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Arranged Marriage: Stories
- Narrated by: Judith West
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Anthologies & Short Stories
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The Ramayana, one of the world's greatest epics, is also a tragic love story. In this brilliant retelling, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni places Sita at the centre of the novel: this is Sita's version. The Forest of Enchantments is also a very human story of some of the other women in the epic, often misunderstood and relegated to the margins: Kaikeyi, Surpanakha, Mandodari. A powerful comment on duty, betrayal, infidelity and honour, it is also about women's struggle to retain autonomy in a world that privileges men.
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Overall
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Overall
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Performance
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ajay believes in living for himself; Bhavna teaches him to live for others. Ajay is a planner for life; Bhavna makes him live in every moment. You are the Best Wife is a story of two people with contradictory ideologies who fall in love. It changes them for good. It changes the way they look at the world and the way the world looks at them. Until destiny reveals its plans.
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-
Nice story and wonderful narration..
- By vikasluthra on 17-12-20
-
A Suitable Boy (Dramatised)
- Written by: Vikram Seth
- Narrated by: Ayesha Dharker, Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, full cast
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Suitable Boy is Vikram Seth's epic love story set in India. Funny and tragic, with engaging, brilliantly observed characters, it is as close as you can get to Dickens for the twentieth century. The story unfolds through four middle class families: the Mehras, Kappoors, Khans, and Chatterjis. Lata Mehra, a university student, is under pressure from her mother to get married. But not to just anyone she happens to fall in love with.
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Publisher's Summary
Although Chitra Divakaruni's poetry has won praise and awards for many years, it is her "luminous, exquisitely crafted prose" (Ms.) that is quickly making her one of the brightest rising stars in the changing face of American literature. Arranged Marriage, her first collection of stories, spent five weeks on the San Francisco Chronicle best seller list and garnered critical acclaim that would have been extraordinary for even a more established author. For the young girls and women brought to life in these stories, the possibility of change, of starting anew, is both as terrifying and filled with promise as the ocean that separates them from their homes in India. From the story of a young bride whose fairy-tale vision of California is shattered when her husband is murdered and she must face the future on her own, to a proud middle-aged divorced woman determined to succeed in San Francisco, Divakaruni's award-winning poetry fuses here with prose for the first time to create 11 devastating portraits of women on the verge of an unforgettable transformation.
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What listeners say about Arranged Marriage: Stories
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Gaurang Mukherji
- 06-05-20
beautiful stories
The stories are essentially Indian and it would have been better if read by someone with those softer tones. Judith West is a fine reader but her pronunciations and the matter of fact voice did not match the mood of the stories. sorry Judith no harsh feelings intended towards you, just giving an unbiased opinion. Bengalis do have a particular way of narrating. I missed that.
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- Estemeee
- 10-09-20
Horrible Fake Indian Accent!
I was unable to finish the book. The fake Indian accent was too offensive to handle. Please have the book by anybody else with their own accent. I have listened to this reader before and she does not sound like this anywhere else. Why did she or audible think it was appropriate to make a joke of Indian accents by using this fake one?
2 people found this helpful
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- Tara
- 24-04-20
Please get an actual Indian reader
The fake accent with the mispronounced names and words was grating to my ears. I wished the reader just read it in either an American accent or actually have an Indian reader. Audible this is really bad. I’ve listened to many other books written by Indian authors that were read by Indian women. So it’s not like this isn’t a possibility.
As for the actual story, I really enjoyed most of them. Looking at our first generation and the struggles they dealt with is fascinating. It makes my mother’s generation more dimensional and complex than I had thought them to be. Definitely high on the reading list.
1 person found this helpful
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- Mal
- 08-12-14
Took a chance
Glad I took a chance on this book. I kept seeing this book listed but it never showed any reviews. Since I love reading about other cultures I decided to take a chance and it really was quite decent. Although it is a collection of stories all with a common theme each story is different and explores the subject...arranged marriage, in different ways...they are not predictable. The rich character development, the descriptive details and the perfect narrator made this book enjoyable,
1 person found this helpful
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- vanilla
- 27-01-21
Bad choice of accent, though no fault of the reader!
Was looking forward to the book but could not listen for even a few minutes because of the inappropriate choice of accent!
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- Lady bookista
- 22-01-21
Fake accent
I didn’t get past the first five minutes. The fake accent is horrible!! I was looking forward to the book but i couldn’t keep listening to the fake accent
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- BarbinMexico
- 11-01-21
Mixed feelings
Overall the stories interesting and well written. My problem is the narrator. Her voice doesn’t match the stories. They are written in the first person about young women. The narrator has the voice of an elderly woman and is very jarring in context of the stories.
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- C.
- 10-12-20
Didn’t like it
Glad it was free. I didn’t like the narration and the story. I had to stop listening.
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- Big A, Little A
- 20-10-20
The narration does the book an injustice
The narration is horrible. She sounds like Michael Anderson’s character from Twin Peaks. It feels like I’m listening to this in the Black Lodge. I’ve read the book which is excellent. I like to listen to stories while I work, I’ll skip ahead to another book.
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- Venkatesh Hodavdekar
- 08-11-19
The worst performance I’ve come across so far
This is not an actual review of the book because I couldn’t stand the narrator’s rendition of an Indian accent for more than five minutes. They really should have hired an Indian person if an Indian accent use what they were looking for. Terrible.
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- Reader
- 06-12-16
engaging stories. narrated well. recommended.
the stories are very simple, real and everyday-like. Narration could've been better though. I recommend the book to one and all. looking forward to other books by Chitra Banerjee Diwakaruni.