I am listening to Here We Are on my walks these days and the story is engrossing. It reminds me a lot of Monica Ali's Bricklane in terms of atmosphere. The main parallel was about the liberation of the immigrant woman in a country that allows greater freedoms and opportunities. How the operating definition of marriage becomes fluid as women learn that they have options they did not have before. That is a familiar theme with each narrator tells in their own unique way. As immigrant women, we can relate to some part of each of these stories - they form a bit of our own too. Not wanting to give up the freedom for the comfort of familiar, well-known people and places.
Feeling emboldened to take decisions that we would have wavered over back in our home country and finally leading the way by example to our kids - what they may or may not expect from a woman - a mother, wife, sister, friend or daughter. There is another tie that binds the two stories and that of many immigrant marriages - she’s in an arranged marriage to a man with big hopes for success that are never fulfilled. The husband has many faults but he provides the best he can loves their children. This set of parameters would make a for a reasonably good marriage in the home country, yet in the West can turn inadequate. Those broken dreams leads to drift in the relationship and the outcomes for the couple could be far worse than if they had never immigrated at all.
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