In a milieu where women's realms are very much relegated to the household and the children, it's easy to see where the world becomes very small and horizons don't extend much past the immediate environs. Miriam Hanoum's queendom is inhabited by nosey neighbors upon whom she is always wishing various plagues and ills because of past or anticipated injuries.

Miriam's daughter Flora is both her pride and her personal bane. She is pretty, spoiled, disobedient...and pregnant by a ne'er do well husband who has "skipped town". Nazie is the story's Cinderella, orphaned by Miriam's in-laws. Nazie is both servant and poor relative who is charitably taken in and becomes the family's obligation.

Lowly though her station she pines for marriage, a woman's natural role. However, her diminutive size, very young age and lack of menses make her ineligible. Moussa, the Hanoum's only son, will be her eventual spouse when proof can be established that she is physically ready, in other words can bear children.

The plot to this story is very thin. It is the cultural aspects and the humourous ways in which they are related that make it readable. Because it is a translation, the reader also wonders what's missing. What is it that I don't understand about time, place, culture and traditions that would give me more of a framework for additional appreciation?

The most enjoyable part of the novel comes at its very end, when poor, pregnant, bloated Flora goes in search of her smelly, ignorant, yet very wily groom. Dragging her heavy body to a seaside town where they honeymooned, Flora finds her husband...married to another woman! His excuses are very entertaining and even poor, non-too-bright Flora, "catches on" that she's been bamboozled.

All told, entertaining but sometimes hard to follow.

Let's face facts, magical realism has run its course and now most of what is published is just not up to par -- so many good writers turn their prose into mush by writing the magical realist drivel that they believe their readers still want. Aside from the works of Gabriel Garcia Marguez and a handful of other authors, most writers just can't pull it off.

"Persian Brides' is the first novel by Israeli-born Dorit Rabinyan. Rabinyan was only 21 at the time that she wrote the book. The novel won the 1999 JEWISH QUARTERLY Wingate Literary Award.

"Persian Brides" takes the reader to a fictional Persian village in the early 1900's. The story focuses on 15 year old Flora, her 11 year old cousin Nazie, and their family, the Hanoums. Flora, is a headstrong girl, with perhaps a bit too much vanity. She rejects many suitors that come to her family proposing marriage. Nazie, who is treated like a servant by her aunt (Flora's mother), sees all this activity and longs to be married herself. The novel is full of culture and folklore and it was very interesting to read about the traditions and rituals that the family followed. The writing was beautiful and full of great imagery. I feel that the book would have been better with a touch more character and plot development. We read this book in my book group and there were mixed feelings on it. Some people didn't like it at all due to the limited plot and others enjoyed the writing and the magical imagery. I personally, love reading about other cultures and their traditions, folklore, superstitions and beliefs, so I found that aspect of this book very satisfying. One example of an interesting tradition in Flora's village is that mothers shout from the rooftop to let the neighborhood know when their daughter has their first menstruation. Flora's mother also performs nighttime inspections of Flora to be sure that she is still 'pure'. Can you imagine?! And you thought your mother was bad! The novel will make you smile at some of the other traditions and superstitions that Flora and her family live by.

I tried to get into this book, and at points, I actually succeeded. However, once one 'overlooks' the Old-World superstitions and stories that are not well explained, one is dropped, just as the pearls from the mother's wedding gown. I fought my way through the book and clung to the excuse that the translation into the English language must have watered down its appeal. However, my struggle was not rewarded and once I finally did find myself caring about the characters, the book ended and left me feeling disappointed and disinclined to pick up the sequel (if one is ever written.)

Dorit Rabinyan had an essentially interesting story to tell. Her writing style is lyrical; her descriptions poetic and quirky and there is also subtle humour. Nonetheless, because the story seems more steeped in Old World practices, beliefs, old wives tales and myths, the quantum leap to modern day seems to come too late. Indeed, for a considerable part of the story the Old World seems to predominate and the family's tales of woe and dysfunction head towards resolution in an all-of-a-sudden manner with little transition.

Unlike Barbara Kingsolver's style of dealing with each character individually, giving each character a voice that clearly gives the reader insight into who s/he is and what that character's individual worldview is (as in "Poisonwood Bible"), Rabinyan's characters are vague and we get to know them from a hazy vantage point, that of Iran, their mother.

She's given to hysterics, loves them and addresses them as "my soul" yet screams and yells about their decisions, their manner of dress, attitudes, and behaviour. Her raison d'etre seems to center around their eventual marriages. Some might think this is a mother's role, yet Iran's indiosyncratic demeanor doesn't endear her to the reader. Her covering the emotional spectrum of loving attention culminates too frequently with tirades directed to each daughter, to the exclusion of Maurice the firstborn and only son. Perhaps because Iran was so young and unsophisticated, she greets his arrival in this world with hysterics about his lack of tears when he cries and considers him dead because he also has no heart.

The only voice of reason is Solly's, her husband. Though a lowly fisherman, he's sensible and loves his children for who they are and seems all but oblivious to the constant turmoil in his household. Iran is the driving force in Solly's life and the life of his family. Though she declines in looks and in her personal care as a result of being overwhelmed by her children's dramas, he's still as mad about her as when he first laid eyes on Iran as she walked along the seaside in Persia (Iran).

The characteristics of each of the Azizyan children border on the bizarre. More than one of them is described as sad or having sad eyes. The surviving Whirling Dervish of a twin lives in her own world with her deceased brother and as a result is sent away to an institution where she is kept zombie like on Ritalin. One sister falls out of love with her husband the day after the wedding although she's pined for him for years; the same sister sleeps throughout her ceremony as a result of an overdose of sleeping pills. Is it any wonder that the reader has a hard time understanding what they are all about and why?

Equally bizarre is the fact that this is an interesting book because of the quirkiness of the storytelling with its disjointed, sometimes hard-to-follow, chronology of events.

The story of Iran's family bittersweet. She is married to Solly Azizyan, a fisherman who is very tender with his wife and family. They have four daughters (Sophia with a coughing baby, Marcelle, Lizzie, and Mattie, whose twin brother Moni was stillborn) and one son Maurice. Mattie is brought home from school for her birthday gathering, which becomes the backdrop for the entire flashback of this family's life. As the story develops, it explores how each characecter seeks love and has that wish either fulfilled or denied.

Reminiscent of the writing of Arundhati Roy, the story is told in rich language. It is ripe with exotic smells, sights and sensual references. The story moves back and forth in time from the Matti Azizyan's birthday party to the evolving past. Its characters are intensely interesting. The chapters about the siblings are the most notable in defining this book, showing a sense of family and parent's love that is deep and moving. The end is intense and beautiful but not exactly clear.