Soniah Kamal's debut novel, An Isolated Incident, was a finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction and the Karachi Literature Festival-Embassy of France Prize. Her TEDx Talk is about regrets and second chances. Kamal's award-winning work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, Catapult, and Literary Hub. You can find Soniah at soniahkamal.com and on Instagram @SoniahKamal
When Alys Binat's family is invited to their town's wedding of the century, Alys's mother, the indomitable Mrs. Binat, excitedly coaches her five unmarried daughters on the art of husband hunting. On the first night of the festivities, Alys's elder sister, Jena, quickly catches the eye of Fahad "Bungles" Bingla, a wealthy entrepreneur. But Bungles's friend Valentine Darsee doesn't conceal his unfavorable opinion of the Binat family. As the days of lavish festivities continue, the Binats wait breathlessly to see if Jena will land a proposal—and Alys realizes that Darsee's brusqueness hides a very different man from the one she judged him to be at first sight.
While of course we all love Pride and Prejudice, Kamal provides so much more context than its source material surrounding all of the characters. The omniscient Austen narrator stays rather close to Elizabeth, whereas Kamal dives into each character's mind when it would benefit the reader to understand that character's intentions and beliefs. Some of my favorite moments of this included when we got to look into Sherry's mind when she approached Fahart about marrying him, and looking into Bungles's mind when he was starting to believe that Jena wasn't interested in him. Kamal did a spectacular job showing rather than telling readers about how each side took Jena's behavior towards Bungles—when we were viewing the flirtation from Alys's point of view, she kept saying how obvious it was that Jena liked him, in spite of recognizing that she had to stay reserved to maintain her character; but whenever someone on Darsee and Bungles's side viewed Jena, they used her reservation as proof of her disinterest. While of course we knew this is how it went down in the original, it felt special to actually be able to see in real-time how everyone viewed the relationship between Jena and Bungles, and it's one of the reasons this retelling is so fun.
It is inevitable that we would compare Unmarriageable with Pride and Prejudice. I found Unmarriageable to be more fun, relatable, with added context to each of the characters to make it that way. Unmarriageable has a lightness to it, where the novel doesn't take itself too seriously, even as it examines difficult topics such as double standards, arranged marriage/marriage-oriented society, and different lifestyles for modern day women. We also get to see more of each character, and we can understand more of each character in that way. Even though Unmarriageable is not a carbon copy of Pride and Prejudice—which it definitely should not be!—fans will recognize some of their favorite plot points, and will appreciate the ways in which Kamal actually deviates from specific plot points to give more weight or fun or context to the story. Even with these deviations, I was falling so deep into the Binats's world that, after some points, I was totally forgetting that this was a modern retelling. I agree with Shelf Awareness's blurb, which reads that "If Jane Austen lived in modern-day Pakistan, this is the version of Pride and Prejudice that she might have written." This does come with its negatives, however, as Kamal does seem to imitate Austen's rather dense writing style. While the details about Pakistan are much needed and add something special to the story, there is a denser style to the writing that can make it a longer read than other romance novels. Kamal does pay homage to Austen in this way, and in that I can appreciate it, but for fans of quicker, snappier romance reads, just beware that this one might take you a bit longer!
The opening scene does a wonderful job to help introduce readers to the world of class- and marriage-oriented women in Pakistan. This story is rich with cultural references to different types of food, traditions, and fashion trends that exist in Pakistan, all of which have special significance in advancing the story and making these characters Kamal's. By introducing this source material to this modern world, we actually have a chance of exploring the same anxieties Austen had around class and behavior but in a way that is more digestible and relatable to modern readers. This goes all the way up to the ending, where each Binat sister gets their own happy ending in the epilogue. It was wonderful to see how each character finished their journey—I felt like we got invested in all of the sisters' stories, and this book would not have been complete without this closure. This was a very fun, modern way to leave the book on a happily ever after. Where the beginning of the book does a great job introducing readers to this world, and where the middle heightens our understanding of the world and allows for brilliant commentary, the ending brings the focus back to the "inspired by Pride and Prejudice" situation. Whereas the beginning focuses intently on crafting the first lines of Pride and Prejudice to fit the modern world, the ending reverses that by ending on the original first line. This shows the timelessness of Austen's language, and the language's ability to transcend time and culture and modernity to always resonate with people—something that Alys and Darsee spend bits of the novel talking about themselves. What a wonderful happy ending!
For more from Soniah Kamal, find her at soniahkamal.com or on Instagram @SoniahKamal.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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