I know retellings are all the rage recently. It looks like I am late to catch up, like every other trend out there. Retelling, a relatively new genre, refer to a new version of a familiar classic maybe in a modernized set up or imagined from a different point of view. After a lot of persuasion (wink.. wink..), I picked Unmarriageable, a new version of Pride and Prejudice.
Unmarriageable, set in Pakistani background, follows the Pride and Prejudice to the T revolving around the five daughters of Mr and Mrs Binat. Their elder daughters Jena and Alysba work in a school nearby and meet their counterparts “Bungles” Bingla and Valentino Darsee in a wedding.
While Jena and Bungles like each other right from the start, Darsee looks down upon the Binats, thanks to the actions of their dramatic sister and materialistic mother. Alys finds Darsee to be haughty and vain, and she befriends Jeorgeulla Wickaam, Darsee’s cousin who further tarnishes his image.
Soon the Binat family hates him and when Bungles leaves the town without proposing to Jena, they assume it was Darsee’s doing. Do they end up together forms the rest of Unmarriageable.
My initial thoughts
I picked Unmarriageable because I missed Jane Austen and wanted to get into her world, and Unmarriageable did exactly that. I could see the Austen’s characters in Soniah Kamal’s and it stayed true to the original. The sub plots of Kaleen and Sherry (Colleen – Charlotte) and the way they had been adapted to the modern Pakistan fit perfectly.
While I understand it is a retelling, I wish the author had explored the characters deeper. Lady’s character was a cliche and I felt there was more scope for development, given the period it is set in.
I couldn’t avoid feeling it was weird that the characters discuss so much about Austen and even a character talks about Alys being similar to Lizzie, but they didn’t figure out they were literally acting like them. A glaring plot hole maybe?
Things that worked for me
Unmarriageable stayed true to the original Pride and Prejudice, in terms of social commentary and the plot.
I loved many of the desi version of the characters like Sherry and Kaleen.
There are parts where the author shines, especially where she had changed Austen’s text to suit her narration.
Things that didn’t work for me
Maybe, Unmarriageable was too close the original and I found it unimaginative at places.
There were places that the prose to be dragging.
I didn’t find the charm of the Lizzie Bennet in Alysba, but that might be a personal bias.
Bottom-line
While there are lot of things that I wish were better with Unmarriageable, but as a retelling the author succeeds in making me fell nostalgic about Pride and Prejudice. I am still on the lookout for a better retelling of Pride and Prejudice. If you know any, let me know.
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Let us chat
Have you read this one? Do you like reading retellings? If so, what is favorite retelling book? Let us chat.
This week has been hectic for me, even though I am unable to recall what exactly I did. I am sure it consisted of planning for my visit to India this week and tying up things here before we left. But I am sure I have not got them all.
And you heard it right. After almost six months I am for my visit to India and I am swamped just thinking about the logistics. There are many places to visit, people to meet and friends to catch up. And of course meeting and spending time with my family is the main goal.
Also, you can consider this as a heads up that I may not be able to post as regularly as I am now, but I am planning to try my best. As I mentioned in my last Sunday post about my blogger burnout and the drop in blog engagement, I am sure this trip to India will help me get over it, especially if I take a break during this time.
Quick June’19 updates
During the Eid long weekend, I took a little trip to Musandam, Oman to enjoy a relaxing pool side getaway.
We had another interesting book club and even got into a very passionate argument over non bookish stuff. I love the gang.
I got to hang out with my friends and work on a secret project that we surprisingly not abandoned.. Yet.
And oh the summer is here and as much as I try not to complain about it, the weather is killing us. Like we say, it is not the heat, it is the humidity! And I am so happy that I can visit India for a while during this season.
What I read this month:
On the whole the month was really good in terms of reading and I caught up six books which is fewer than May but a lot more than my general reading. So here we go with the list.
I watched Spider-man on the Cinemas last week and I should say the current cast are the best Spiderman team ever. I stan by this, it is even better than Toby Maguire team.
I am also slowly rewatching How to get away with murder. I am not binging it and I am enjoying it.
But on the whole I think I didn’t spend too much time on watching television or movies this June, which is somehow good, I guess.
Alta Mar or High Seas
Cube
Murder Mystery
Jessica Jones Season 3
Two Worlds – Korean Drama
Brooklyn nine nine – re-watched S5
On my blog
In case you had missed this week’s post on my blog, here is a quick recap for you.
How was your June? Have you read any of these books? What are your plans for the month of July? Have you been to India and if so, how was it? Let us talk.
I love doing bookish quizzes, even if most of the time I score real poor on them. But hey they are usually fun to do and kill some time right? It has been a while since I did one of those quizzes here, so let us match the authors name to their books now.
Do you like doing bookish quizzes? How much did you score on the “guess the authors of these famous books” quiz? Do you want me to make another quiz, a little bit tougher? Let us talk.
I have been seeing this tag for a long time now and here I am finally trying to write my name with books from my TBR. So let us get on with the My blog’s name in books tag, okay?
Does it ever annoy you when you expect something from a book because it was marketed so but then it turns out entirely different? I picked Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams because it had great reviews and it said it was ‘Bridget Jones meets Americanah’. But it turned out to be something different. Let us find out how Queenie was for me, shall we?
Queenie is a 25 year old Jamaican British woman, a typical millennial living in the pricey London and working for a newspaper. She has a close friend’s circle and a long term Caucasian boyfriend. Her family consists of overbearing grandparents, a religious maternal aunt and an estranged mother – you know the typical Jamaican family.
Things spiral down fast when her boyfriend proposes a long break from their relationship. Her performance at work suffers and finally she gets fired. Her social life derails when she starts hooking up with men who have no time or interest in her personality.
How Queenie deals with it and gets out of the mess that is her life now with the help of her family and friends forms the rest of the story.
My initial thoughts
Queenie is a tale of a young woman who tries to find her identity between the two cultures. It is less of a love story but more about strong female characters and their friendship and family ties. The characters are flawed but they are relatable and their problems are real. Though set in the UK, their story is from everywhere.
I agree that the Jamaican culture took little back seat among the other themes but from what was described I found it was similar to the Asians. Especially the importance given to family and religious sentiment. I loved how Queenie spoke about the stigma around the mental health and that is something really close to my heart. If only more people get off that mentality soon.
Also when I picked Queenie looking for a cheesy love story but instead found an intense book that spoke about several themes like sexism, feminism, sexual harassment at work and fetishising of Black women’s body. Though they were touched lightly, I am glad Queenie opened the topic at the least.
Things that worked for me
I loved the flawed characters and the pains were real.
Queenie talks about the importance of female friendship that sees through every up and down of her life.
It opens up the topic about the stigma around mental health and taking steps to improve it.
Things that didn’t work for me
I wish Queenie had spoken more about the racial and other issues.
I was totally misled by the genre classification and the summary.
Bottom-line
If you loved dry British humor like Chewing Gum (Netflix) or Fleabag, you will love Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. It totally surprised me and I think it is one of my best reads of 2019, as of now.
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Let us chat
Have you read Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams? Do you get irked by the misleading marketing? What was the last book that surprised or shocked you by such issues? Let us talk.
