With her new series of dating novels, Erika Barratt takes readers back in time to an era when dating was a normal occurrence. It is said that in each generation, people marry young and end up with children early in life. With the exception of the very oldest people marrying late in life, everyone else lives the high life – until they find out that they have little in the way of resources to support themselves and their growing families. A Nationality and an Education can change everything, can it not?
In “Old Maids” Erika Barratt depicts young American women in mid twenties who are just beginning to settle down into married life. One of the challenges they face is the nationality problem: how to identify with the other girls of their age without sounding too accustom to their own. The Nationality of the girl – and the country she represents – play a crucial part in this story, and if not handled properly, could cause all kinds of problems in matrimony. Nationality and an education can play an important role in every relationship, so it should be handled with care in these stories.
In terms of relationships, Erika Barratt’s novels are usually successful. She takes you back to the swinging sixties and seventies, and although some of the situations might feel a bit dated, Barratt’s take on the way people interact in those times is spot on. The character’s race and age are not as important as the way her thoughts are handled, and in this book, there is no difference between being white and being Asian. What is important is that this novel does what few other novels have done, offer a realistic view of how people interact in the twenty-first century – the question is whether the Asian woman is able to balance her nationalities and manage her marriage successfully.