The Newlyweds

Wonderfully imagined and realized story of a young Bangladeshi woman who meets an American man online and marries him. The novels peels back so many interesting layers of misunderstandings, cultural differences, varying intentions, but as we read on and our perspectives on the characters keep

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changing, they're always deeper and more human. A marvelous read.

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The Newlyweds is a great story of cultural differences and (mis)understandings. Amina, a young Bangladeshi woman longs for a life full of education and freedom. She meets George, a nerdy American from Rochester NY, online. After a courtship conducted mostly online, George travels to Bangladesh and

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decides to bring Amina home to America as his wife. Although Amina isn't exactly a mail-order bride, their union isn't exactly a love-match either. For Amina, George seems like a good man with whom she can build a life and a family and have the opportunity to become a teacher. For George, Amina will give him the family he wants without the trouble of dating quarrelsome American women.

Although they think they are marrying with their eyes wide open, it soon becomes clear that their lack of understanding of each others' cultures made them ignorant of the right questions to ask.

For me, the best part of The Newlyweds is that Nell Freudenberger didn't set them as good guy vs. bad. Both Amina and George are decent people. But they are complex and flawed and uncertain and they make mistakes. When they deceive each other there's no malice. They are doing the best they can with the lives they've chosen.

Freudenberger also does a great job of contrasting family life in George's suburb with Amina's in her home village. Both settings are explored in depth. Although I won't spoil the ending, I will comment that when I turned the last page I was invested in the characters enough to spend a long time imaging what happened to George and Amina next. To me, that's the best sign of a great read!

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I was amazed at how real this novel seemed and I totally agree with Ann Patchett's description----that she could hardly wait to get back to reading it! It's as if Nell stepped right into the shoes of Amina and she was writing her very own memoir. The descriptions were developed that you couldn't

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help but see them in your mind---a really lovely book---a story that makes you take a small gasp at the end for the future ahead for all of the characters---could it have been a different ending? Not sure how....

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Great audio book. Riveting contrast of characters and environments with some twists and turns along the way. Amina's observations as she meets and gets to know Rochester NY, her husband and his family are fascinating. The climax is her trip home to 'Desh for her mom and dad, brought about by very

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surprising circumstances and the sure hand of fate. Recommended for all and I will now try and find out more about Bangladesh.

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Excellent book. Well written and deserving of praise.

I loved this book which tells the story of Amina, a Bangaladeshi woman who marries George from Rochester, NY who she meets on the internet. It starts out like it is going to be a light and superficial read, but it is nothing like that. The author does a great job of addressing the issues that face

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immigrants to the U.S. There are many intense situations and the resolution is not black and white but rather, reality in all its complexity. A very good book which definitely lives up to all the hype.

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Amina grew up in Bangladesh, and her family always dreamed of sending her to the United States. She gets her chance when she meets George, an engineer in Rochester, NY, on an online dating site. As Amina adjusts to married life with the kind but somewhat rigid George, she slowly assimilates to

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American culture while planning to bring her parents to Rochester. Family feuds in Bangladesh, a rough patch in her marriage, and the economic downturn put this plan in jeopardy. Summary BPL

Thanks to LibraryThing, I am enjoying a wider range of novels as my confidence in their recommendations slowly grows. Although I found it a bit too long, I enjoyed the subtleties of The Newlyweds. Ms Freudenberger takes our expectations for a ride in this story of love and marriage, secrets and betrayals, cultural identity and a shared future. The author plants tropes--online dating, the American dream, gender roles, bi-racial marriage--which she nuances with new contexts, taking a left turn instead of a right, going back instead of forward, effectively undermining the reader's prejudices and assumptions about the conflicted characters. A book that needs to be discussed to fully appreciate its depth.

7.5 out of 10 Recommended to book clubs/groups, fans of contemporary literary fiction and to readers who enjoy commentary on 21st century lifestyles.

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A multi-cultural story of a woman who meets her husband online and discovers what comes of it when traveling between her homeland and her new land.

Read it in one day- Excellent book. Such an interesting story, so well written and completely different. Loved it.

I was loving this book until Amina returned to Bangladesh to meet with her parents. Her relationship with George and her life in the US were far more interesting.

Well written but not believable to me. Amina seemed more American than Bangladeshi. That said, I enjoyed the book - Amina's relationships and conflicts were well drawn and there was enough tension to keep the narrative moving toward the conclusion.

What an excellent book, I couldn't put it down this week which is just as well with the heat making it too hard to do anything but read anyway. I don't know when I've ever wished for two separate endings for the book simultaneously like I did with this one.

