An Uncommon Correspondence: An East-West Conversation on Friendship, Intimacy and Love

This is a collection of letters between two women whose friendship spans the globe and cuts through the differing traditions of East and West. College professors from England and India, each woman faces her own cultural "danger": in the West, the roller-coaster search for romantic love, and in the East, the apparent prison and spiritual death of arranged marriage.

Taken from correspondence during a year in which the Indian woman considers an arranged marriage, the authors explore the myths of romantic love, the implications of courtship, the role of female friendship, and possibility of platonic friendships, alternatives for intimacy, and how the romantic quest echoes the spiritual quest. Thought-provoking and engaging, the letters have the insight of sociological research and the liveliness of an all-night gab fest.