The book was okay. I found it very miscellaneous, random, and sometimes not quite cohesive. Some lines of the book were phrased strangely as if they were translated to an awkward structure in English. The transitioning to new paragraphs of the story particularly bugged me (as small as this is) because it would mostly be like “That afternoon,” “On Monday,” “A little while later,” or something that would awkwardly indicate time. And I believe that the transitioning could be phrased in a more creative way.

You’re basically reading about a retired man running a marriage bureau to help people arrange marriages by finding them great matches. And for a good chunk of the book that is all you read: the business doing what it does and the clients. You see people looking for matches desiring the most humble and modest to the most materialistic, superficial ones. But apart from their unique tastes they hardly make an impact to the story. Just actual customers benefitting from the business.

I noticed that Zama likes to highlight the details of the setting to a tee. It’s nice to envision what he’s trying to portray, but sometimes the descriptions would be abrupt and out of place. I also find the storyline to be abrupt in general. There’s quite a tension with Mr. Ali and his son Rehman and it’s portrayed very nicely in the beginning but towards the end their interactions with Rehman seemed to be written in a rush, as if it needed to be wrapped up in the middle of what could have been a good back-and-forth to reflect the divide of ideologies between father and son. We see mostly Mrs. Ali being a very affected mom, while Mr. Ali doesn’t budge. I don’t know if Zama was shooting for a realistic approach, but I think typical fathers would feel some sort of hurt and empathy for their children, which Mr. Ali didn’t show. Mr. Ali was stubborn and angry with Rehman all the way until the end of the book. The change of heart was very short-lived.

Now, about Rehman...

There were unnecessary details provided about Rehman that did nothing to support the story at all. Like how he fell ill and caused his parents grief. There was some mention of blood which made his condition seem really serious. I thought maybe he will suffer for a long time and die off. But suddenly he was healthy and he was able to bring justice to farmers. And that was a wrap for Rehman’s existence in the story. Rehman was basically “happily-ever-aftered” in what I believe was one or two pages.

Mrs. Ali was proud of this sudden positive turn of events, but you don’t see any feedback from Mr. Ali. Not even a sense of enthusiasm for his son whatsoever. I think Rehman was such an underrated role in the story. Once you get close to the end, you wonder why Zama even bothered including Rehman him to begin with considering his character just kind of faltered. Rehman brought substance to the Alis, but he was basically just half-assed remembered towards the end.

Mr. Ali was mainly the protagonist-ish (until Aruna’s sudden love for Ramanujan and the whole proposal, after what I recall to be.... what? ONE picnic?! What did I say about abruptness again?) but apart from his business, he did not have any growth whatsoever.

I do love the fact that I learned so much about the culture and the traditions of Indians (particularly their weddings), the caste system and the societal norms... Those were all very intriguing to me and I learned a lot just by reading the book. I give it that. It stands with a lighthearted theme in attempts to be dramatic but they’re cut too short to be effective. I think that my taking many months to finish the book says a lot!