Brick Lane
by Monica Ali Book Review by Miranda Fraser ISBN: 978-0743243315 This isn’t exactly going to be my typical book review. Normally I would be gushing at the seams of how much I loved the story. This time I’m slightly more pessimistic, so bare with me. For starters, this is not the type of book that I personally would grab if I were browsing at a book store. You’ve seen the type of stories I’ve reviewed before [unless you’re new to this website] and this one doesn’t quite fit the mold. I had to read this novel for a women’s literature course I’m taking in college. And when I started reading the book I was slightly intrigued, a couple more chapters and I was bored out of my mind. I wanted to put the book down SOOOOO bad. I literally talked to my best friend about it for an hour, to which he said, “This book gave you the Forrest Whitaker eye”. [For the record, I promised you that’d go in my book review and I kept that promise!] Yet, as I kept reading I grew more and more intrigued. I started to understand just WHY this book had been the winner of the 2003 Discover Award for Fiction, as well as nominated for a few other rewards. Monica Ali, I give you a lot of credit for writing a very compelling piece. I’m sorry I didn’t give it the due it deserved when I started reading it. First of all, we should discuss the basic parts of this novel. We start our story with a young Bangladesh woman, who we ultimately find, which is customary with their culture, is being married off to a man she does not know and does not “love”. Now I put love in quotes because that is one of the very important topics that Ali tackles in her writing. This man lives in London, so after the wedding, she is whisked off on a plane and flown to a new country away from everyone and everything she once knew. That’s right, this story has a lot to do with immigration. But not quite the way we in America are used to, though the struggles I’m sure are the same. The years fly by in this novel and in the meantime, we find out more about her family, both in Bangladesh and that which her and her husband build. We learn about her husband over time, and while I went from hating the man to feeling strongly for him, I can honestly say that the journey from start to finish with this man teaches you a lot about love and how relationship bloom. And no, this isn’t a typical Disney love story, love doesn’t bloom slowly till they’re infatuated with the other, but it is still a lover worth reading. If you know anything about Muslim cultures, and I mean real knowledge, you know that most women are not permitted to work and rarely leave the home. They stay home and take care of the house, their children, and their husband. They do as they say and that is that. I feel part of the beauty of this story is the melding and the fight of the melding of the western culture and the Bangladesh culture. Her husband wants so badly to stick to their roots, but that’s a very hard battle within a world so different from where you’re from. Now, that I’ve given you some insight to what you will see within their relationship I want to also tell you of other topics and issues that Ali beautifully writes. And you will have to pay close attention to themes within the story, such as fate, love, and even racism. And this is because the emphasis on fate, of a power stronger than you, is a very heavy theme. One you will be introduced to from the very beginning. Can you do anything without it going against your fate? Or perhaps that’s just it, in thinking you’re going against fate, you are actually doing exactly as you are fated to do. And what power does an immigrant have in a westernized culture. Who should change? The immigrants or the natives? Who is right and who is wrong? Should an immigrant be asked to give up their culture, aka their religion, their dress, their traditions? And what of raising children in such a different world? How can two immigrants, who have spent years trying to maintain their culture, raise children in a western world. Particularly daughters when fashion and music is such an important part of growing up. When the media tells us what we are to look like and what is “in” how can girls growing up westernized be forced to dress in saris and only listen to their parents’ homeland music? This and MANY other issues are touched on within this novel. And I think what’s so beautiful and confusing, and sometimes frustrating, about this story is that it all just blends together. You’re reading about a woman’s life, and those of the people around her, and in the meantime, you’re touching on such deep topics you find yourself stopping and thinking it over yourself. And one minute you might find yourself siding with one character’s view on things and then the next do a complete 180 and side with someone on the opposing side. Also, this book contains the issue of religion. Religion is one of those topics where everyone has their own opinion of it, so sometimes it is very difficult to write about. What will your readers think, what racism or scandal may happen over this topic? And what’s wonderful is Ali just writes about it anyways. Writes about Nazeen, our main character, and her battle with religion. She loves her religion, she follows it closely, but everyone is capable of sin. And when a sin sweeter than anything you’ve ever tasted before comes walking through your door, you may not be able to resist it. There is a second love interest in the novel, a man who in most ways is very different from her husband, and in some ways very like him. This issue is greater than you would imagine and the things it helps her to unlock and live through are immeasurable. In the end, I stand by my change of heart. You will love it and you will hate it. It will be a struggling roller coaster to get through. But when you get to that last page and you read how it all goes you come to the point where you no longer hate the story but rather feel a sense of overall enlightenment and heartfelt sympathies. I finished the book and tingle sense of emotions just rolled over me. Monica Ali, thank you for writing Brick Lane. [I also have the movie Brick Lane rented and plan to watch it. We all know the movies are never as good as the novel but I still want to see it. I will let you know how it is later.] [Update, I hated the movie.] I tried to find a link to Monica Ali the one listed as Ali, is a link from her publisher.
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