Rating: 
Summary: a heartwarming read
Review: This was a great book that I really enjoyed reading. It was a hip, modern-day tale of a single woman's search for love and romance. The main character, Anju, is an anomaly in her native Bombay. Unlike many of her female peers who marry right away and settle in love and romance, Anju holds out for someone who is "creative, kind, profoundly humane." She is altogether unusual and vastly modern in her society. Each consecutive failure with the men who enter her life is all too painfully real and disappointing. Although Anju's tale is of a single Indian woman searching for a suitable matrimonial mate, her tale could be that of any modern single woman of our time.
Although the book was good, for the most part, and entertaining to read, there were a couple of flaws, in my opinion. One of them is that after spending only a year or two in New York, Anju has already adopted many of the tastes and ways of someone who has been living in America for much longer. She appears savvy about cultural things that only someone who has been living in America for a while could know about. The other flaw of the book is that the happy ending where Anju meets her Prince Charming came together much too quickly without sufficient build-up. One day she was mourning the disintegration of her brief Internet romance and the next day it seemed, she'd found her match. It was all too convenient and perfect.
Finally, I have to disagree with readers who saw Anju as being passive or too weak/meek to stand up to her traditional-minded parents. She WAS born and raised in Bombay after all where females are culturally expected to have an arranged marriage at a young age and not marry for love or romantic purposes. She was already striking out on her own by remaining unmarried at her age and moving to New York.
Rating: 
Summary: What a waste!
Review: A non-resident Indian "Successful" woman living in USA does not a good writer make. This book is a clear example of this. The novel revolves around very trite and caricaturish characters. There are no original thoughts or ideas which would be even mildly amusing or thought-provoking. The language and the formation of sentences is amateurish, the characters uni-dimensional. Even the main protagonist - Anju is a character whom you couldn't care less for. The book can at best be viewed as a weblog on any of the numerous expatriot Indian diaspora websites. AVOID IT.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: A sparkling book about upper class Indian lifestyle. I identified completely with the light hearted style. It is meant to be a superficial look at the duties between Indian parents and daughters. You have to be Indian to understand that the character is not spineless or gutless as considered by western standards. An Indian parents duty is to get their daughter married, hence the arranged marriage and it is the duty of the daughter not to hurt her parents emotionally or socially. This book is about the attempts of both of them to achieve that goal through an arranged marriage. A simple story line, well written, never boring. Good job, Kavita!
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: A sparkling book about upper class Indian lifestyle. I identified completely with the light hearted style. It is meant to be a superficial look at the duties between Indian parents and daughters. You have to be Indian to understand that the character is not spineless or gutless as considered by western standards. An Indian parents duty is to get their daughter married, hence the arranged marriage and it is the duty of the daughter not to hurt her parents emotionally or socially. This book is about the attempts of both of them to achieve that goal through an arranged marriage. A simple story line, well written, never boring. Good job, Kavita!
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievable read - fantastic historical story!
Review: According to classmates from overseas this books is historically accurate of what is occuring even today. I am in my mid-thirties and have a friend from India that has an arranged marriage that has worked beautifully... Then, again I have been told, firsthand, about some of the modern arranged marriages with negative consequences. This is an interesting perspective of this "bride to be" that most Western females would never be faced with her situation. Awesome book for the casual reader or for the class room! I am planning on having my daughter read and discuss this book with me when she is in her early teens. I think the discussions that could come from this book could be a real eye opener for Western adolescent girls.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts well but fails to build momentum
Review: Anju is an upper-middle-class Indian girl, who has grown up in Bombay. In her world arranged marriages are the norm, and girls are commonly married in their early to mid 20s. When we meet Anju she is aged 33, living in New York and still single - much to her and her family's shame, and definitely not from lack of trying. The book then goes back in time to tell the story of her family's efforts to marry her off. At times amusing, at others more serious, the book gives great insight into an aspect of Indian culture that many find intriguing or hard to understand. Anju is a likeable character and you find yourself rooting for her and hoping that a suitable partner will be found. Unfortunately the flashback technique removes most of the suspense from the story, as it is only in the final 15 pages that we finally pick up where the book began. For this reason, I found that my interest began to pall as I read the book. You can only read about so many potential suitors who don't work out for whatever reason, and you tire of Anju's ongoing cycle of hope/disappointment/despair. When it finally comes, the ending feels too rushed after the lengthy build-up. While Kavita Daswani writes with insight about Indian culture, her portrayal of the New York fashion world where Anju ends up working feels superficial and unconvincing, and most of the characters in the book are stereo-typical. Overall, I found this book just okay. I enjoyed learning more about India and for this reason I liked the first half a lot more than the second. But I felt it lost momentum as it went on and in the end, I was relieved to let it go.
Rating:
Summary: laugh out loud
Review: Any Indian girl that is of matrimonial age and has gone through the experience of having her family and community try to find her a husband will love this book. There were so many elements that I could relate to and times when I just couldn't stop laughing because it described my life so well. The main character is torn between the life she was born to have and the life that was given to her, and like many of us she does everything she can to make everybody else in her life happy; while thinking of herself last. This is a quick read but still a book that makes you think, and one that will stay with you even after you turn the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: As a desi born and raised in the US and still trying to maintain the culture, this is a wonderful book. It TRULY tells the inside thoughts of desi american girls today and insightfully describes the very real matrionial process. KUDOS!
Rating:
Summary: Indian Bridget Jones
Review: Delightful and enchanting book. I believe I had a smile on my face as I read this delightful author. She had the ability to let you see and feel her culture and personal background as she put together her life. She wove two different worlds together and did not lessen the value of either. Immensely enjoyable. Thank you for showing me a little of your world.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed Work of Popular Fiction
Review: I don't read a lot of fiction, but the review made "For Matrimonial Purposes" sound interesting so I decided to read it. This book is written in first person and the narrator, Anju, is the main character. As the story goes, Anju travels back and forth from New York to India, visiting family and looking for a husband. She has decided she wants to keep the Indian custom of marrying an Indian man she barely knows, but who has gained her parents' approval. When she is visiting India and describing life there, the book is interesting, but when she is in New York describing her job and her shallow, trendy co-workers the book is dull. The New York parts felt like cliche-ridden filler so I just skimmed them.
There is one scene where Anju's mother is visiting a swami and despite the fact that Anju was not at the meeting, she describes it as if she had been present. This sticks out like a sore thumb. I know about "omniscient voice", but I don't see how the main character can be omniscient about scenes she didn't witness unless she is God or unless this is a fantasy novel. Where was the editor? This is just sloppy!
In the last few pages of the book, Anju finally meets the man destined to become her husband. His character is not developed, the reader does not know him, so it's difficult to care that she has found someone and is getting married.
The book is peppered with Indian words that are not defined. You have to guess at what they mean. Maybe the author assumed only Indians and Indian-Americans would read her book?
Not a great work of literature since it lacks depth and artistic prose, but interesting for it's authentic portrayal of Indian customs and culture.
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