Author: Marjan Kamali
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance
First published May 21, 2013
Narrator (from AnyPlay): Negin Farsad
Publisher: Harper Collins
Book Description (from GoodReads): In Together Tea, Marjan Kamali’s delightful and heartwarming debut novel, Darya has discovered the perfect gift for her daughter’s twenty-fifth birthday: an ideal husband. Mina, however, is fed up with her mother’s years of endless matchmaking and the spreadsheets grading available Iranian-American bachelors. Having spent her childhood in Tehran and the rest of her life in New York City, Mina has experienced cultural clashes firsthand, but she’s learning that the greatest clashes sometimes happen at home.
After a last ill-fated attempt at matchmaking, mother, and daughter embark on a return journey to Iran. Immersed once again in Persian culture, the two women gradually begin to understand each other. But when Mina falls for a young man who never appeared on her mother’s matchmaking radar, will Mina and Darya’s new-found appreciation for each other survive?
Together Tea is a moving and joyous debut novel about family, love, and finding the place you truly belong.
Review:
I picked this book up because I am actively trying to make a dent in my Read Around the World. I need to get more Asian authors- so my first mistake was that I assumed this story was written by an Iranian author- she is a descendant of Iranian parents but technically she is from Turkey. I did need a few from Turkey so it helped me out with the same challenge.
This seemed like a historical romance chick-lit type. A matchmaking mother and a daughter wanting to find love on her own. It sounds ok, even if it's generally not my cup of tea. Again, it was only for the challenge that this made it to my TBR. I was pleasantly surprised that it had a bit more than that.
We have two main timelines- The first one takes place in 1996 Darya and her daughter Mina (20ish years old) decide to go back to Iran to find themselves and figure out the direction their lives should take. The second section is a look at the past, it's set in 1978 right when the Iranian revolution is starting, and it shows how it impacted Darya, Mina, and their family prompting them to escape to America. The third section is back to the present 1996 -trip to Iran and their experiences.
It is such a well-written story, you identify with Mina's struggle. She is trying to please her parent by going to school and selecting a career that has a bright future but in her heart, she wants to do something else. Her passion though is not marketable in the long run so she can't come out and say that. While still doing her undergrad - she talks to her parents. She comes clean in, a way, to let them know she doesn't want to continue, as part of the bargain she strikes with her parents she will continue her career path if she's allowed to go back to Iran. She wishes to see her roots, to see what happened to their home after they left. The plan does not go 100% according to plan, her mother decides to accompany Mina.
Darya's experience also is something you can connect with. She had dreams and aspirations, but she had to act accordingly. Get married, have a family, and move on from her own aspirations to look after her little family. Then moving to America, her husband was completely immersed in the new place, always so excited to be there, and her children adopted the new culture, "forgetting" their ways. And she felt so alone, the only one who kept wishing for their homeland, never feeling at home in the new place. An awesome realistic portrait - there is almost always a mixed emotions type of situation for most immigrants. Some just hide it better than others.
It's heartwarming, it came close to bringing m to tears, except I wasn't at home on my own so I had to push through. I could not put it down, I wasn't able to finish it in one go exactly, but in a single day, I started and then kept going back to it until I was done. This was one of those days where I feel my work got in the way of my book, quite troublesome really.
It is also pointed out - something which we should know but it needs to be said anyway- media in Western culture often describes a one-sided picture of Iran that fits the government agenda. It ignores the people who actually live there, many might have strong religious beliefs others have more progressive ones but they are completely repressed by their own government. We do get a bit of insight into what daily life is like for Iranian citizens in the pre-revolution and then in the aftermath. It touches both timelines, so it's a very good point in favor of it.
The love story- in both timelines was ok, not my favorite part to be honest and it does occupy a majority of the book. It is almost at the center front of it- cliche, predictable with huge plot twists that felt a bit over the top just like a soap opera or a Latin novela. It even came with the monster mother-in-law-to-be who prefers to destroy her son instead of allowing him to marry someone below their social ladder.
Overall it was an enjoyable read.
I used this for the challenges:
Around the World- Turkey
Cultural Diversity
Bình luận