggles with how to be a good Banladeshi wife in an American culture. She discovers how little she and George have in common, and is now caught between his expectations and her family’s. How Amina will navigate the choppy waters of marriage becomes the question of the novel.

The Newlyweds not only captures the duality of being newly married, both pain and bliss, but also the tension of being pulled between two cultures. Overall, the book seems to say more about cultural differences than marriage in general, ignoring the larger narrative of enjoying life together. Perhaps, in the end, Freudenberger is stating that marriage is worth saving, yet is also something that must be persevered through. Perseverance is a character quality that is often ignored in this American culture, and conceivably is a point that Freudenberger is trying to get across amidst the battle of cultural differences.

Wonderfully crafted, The Newlyweds carefully explores the culture of the newly married and the culture of different nationalities quite well. It’s worth a read.

Verdict: 3.5 out of 5
What do you think? Did you enjoy the novel and Freudenberger's concepts of a culturally divided marriage? Share your thoughts below.
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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Book Review: The World is a Ball

The World Is a Ball: The Joy, Madness, and Meaning of Soccer by John Doyle (New York: Rodale, 2010. 352 pp)

Born in Ireland, John Doyle currently works as the television critic for Toronto’s The Globe and Mail. Holding a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Anglo-English Studies from University College, Dublin, Doyle moved to Canada in order to pursue a Ph.D. at York University. Doyle writes about soccer for many publications and has worked on location at multiple World Cups and European Championships. In addition to The World Is a Ball, Doyle published A Great Feast of Light in 2005. Doyle has won two internal Globe and Mail awards for his writing.

Culture Soup

I've always thought it would be fun to attend a world event like the Olympic Games or a World Cup. The idea of a myriad of cultures converging on one city fascinates me. The sheer numbers, though, terrify me. I’m not a huge fan of large crowds.

Perhaps, for me, the World Cup provides the most intriguing spectacle. With soccer – the sport adored by the majority of the world, the world championship matters.

In The World Is a Ball, John Doyle explores this worldwide phenomenon. With a decade of soccer coverage for North American publications, Doyle provides a first-hand account of these tournaments and the convergence of cultures.

Watching Those Watching the Game

Interestingly, while one would think that Doyle would focus predominately on the tactics and analysis of the players on the pitch, he seems more interested in the fans. As the world watches the game, Doyle watches the supporters.

For ages, the media focus on hooliganism. With fear dispensed in small to medium doses, many foreigners avoid soccer matches for panic of fan-to-fan violence. Yet Doyle perceives these sporting events as moments of celebration no matter the end result.

On the field, Brazil plays with flair and beauty; in the stands, Brazilian fans act the same. On the field, Italy plays a slow, methodical game; in the stands, the fans are lazy and confident. On this principle, Doyle expands,

“That’s part of the complicated meaning of the World Cup. There is an elaborate synergy between the traveling fans and their country’s team. A nation projects itself, all its hopes and dreams and tangled histories, onto the team. And the team somehow embodies all the complex characteristics of the nation” (18).

Global Soccer

Moreover, views of nationalistic hooliganism fail in the face of globalized soccer. Where nationalism in the past existed with players remaining inside its countries borders, the new strategy for most national teams is to seek players and coaches from all over the world. Doyle writes,

“At the end, just before the Estádio da Luz erupts in colorful, spectacular fireworks displays, the TV commentator reminds viewers that the Greek coach, Otto Rehhagel, is German and Portugal’s coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, is Brazilian. The point is to tell us that, even at this intensely competitive, nationalistic level, soccer transcends borders and nationality” (132).

Field Notes

However, The World Is a Ball flows poorly. As the book details international soccer matches over the last decade, the stories become repetitive and resemble field notes for the stories Doyle obviously filed for his paid gig.

Additionally, Doyle romanticizes the notion of fan and team unity. While international matches of yesteryear exhibited teams with a national style and identity, modern soccer has found tactics to become increasingly crowd-sourced. Successful national teams blend the possession-style total football of the Netherlands with the defensive tenacity of Italy and the aggressive set play style of Germany. In other words, the way teams play soccer today is becoming tactically similar.

Finally, Doyle writes with basic assumptions about soccer. For those interested in becoming acquainted with the sport, Doyle’s writing will leave you dazed and confused. While no one suggests that a soccer writer must begin a book with a basic explanation of soccer, Doyle uses soccer-specific terms without defining them for a broader audience. Although I understood him, I don’t think his lexicon of terms allows inclusion of non-soccer fans.

