FOR MATRIMONIAL PURPOSES

This charming novel follows the rocky courtship of an Indian girl who is both a New York City career girl and a traditional upper-class Bombay daughter who wants to please her parents. Too independent, educated, and perhaps a shade dark-complexioned for the boys of her parents' world, in which marriages are arranged, yet too chaste and loyal to her parents' ways and wishes for dating in the West, Anju's many false starts make for a fascinating primer on traditional marriage customs in modern India. Anju's modesty, character, and humor in this dilemma are wholly winning, and Anne Flosnik handles the hubbub of Western and Subcontinental voices with lithe aplomb. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 03/JAN 04]