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"A book you won't be able to put down. A Bangladeshi immigrant in London is torn between the kind, tedious older husband with whom she has an arranged marriage (and children) and the fiery political activist she lusts after. A novel that's multi-continental, richly detailed and elegantly crafted." --Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Sisterland After an arranged marriage to Chanu, a man twenty years older, Nazneen is taken to London, leaving her home and heart in the Bangladeshi village where she was born. Her new world is full of mysteries. How can she cross the road without being hit by a car (an operation akin to dodging raindrops in the monsoon)? What is the secret of her bullying neighbor Mrs. Islam? What is a Hell's Angel? And how must she comfort the naïve and disillusioned Chanu? As a good Muslim girl, Nazneen struggles to not question why things happen. She submits, as she must, to Fate and devotes herself to her husband and daughters. Yet to her amazement, she begins an affair with a handsome young radical, and her erotic awakening throws her old certainties into chaos. Monica Ali's splendid novel is about journeys both external and internal, where the marvelous and the terrifying spiral together.… (more)
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At the tender age of eighteen, Nazneen's life is turned upside
down. After an arranged marriage to a man twenty years her elder she exchanges her Bangladeshi village for a block of flat's in London's east end. She rebels to her situation and the restrictions put upon her by
live on the streets. Nazneen however has problems of her own and begins an affair with a young radical who brings sewing to her at home whilst her husband is at work.Nazneens husband is basically a good man but is frustrated about never achieving any status in his
new country and eventually returns to India without Nazneen at the close of the novel.
This novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2003. I
enjoyed the story taking me into a life and culture so far removed from my own .
Which isn't to say that it's not a joy to read. Nazneen's memories of her Bangladeshi village are as cool and soothing as a wet cloth, and her descriptions of her new British neighbors are insightful and funny. In Chamu, insufferable, unseeing, hypocritical, and too proud, Ali's got something of a world-class villain, if she didn't take her time to make it clear to the reader that he's much more lost, confused and -- at times -- sympathetic than he would like to seem. The ill-fitting love that grows between Chamu and Nazneen toward the end of the novel might rank as one of the twenty-first centuries most realistic, and most painful, romances. Ali's writing is both spry and marvelously complex throughout, and, while its action takes place in settings that are tightly constrained by poverty and stifling tradition, it also feels wonderfully open and ambitious. The book addresses money and class and religion and contemporary politics fearlessly, and the author never seems to miss a step. Most importantly, perhaps, its characters are utterly indelible. Ali's descriptions of Chamu's pretensions at being open-minded, Nazneen's courage and her self-doubt, and both her daughters' willingness to please and their anger are as expertly described as the family's sociological predicaments, and, to be honest, much more difficult for a writer to portray effectively. Yet Ali doesn't seem to break a sweat. This one is absolutely marvelous, a novel that whose grand thematic arcs are executed flawlessly and whose tiny interactions rings true. In the author's hands, these unremarkable, if hard-fought lives, take on an epic significance, and their stories take on tremendous emotional resonance. Even if you think that you're done with this sort of book, this one is well worth your time. Just terrific.
The book gave me a window on a world normally invisible to me, the world of the non-English speaking, home bound, first generation immigrant, wife.
Although the novel
Her affair interested me, I thought it was a subtle take on an age old story, Nazneen seems to fall into it with her usual passivity, and seems to be being used, and yet she gets what she wants from it and, in the end, it leaves him shocked and her unmoved.
Monica Ali is able to produce humour as well as tragedy and pathos - everything is beautifully written. I loved the Bengal Tigers. This group of wannabe radicals descend into the farcical bickering so typical of all the student politics I remember. All the debates end up in wrangles over what has been authorised by the publications committee or whether DJ Kushi and MC Marak will be allowed to hijack the next demo and turn it into a disco.
