A Perfect Wife

"A Perfect Wife" starts out very suspenseful. I wondered what the big secret was that everyone was so intent upon keeping. When we finally read that it is a secret about war I was surprised. It seems to me that war is not something that people whisper about, as the author writes, but something that here in the U.S. anyway, is heavily debated in the public forum. As the story shifts to Sira, who is a 12 year old bride, my disgust rose. A 12 year old...bride. I realize that we are talking about a whole different part of the world with different cultures at a slightly earlier time in history but the very thought of a 12 year old being married makes me ill. Then when Sira's husband dies I breathed a sigh of relief! Regardless of whether or not she is ok with being married and he is a good husband I just could not get over the age thing. And the thought of being shut in a chamber at the age of 12 with your dead husbands other wife seems like an unimaginable amount of torture to take for one hundred and thirty two days. When finally Sira is married off to another man and then gives birth to a daughter 9 years later, I even found myself thinking, "I wonder how long that young woman will have to wait before being married off as a pre-teen." Sometimes cultural differences are hard to look past. Especially when they involve pedophilia.