A Tragic View of the Universe

Despite my reservations, Doyle contemplates some of the deeper meanings behind the joys of soccer. With low scoring games, spotty refereeing, and theatrical flopping, soccer is not an Americanized sport. Yet, these very issues point to core artistic values. Doyle pens,

“Soccer is a sport perfectly designed to reinforce a tragic view of the universe, because basically it is a long series of frustrations leading up to near certain heartbreak” (311).

This sentiments ring true with the observance of one game. A team can play the perfect game and lose. While a pitcher in baseball gains muscle memory with practice in order to throw the same pitch in the same location whenever he desires it, a soccer player relies on luck. The best for which he or she can hope is to create enough chances to get a positive result.

On the topic of poor refereeing – an experience that United States Men’s National Team fans know full-well with the disallowed goal on a phantom foul against Slovenia in the last World Cup – Doyle writes,

“Injustice happens, but time passes, the world turns just as the ball does during the game. The whole point of the game is that the ball turns, moves forward, much like we do” (315).

Although The World Is a Ball plods somewhat without much stylistic difference and mischaracterizes the connections between the styling of fans and national teams, I enjoyed the first-hand account of the World Cup. With a convergence of culture in one country, we see something bigger than a sporting event; we see a global culture. If you can get past the difficulties and understand the basic terms in soccer, The World Is a Ball is an entertaining read. Nevertheless, I suggest starting somewhere else in soccer literature.

Book Review: The Namesake

The Namesake: A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. 304 pp)

Born in London to Bengali immigrants, Jhumpa Lahiri moved to the United States at the young age of 3. Her first published work, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. In 2007, Hollywood adapted The Namesake into a feature film.  A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Lahiri is a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

Home for the Holidays?

Thanksgiving introduces an exciting portion of the year. I love sleeping in, wearing pajamas into the living room, and seeing a football game on the television. The turkey is already cooking in the oven and my stomach reminds me that I will enjoy feasting with family later in the day. I really enjoy watching football on Thanksgiving; my wife and sister, however, want to watch the parade and they jokingly call me a name, “turd” let’s say for sake of an illustration. These circumstances define my particular family. Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, the Namesake, exhibits the emotions of a particular family existing in an unfamiliar culture.

The Namesake follows an Indian family (the Gangulis) transplanted from Calcutta to the suburbs of Boston. Over a thirty year period, Lahiri develops a subtle storyline around a husband, wife, and the turmoil of their second generation children as they attempt to exist in an American culture while clinging to the slivers of their ancestral Bengali culture. In a sense, the previous cultural traditions and expectations of Calcutta produce a perpetual curiosity in those associated with the family. Lahira writes,

“For being a foreigner, Ashima [the mother and wife of the family] is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy – a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been an ordinary life, only to discover that the previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding. Like pregnancy, being a foreigner, Ashima believes, is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect” (49-50).

We Are Named, Then We Are Known

In addition to the unhinged character of living in an alien culture, The Namesake portrays the tortured nature of Gogol, the son of the Indian transplants.  Lahiri exquisitely explains the importance of names in the early chapters of the book. Simply stated, each person in Bengali culture receives a formal name and a family name. The formal name is used in professional and formal settings, while the family name is reserved for family and friends. In Gogol’s case, the formal name – typically given by an elder figure in the family – had yet to finish its expedition through the postal system when the Ganguli family became ready to be released from the hospital. For this reason, Gogol’s parents provided his family name, “Gogol,” on the official birth certificate. This seemingly small oversight provides Gogol with a lifetime of turmoil. In naming the central protagonist by his family name, Lahiri invites the reader into the Ganguli family.

We Are What We Eat

Additionally, The Namesake develops its fascinating story around the convergence of culture. The author illustrates customs through the consumption of food. Each special occasion offers the Ganguli family with an opportunity to host other Bengali immigrants. These instances are occasions for feasts! Lahiri spends pages depicting the preparations the Ganguli family takes in order to facilitate such banquets. On the other hand, Gogol’s time spent in romantic relationships during his time spent in New York City portrays his Americanized culture. He eats well, sometimes drinks too much, and partakes in the popular cuisine of the city. Therefore, Lahiri creates a dichotomy through food between the culture of Gogol’s family life and the culture of his social life.

Although my experience at Thanksgiving in no way resembles the familial occurrences in The Namesake, Lahiri’s simple and engaging writing style invites you to be a part a particular family. I highly recommend this book.