The characters in the book are skillfully drawn Chanu, Mrs Islam, Dr Azad, and Mrs Azad are my favourites - Ali's neat, brief descriptions of character fill the book - a favourite:
"...he was slighted... ...he worked hard for respect, but could not find it. There was in the world a great shortage of respect and Chanu was amongst the famished."
I'm looking forward to reading Monica Ali's next book
I found Brick Lane to be a book of 2 halves. The first half took me about 2 weeks to read, it was hard going, at times boring and I can understand why some people gave up on it early. Fortunately, the second half took me a few days to read and was far more interesting. It is a slow moving book and I imagine it is meant to be so. A kind of documentary of one womans’ transformation from girl to woman whilst seeking to find a place in a Western world she is far removed from.
On the whole, I enjoyed Brick Lane. It passed a good few days for me and was worth the read, if not the hype. Having said this I found myself uninvolved and having very little empathy for characters I felt I should have. I found them often one-dimensional despite their lives full of woes and sadness. I found very little affection, warmth and love in the telling of the story. Maybe this was meant to be so.
We see only brief glimpses of warmth in her thoughts of home and in the letters her sister wrote (and yes, I agree with some criticisms that the broken English the letters were written in were distracting). Her husband and children seemed to merely tolerate her. Her lover, Karim, also seems to merely tolerate her and, like their ‘secret’ meetings, the relationship is kept under wraps.
I found that Nazneen had very little to say throughout the book until she developed later on. I noticed that in the first half her dialogue could be penned in one page and everyone around her spoke AT her, rather than with her. She appeared to me as a soundboard for everyone else’s thoughts. She kept all things to herself, secrets, lies and worries. This was even more noticeable in the letters Hasina wrote to her and the ones she wrote back, or tired to write. Hasina often wrote long and interesting letters to her sister and showed a great deal of insight into what was happening around her and a self awareness whereas Nazneens’ letters would barely scratch a paragraph.
As the book moved forward Nazneen become more vocal and I feel was an intentional part of Ali’s writing to show the development of her character. That said, I felt that other characters had more to offer and drew me in more. Nazneens’ eldest daughter Shahana, her friend Razia and Dr Azad’s wife who made all but a brief appearance, all seemed more real to me. Karim seemed almost dreamlike, lacking substance and their relationship just didn’t gel for me.
One thing I feel that is created rather well in Brick Lane, is the environment within which Nazneen lived. The description of her home, the council estate, plaster coming off the walls, the groups congregating around dog crap strewn streets, the desperation and lack of hope amongst some, all conjured images that were described so well by Ali. She contrasts these with glimpses of the poverty that Hasina was living amongst in Bangladesh. Yet somehow there seemed more hope there and Hasina, no matter what she had gone through, always seemed a little more hopeful and happier than her sister, possibly illustrating how poverty is relative and often spiritual poverty can, in a way, be more damning than monetary poverty. It was this and the sidelined characters that seemed more tangible and interesting to me.
But perhaps that is as it is. Nazneen feeling unhappy, unloved, used, disenfranchised, displaced and, to a degree, invisible. Ali certainly does leave me with this impression of the central character in this book and this I believe is one thing to be recognised and applauded.
In the end, the wife has an affair with a radical Islamaist who lives in their project. The whole affair plot fail to become believable and the book suffers. Finally, as with many young authors, great writing, great characters, mediocre plot.
The text of the sister's letters is written as if it has been translated from native language to English, which is an interesting, albeit often annoying, technique. Hard sometimes to read it but I think makes for a better feel for the difference in the two women.
Often I thought of how many Americans are about learning more about the world outside their own doors when I read how naive Nazneen's understanding of the world is. I wish many Americans could read this and see themselves. Maybe they would stop being so blind to the world around them.
Whilst the ideas of community and belonging that Ali touches upon are worthy of investigation, I felt like Brick Lane was only half a discussion and that with a little more effort, Ali could have injected much more insight and interest into it all.
Ali's writing was nice, but I found myself constantly wanting more out of her characters. It wasn't a bad read, but it didn't really end up impressing me.
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