Imaginary Men by Anjali Banerjee
Jan. 16th, 2006 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksI read a review of Imaginary Men online; I can’t remember where, so I cannot send an email full of gratitude to the reviewer, but will post them here: Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is my first A of 2006.
Lina Ray is an woman caught between two cultures. At her sister’s wedding, she makes up a fiancé to put off her Auntie Kiki, who wants to introduce her to an eligible bachelor who reminds Lina of an Indian Pee Wee Herman. Shortly thereafter, she encounters an interesting man by the name of Raja Prasad. Their encounter is brief, but he sticks in her mind, so when her aunt bugs her for a name, Lina says, “Raja.” In order to make sure all is proper, Auntie Kiki goes to the astrologer with Lina’s birth information and that of the fake Raja. Disturbingly, the results are vague. Auntie Kiki then decides that she must come to the US to inspect the fiancé, and to be sure that he is right for Lina. Lina’s parents, while less pushy than Auntie Kiki, are equally relieved to hear that their oldest daughter is engaged once again. You see, Lina was once engaged to wonderful Nathu, who died in a car accident.
Back in the States, Lina begins a campaign to find a man to live up to the imaginary one that she told her family about. While acting as a professional matchmaker, she also tries to matchmake for herself, with little luck. At the same time, her imaginary man (not the fiancé, but the one who lives with her and used to resemble Nathu) has begun to resemble Raja. The real Raja appears in San Francisco for business and family reasons: he wants Lina to find a proper Indian wife for his younger brother, Dev.
When Raja appears on the scene, Lina is prepared not to like him, despite his good looks and charm: a prince, CEO of the family business, well-to-do, semi-engaged to a princess, picking out the wife for his younger brother with very high standards without his brother’s input or consent merely because the auspicious date for his brother’s wedding is approaching. But as they spend time together, it is clear that Raja is trying to do what he thinks is best for his family. He wants someone (not only for his brother but for himself as well) who will fit into his family and with whom he can share his life in India. I’m not sure I can explain exactly how it happened, but I went from not liking Raja very much to liking him a great deal. Banerjee did a very good job of showing, rather than telling, that Raja is a good person, despite the initial interview in Lina’s office.
Of course, eventually Lina’s imaginary fiancé becomes a problem: gossip reaches Raja, who is offended on a couple of levels. First that Lina did not tell him, and second on her behalf that her fiancé should travel and leave her so often. But worse is to come when she has to tell him the truth, that there is no fiancé at all.
While her personal life is going nowhere, Lina’s professional life is foundering as well. Normally a very successful matchmaker, none of her clients or their matches are working out.
Ultimately, Lina gathers the courage (with some encouragement from Raja) to tell her family the truth and explain how one little lie got away from her.
The title Imaginary Men refers to several things, I think: the fiancé Lina invented; the imaginary man who lives with her, looking first like Nathu and then later like Raja; the men she dates imagining that they can become the fiancé she invented; the man she imagined that Nathu had been; and the man Lina imagines Raja to be before she gets to know him.
At first glance, the plot of this book seems like a typical chick lit scenario with a heroine creating a boyfriend to save face, but it was more than that, I thought. In addition to trying to work her way out of a lie, Lina is trying to figure out where it is that she belongs in the world. Although she was born in India, she is thoroughly American in many ways. She drinks cha and eats samosas, but she doesn’t speak Bengali and barely cooks. Trips to India are expensive and typically vacation-like; she feels alien there sometimes and alien in the US sometimes.
Normally I would point to particular things that I liked about a book to back up the grade, but in this case, I liked everything. The characters are very well done (although Auntie Kiki was a little bit of a caricature), the book flows smoothly, etc. Ultimately, this book gets an A grade because Banerjee makes me care about what happens to Lina, makes me hope she can somehow reconcile the Indian and American pieces of herself, makes me hope that off-scene she eventually gets her HEA.
Lina Ray has a knack for pairing up perfect couples as a professional matchmaker in San Francisco, but her well-meaning, highly traditional Indian family wants her to get married. When her Auntie Kiki introduces Lina to the bachelor from hell at her sister’s wedding in India, Lina panics and blurts out, “I’m engaged!” Because what’s the harm in a little lie?
