Nell Freudenberger
Fiction
What can I say about this book? It was good…sort of. It kept me entertained…sort of. I did finish it. I liked the main character. But did I actually enjoy the book? No.
The Newlyweds is the story of Amina, a twenty-four year old from Bangladesh who moves to Rochester, New York, after meeting her husband, George, online. She takes awhile to get used to the American way of things and saves money for her parents to move to New York to live with them. Then she discovers an unpleasant secret about George’s past and not long after that, is forced to go retrieve her parents, who have gotten into trouble. By the end of the book, Amina must choose between her new life and the life she could’ve had if she’d stayed in Bangladesh.
There were way too many instances of past tense in this book. I swear, Ms. Freudenberger used “had” about twenty times per page. It drove me nuts once I started noticing it (which was about one chapter in). But I gritted my teeth and kept going because the story interested me. Well, mostly it was Amina who interested me. Which brings me to my next point. The story was pretty much all told in Amina’s POV, so why wasn’t it in first person? Third person made me think we’d hear from other characters, but we didn’t. And don’t get me started on the last part of the book, where Amina suddenly thinks she’s in love with this guy she’s known since she was a kid. That came out of nowhere.
I guess I would recommend The Newlyweds. It’s not the best book I’ve ever read, but it kept me entertained. But be warned, it is long.
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