A review by meenakshisankar
Love Marriage, by V.V. Ganeshananthan

4.0

This debut novel by the author is set in Srilanka, and follows the life of Yalini, who left the island nation in 1983, on the day of the violent racial outburst against the Tamils, living with her parents in the USA. She tries to strike a delicate balance between the traditions of her ancestors and the attractions of the modern world she has adopted. She, a practicing physician in the US, is summoned to Toronto to care for her uncle who has left the Tamil Tigers organization and is counting his final days due to cancer. Her friendship with her uncle’s daughter, and her ruminations about her extended family’s struggles due to their displacement across the globe and the violence in their lives is powerfully illuminated. She explores the spectrum of love marriages and arranged marriages across the four generations of family members. Very poignantly and beautifully written.