Book Review of 'The Mother-in-Law, The other woman in your marriage'

About Author:

Veena Venugopal is the editor of Blink, the Saturday edition of the Hindu Business Line. She is the author of ‘Would You like Some Bread With That Book?’

Writing Style: 4/5

‘The Mother-in –Law The other woman in your marriage’ is a wonderful collection of true experiences of married women about their ‘Mother-in-Law. Mother-in-Law is considered to be the most important personality in our Indian society. She is such a factor who can either build or destroy married life of newlyweds. As per my knowledge this will be the first collection which depicts this mythological and over-estimated character in whole book. When I got the book for review, I thought it to be a novel where fictional characters are put together to present the bitter reality of this character, but as soon as I went through the Introduction, I understood that I have got something much interesting that would make my day. I loved each and every chapter wholly. There are 11 cases of women from different background, religion, caste, status but they have one thing in common and it is ‘Mother-in-Law’. In this 11 case Veena has depicted down 11 types of Mother-in-Law. The writing style is awesome. The two cases which brought tears to my eyes were, The Ugliness of Indian Family and Occupational Hazard. These two stories reminded me of movies of the 80s, where there is an old but a wicked lady in the house, who would do everything to harass her daughter-in-law. Other stories are quite good. Each and every story has its unique touch and problem. The common solution I found to the problem was COMPROMISE. If the bahus had lived or did the way mother-in-laws wanted, they could save their married life. One may wonder that what’s wrong with some compromises, but the answer is also there in cases as in one case one lady says,’ I decided this would be my rebellion. Not wearing a nine-yard sari’. This lady’s parents bear all the lavish and futile expenses just to make mother-in-law happy and satisfied but the lady herself who is much agitated from the troubles her parents are facing , refuses to wear a nine-yard sari. It is her stand. Each and every case has its own problem and stand taken by daughter-in-law. It’s really amazing collection to spend your day with. 

My overall rating for this work is 4/5.

Genre: Non-Fiction

Paperback: 252 pages 

Publisher: Penguin Books

Language: English