Amina lives in Bangladesh but wishes to marry an American and finds George, an electrical engineer from Rochester NY through an EuroAsia matchmaking website who will do. They settle into a new three bedroom house in the suburbs where Amina keeps a spotless house, improves the flower garden, and is

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easily employed in short term low wages work. Her husband has a professional job but is encouraging to Amina about her education, her job prospects.

They live a sterile life until Amina tries to get pregnant. And doesn't.

I found this novel very poignant, and surprising, yet surprisingly dull at moments. Like American life, like Deshi life. Sometimes things perk along predictably until they don't. What if you really are in love with the one who would have been easier to marry, but through some perverse ambition, or wild wish, you choose a foreign path.

The elements of realism are dead on in this book: the fear of strangers, and terrorism, the chronic layoffs and random rehires, the rootlessness of people and their families in the US compared to the sway of American values on what seems a healthier family culture in Bangladesh. I was engrossed in the narrative because toward the end there was suspense about who Amina would end up with. She was equally virtuous and maddening. Sometimes I wanted to slap her. Although Amina was a completely convincing character, the Americans were sadly lacking in depth compared to the Deshis.

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A complicated story about love, families and secrets. Ms. Freudenberger provides a vivid story that was so well told I never once came to like George, in fact, I will say, I was repulsed by him and rooting for Amina to find love somewhere else (I won't say if she did or didn't). Always one for a

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nicely wrapped conclusion, this one did not tie things up and plodded on about 50 pages too many. I would have preferred to see the book end earlier and explore more in future novels, but then again, I'm a sucker for serial books when I like the character(s) and story.

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The novel takes place in present-day Bangladesh and Rochester, NY. It really rings true-- at least to this former Roschestarian. But the amazing thing is, the author is not from either place.

Maybe this book tried to cover too much ground, and so was unable to fully explore any of it. Amina, living in Bangladesh, meets George, living in in the United States, via the internet. And true love blossoms. Only, it really isn’t much a “true love.” All the characters in this novel are

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greatly flawed, so much so that one is glad they exist only on the printed page! Both George and Amina have secrets and agendas they keep to themselves. He wants a “Stepford wife,” she wants to live in the USA with her parents. Where’s the love that relationship? But her parents are also less than honest in their dealings with their friends and relatives. And I haven’t even discussed George’s adopted cousin and Amina’s long-time family friend. There’s got to be some love in these skewed relationships, but it is only one-sided. Mostly. And then you have the opulence of how the Bangladesh people view the USA contrasted with the corruption and poverty that they experience. No wonder Amina wants to get her parents out of there! The author mentions the beauty of that country but briefly and the problems there are laid out in detail. Is this a story of two people meeting and falling in love? Is it a story about two different cultures? Maybe about the adjustments of the beginning of a marriage? Whatever the thrust of the story is, it missed the mark. I didn’t care for the underdeveloped plot or the shallow characters. It was not the book I expected it to be.

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Disappointing given my high expectations. Flat characters, a plot that didn't engage me at all and a muddled structure that had me struggling to get to the end. Freudenberger writes lovely sentences, but there wasn't enough going on here beyond that to really connect with me.

This was an entertaining book about a couple that connected on the internet; George from Rochester NY and Amina from Bangladesh. Although there is a serious clash of cultures, values, and families with secrets, it is in essence a book about getting married and staying married that transcends the

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differences.

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I'm a little torn on this book. I LOVED the first two-thirds of the book, so much that I was mentally classifying it as one of the best books I've read in years. But the last 100 pages or so seemed to be a totally different book. This is partly because the story is naturally broken as the main

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character, Amina, leaves America to go home and fetch her parents. This part of the book dragged for me, and the ending left me wanting so much more. Still, I loved the writing and the overall story. I'm already looking at other books by Nell Freudenberger...

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I really wavered between 4 and 5 stars -- my main issue with the book is that George isn't nearly as vividly depicted as Amina and never really comes into focus. But there was a lot to love about this book.

Fabulous audio book. The narrator's ability to speak with a South Asian accent made the Deshi characters more real than if I had read the print version. An interesting story line with strong characters kept me engaged throughout.

fiction (Bangladeshi Muslim woman meets American bachelor online; each family and couple has secrets/problems). Interesting enough to finish reading but not one of my favorite reads; things work out unrealistically well for Amina so it does feel contrived (and lots of other people point out that

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she is not all that likeable or very authentic/believable as a modern Muslim woman, though there is a little value at least in exposing us Westerners to an unfamiliar culture and customs).

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