Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal – Thoughts

It is a universally acknowledged fact that Jane Austen has changed the lives of many readers and authors and her book adaptations are almost always a treat! 😉

Finally read this Pakistani adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic – Pride and Prejudice and quite enjoyed it!

Here is what I loved in this re-telling:

1. All the details about Pakistani culture, their way of living, the marriage ceremonies, the description of the clothes and oh gosh, to-die-for-mouthwatering dishes! That was also a major source of torment during this quarantine period, since I really wanted to go and order some seekh kababs or Haleem..sigh! I learned so much about their society and cultural values and realized that its similar to the Indian social values in so many aspects!

2. The fact that Jena and Alys are shown to be 30 year old, working and educated women, who are unmarried. Nice touch 🙂

3. Some of the character names tickled my funny bone so much! Like Looclus, Hammy , Sammy and Gin and Rum..rofl 😀

4. My favorite part of the book was reading a fiction-book that could almost be used as an English Literature reference book! I loved Aly’s style of teaching (hence my take on Jane Austen’s P&P’s opening sentence as a homework from her class ;)). I wish I had an English teacher like her who made me question all the social nuances from the book. I also loved all the book pairings that she and Darsee talk about, and all the book recommendations! Love books with book pairing options and book recommendations 🙂 Thanks Soniah Kamal for all that!

5. I enjoyed all the feminist arguments put forth by Alys regarding a woman’s choice on love, marriage, sex, having children and having a career.

Stuff that didn’t work for me as much:

1. Although I enjoyed the fact that this retelling was based in Pakistan, but I found the plot lacking in originality. The story was so similar to the original P&P (with the exception of the backstories of some supporting characters like Sherry Looclus and Nona), that I did skim read through some sections because I knew exactly what was going to happen, or what was happening. I had recently read another P&P adaptation written by another Muslim author – Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin, which I liked more, in terms of the plot originality with similar characters and settings from Jane Austen’s P&P

2. I couldn’t buy into Darsee and Aly’s romance. Darsee’s confession of love and his proposal seemed strangely abrupt to me 🙂

What I’d like to know from other readers 🙂

So, there you go..I had fun reading this re-telling. I did wonder though, if there are some Indian adaptations of the famous P&P in literature? I’ve only watched Bride and Prejudice. Any recommendations there? 🙂