Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee - Hardcover

Syal, Meera

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385410727 ISBN 13: 9780385410724

Publisher: Doubleday, 1999

Synopsis

On a winter morning in London's East End, the locals are confronted with the sight of a white horse skidding through the sooty snow, carrying what looks like a christmas tree on its back. It turns out to be a man covered in tinsel, with a cartoon-size turban on his head. Entrepreneur Deepak is on his way to get married. As he trudges along, he consoles himself with the thought that marrying Chila, a nice Punjabi girl (a choice which has delighted his surprised parents) does not mean he needs to become his father, grow nostril hair or wear pastel colour leisure wear. Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee is the story of Deepak's bride, the childlike Chila, and her two childhood friends- Sunita, the former activist law student, now an overweight, depressed housewife, and the chic Tanja, who has rejected marriage in favour of a highpowered career in television. A hilarious, thoughtful and moving novel about friendship, marriage and betrayal, it focusses on the difficult choices contemporary women have to make, whether or not they happen to have been raised in the Asian community.

About this title

Review:

Tania, Sunita and Chila have been close and somewhat unlikely friends since their schooldays. Sunita, a former law student and activist, married her university sweetheart Akash, and is settled, unsatisfied, into a life of overweight, underappreciated motherhood. Tania, top girl fighter at school, is a raven-maned beauty, who's rejected marriage and anything traditionally Asian, for a high-flying TV career and a compliant Indophile boyfriend called Martin. And then there's Chila. Innocent, kind, funny qualificationless Chila, with her glass animal collection, considered backward by her family, has just, to everyone's amazement, snared Deepak--the richest, most eligible bachelor within a 50-mile radius.

Writer, comedienne and actress Meera Syal, author of the prize-winning Anita and Me navigates her characters through the emotional rollercoaster of the coming-of-middle-youth--the time when the real growing up is done--with her trademark wit and sensitivity. From the bitching at the celebration--"Now the sister is howling. I'd howl if I had a moustache like hers ..." to the heavy embroidery and tears of a traditional Indian wedding, via the "artistic" wedding photos and " 'about seventeen hours of video," Chila sighed, "all with Hindi love songs on them and those fancy Top of the Pops effects.' ", through infidelity, TV documentaries and betrayal, Syal regales the reader with the strengths and limits of female friendship.

By the way, if you're pregnant and have set your heart on natural childbirth, avoid pages 72-3. Or else book that elective casaerian and cocktail of drugs. Now. --Lisa Gee

Review:

"Funny and sharp." (Independent)

"A superbly crafted, page turning comedy which isn't afraid to tackle the big subjects...heartfelt, heartwarming and very, very good." (The Mirror)

"Extremely funny, wonderfully insightful...a big ambitious book with serious points to be made about the choices women face today...Syal mixes her message with hilarious set pieces." (Sunday Express)

"The story surges along on a rip-tide of wisecracks and wisdom...excellent." (Sunday Telegraph)

"A magical mosaic of friendship, betrayal and cross-cultural incongruities. By turns spicy, hilarious and sad, it unfolds the ties that bind young women to their East End Punjabi roots even as they head west for trendy careers, café bars and sexual freedom." (She)

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0385410727
• ISBN 13: 9780385410724
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336