Print Length: 376 pages

Publisher: Tate Publishing (October 8, 2013)

Synopsis

Her heart fluttered when she heard the sound of the key turn in the lock. She quickly adjusted her maroon silk sari with the yellow border, the one that had caught his eye, and waited eagerly for his footsteps.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… Yes, exactly seven steps before he stopped, hesitated for a few moments, then removed his shoes one by one and arranged them neatly side by side on the shoe rack.

She smiled. He had been mindful of taking his shoes off every day now. “I am not used to it, but I will if you want me to. It’s probably a good thing to do anyway.”

As he settled down, he would pick up the TV remote and, without looking at her, would say in his smooth baritone, “So how did you spend your day, anything interesting?”

Shaan Ahuja found himself bowing to tradition and agreeing to an arranged marriage to the beautiful Ruhi Sharma. He went through the motions but had no intention of carrying through on his vows. His last foray into matters of the heart with an American girl had left him scarred and unwilling to try again. Thoroughly disillusioned and disgruntled he wasted no time in making his intentions clear to Ruhi on their wedding night. But, he was completely unprepared for what his new wife had in mind.

Review

An Incurable Insanity is a look inside arranged marriages in India.  While this could happen anyway, the author is drawing upon her cultural knowledge to share with us what two people may feel when entering into such an arrangement.  Ruhi is a very sought after woman in India but her parents will only marry her to a deserving man.  Shaan is bending to pressure from his family to marry a girl from India despite living in the US and becoming successful in his own right and thinking that he found love with another woman in the US.

I found the book fascinating just with the whole custom of arranged marriages.  It was good to see that the two involved parties had some say in whether they married the other person.  I understood Ruhi’s position, that she agreed to marry this guy but didn’t know any of his past or anything about the other woman.  I sympathized with her feelings about her situation and how she was treated because it wasn’t fair to her that he married her under false pretenses.  However, not quite midway through the book Shaan realizes that he has a gem of a woman and wants to move forward with Ruhi but Ruhi acts like a petulant child (and funny enough is called that in the book, not long after I first thought that of her!).  Both Ruhi and Shaan say or do one thing but think another as evidenced by the text in italics.  I can understand guarding your heart but when do you believe the other person and start accepting their words and actions?  During the first half of the book I sided with Ruhi.  However, during the second half I sided with Shaan because I saw the changes he was making and the effort he was making into their relationship.

The story has a lot of back and forth with what seems like immaturity on both sides, but eventually they start to realize that maybe things aren’t quite as bad as they seem.

We give this book 4 paws.

About the Author

Simi K. Rao was born in India and has been living in the United States for several years. This book is her first foray into writing. The inspiration for the story came from what she has seen transpire among and within the immigrant community. Some of the experiences included are her own; some have been garnered from friends and casual conversations with acquaintances. She also writes poetry, is an avid photographer, loves to travel, and is a practicing physician. She currently lives in Denver with her family.

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review