The Dun valley in the early 1970s: the enclave of the idle affluent—quiet, green and temperate, as much of India is not. Just the kind of place where ‘the girls from overseas’, five white women married to Indian men, should feel least displaced. Yet, Gertrude, Jane, Michelle, Sandy and Louise are vaguely unhappy: they wish they could be elsewhere, and hold weekly tea parties where they only meet each other. Their sole ally here is Jason, a young American who brings them foreign goods from his frequent trips abroad, lends them a shoulder to cry on, and sometimes sleeps with them. Then Jason goes and marries an Indian woman, a famous dancer with exotic looks and a superior air. What are the girls from overseas to do? An unsparing examination of marriage, displacement and the many small compromises that make up life, The Girls from Overseas, first published in 1979, shines with wit and intelligence and is a delightful read.
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