Lina Ray is an woman caught between two cultures. At her sister’s wedding, she makes up a fiancé to put off her Auntie Kiki, who wants to introduce her to an eligible bachelor who reminds Lina of an Indian Pee Wee Herman. Shortly thereafter, she encounters an interesting man by the name of Raja Prasad. Their encounter is brief, but he sticks in her mind, so when her aunt bugs her for a name, Lina says, “Raja.” In order to make sure all is proper, Auntie Kiki goes to the astrologer with Lina’s birth information and that of the fake Raja. Disturbingly, the results are vague. Auntie Kiki then decides that she must come to the US to inspect the fiancé, and to be sure that he is right for Lina. Lina’s parents, while less pushy than Auntie Kiki, are equally relieved to hear that their oldest daughter is engaged once again. You see, Lina was once engaged to wonderful Nathu, who died in a car accident.
Back in the States, Lina begins a campaign to find a man to live up to the imaginary one that she told her family about. While acting as a professional matchmaker, she also tries to matchmake for herself, with little luck. At the same time, her imaginary man (not the fiancé, but the one who lives with her and used to resemble Nathu) has begun to resemble Raja. The real Raja appears in San Francisco for business and family reasons: he wants Lina to find a proper Indian wife for his younger brother, Dev.
When Raja appears on the scene, Lina is prepared not to like him, despite his good looks and charm: a prince, CEO of the family business, well-to-do, semi-engaged to a princess, picking out the wife for his younger brother with very high standards without his brother’s input or consent merely because the auspicious date for his brother’s wedding is approaching. But as they spend time together, it is clear that Raja is trying to do what he thinks is best for his family. He wants someone (not only for his brother but for himself as well) who will fit into his family and with whom he can share his life in India. I’m not sure I can explain exactly how it happened, but I went from not liking Raja very much to liking him a great deal. Banerjee did a very good job of showing, rather than telling, that Raja is a good person, despite the initial interview in Lina’s office.
Of course, eventually Lina’s imaginary fiancé becomes a problem: gossip reaches Raja, who is offended on a couple of levels. First that Lina did not tell him, and second on her behalf that her fiancé should travel and leave her so often. But worse is to come when she has to tell him the truth, that there is no fiancé at all.
While her personal life is going nowhere, Lina’s professional life is foundering as well. Normally a very successful matchmaker, none of her clients or their matches are working out.
Ultimately, Lina gathers the courage (with some encouragement from Raja) to tell her family the truth and explain how one little lie got away from her.
The title Imaginary Men refers to several things, I think: the fiancé Lina invented; the imaginary man who lives with her, looking first like Nathu and then later like Raja; the men she dates imagining that they can become the fiancé she invented; the man she imagined that Nathu had been; and the man Lina imagines Raja to be before she gets to know him.
At first glance, the plot of this book seems like a typical chick lit scenario with a heroine creating a boyfriend to save face, but it was more than that, I thought. In addition to trying to work her way out of a lie, Lina is trying to figure out where it is that she belongs in the world. Although she was born in India, she is thoroughly American in many ways. She drinks cha and eats samosas, but she doesn’t speak Bengali and barely cooks. Trips to India are expensive and typically vacation-like; she feels alien there sometimes and alien in the US sometimes.
Normally I would point to particular things that I liked about a book to back up the grade, but in this case, I liked everything. The characters are very well done (although Auntie Kiki was a little bit of a caricature), the book flows smoothly, etc. Ultimately, this book gets an A grade because Banerjee makes me care about what happens to Lina, makes me hope she can somehow reconcile the Indian and American pieces of herself, makes me hope that off-scene she eventually gets her HEA.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-15 06:33 pm (UTC)P. (http://pdevi.blogspot.com/)
Sonia Singh
Date: 2006-01-15 06:51 pm (UTC)Re: Sonia Singh
Date: 2006-01-16 05:30 am (UTC)P. (http://pdevi.blogspot.com/)
Paperback REader?
Date: 2006-01-16 02:52 pm (UTC)Re: Paperback REader?
Date: 2006-01-17 06:50 pm (UTC)jmc
Re: Paperback REader?
Date: 2006-01-19 06:06 pm (UTC)I heard there's a sequel to this but can't remember what it's called....hmmm...Invisible Lives maybe. It's in Amazon for sure.
~Jay
Re: Paperback REader?
Date: 2006-01-19 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 02:26 am (UTC)cw
Hope you enjoy it!
Date: 2006-01-24 01:18 pm (UTC)