Love in a Global Village
A Celebration of Intercultural Families in the Midwest
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
In praise of diversity, Jessie Grearson and Lauren Smith offer Love in a Global Village: A Celebration of Intercultural Families in the Midwest, an account of the triumphs of fifteen intercultural families and the perseverance of their relationships in midwestern America. The couples recount their courtships, their adventures and difficulties, and their individual choices to create families and build lives together despite differences of race, language, religion, and culture.
Welcomed into homes in towns like Kalona, Iowa, and Springfield, Missouri, Grearson and Smith introduce readers to unexpected fusions of culture in middle America. By focusing on small communities where intercultural relationships are exceptions rather than the norm, Smith and Grearson offer affirmation that multicultural households can endure and flourish almost anywhere.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fifteen intercultural families shared their life stories with editors Grearson and Smith, recounting the moment the couples just "knew" they'd met the love of their lives, their marriage proposals and every last detail of their wedding ceremonies. They finish each others' sentences. They want to raise children who'll be "world citizens." However, they do not seem to have to deal with anything ugly, like domestic violence, or even domestic anger. None of these folks seem to have a problem getting a job, even though many couples are biracial. And if any of them are strapped for cash, they certainly don't talk about it. On the other hand, there are one or two accounts in this collection that make it worth wading through the goo. The last entry, for example, is a wonderfully understated account of a Jewish woman who married an Afghan student in Chicago in 1945 and went to live with him in Kabul, raising their two children as good Muslims. Oddly, though, it's the couples that on the surface seem the most intriguing--the Hmong man married to the Mormon woman, the Wisconsin-Indian lesbian couple--who turn out to be the most mundane. The book's underlying message is that these relationships thrive because each partner has to work harder to overcome their differences. With a Valentine's Day pub date, this book may find its way to a few lovers, although a box of candy might be more effective.
