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Title: Brick Lane : A Novel by Monica Ali ISBN: 0-7432-4331-5 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 02 June, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.51 (57 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Way overrated!
Comment: I bought Brick Lane" because of all the publicity surrounding the author Monica Ali and her debut novel: "A magnificent coup" according to the Observer", with a "comic touch" according to the "Guardian". Neither did I find "Brick Lane" magnificient, nor a coup. Hints of a comic touch may have been there, but I must have missed missed them.
Don't get me wrong, at times I did enjoy reading "Brick Lane", but it was not a book that I did not want to put down until I had finished reading the last page. It started out good, but weakened by the page.
"Brick Lane" is basically the story about Nazneen's and Chanu's marriage, their life in Tower Hamlets in London and that of a woman who was left to her fate until she took fate in her own hands. Throughout Nazneen's stay at Tower Hamlets she receives letters from her sister Hazima, who ran away from home for a love marriage (whereas Nazneen submitted to her father in marrying Chanu). Hasina's letters are not only updates of life in Bangladesh but also mirror Nazneen's life in London.
Some of the characters are indeed very well developed, but mostly I found the read tedious and somewhat lengthy. 200 pages less would have sufficed and a tad more spark would have been good!
Result: Don't set your hopes to high on this one or you might be as disappointed as I am!
Rating: 4
Summary: Well written debut
Comment: Monica Ali's "Brick Lane" is an excellent debut novel that captures the struggles, the cultural clash, and the frustrations of a family caught between two worlds.
From the day of her birth, Nazneen is reminded how she is a puppet of fate. She dutifully leaves her small Bangladeshi village and goes to live in Brick Lane, the Bengali enclave of London, after her arranged marriage to Chanu, an educated but pompous and ineffectual man twice her age. She acts as a traditional, dutiful, and useful wife. After accepting whatever cards fate deals her, however, she casts a critical eye at the actions of her friends, her sister and her mother. She questions whether she can actually control her life. She starts to break free, first with small subtle acts of rebellion and then an affair. Finally, with the interests of her children in mind, she takes a giant step toward becoming her own woman. Interspersed throughout the story line are letters to Nazneen from her sister Hasina, who strikes out on her own in Bangladesh and, through good times and bad, forges a life of her own.
The writing style is colorful and descriptive. The reader can smell the spices wafting through the hallways, view the multicultural clutter of a shabby and overcrowded apartment, and share the confusion and outrage that simmer in Brick Lane due to cultural, religious, and racial prejudice. Each character is carefully crafted and brought to life. Ali peels back the surface layers of Chanu to reveal his inner doubts and disallusionment. The secondary characters such as the starchy Dr. Azad, the crafty hypochondriac Mrs. Islam, and the Britishized Razia, are depicted with a deft touch. There are only two points in the novel that could be improved upon. First, although the absent Hasina's letters add another dimension to the story by developing her personality and experiences, at one point they lead the reader off on a several year tangent that leaves a gap in Nazneen's time-line. Second, there are many ethnic words for food and clothing that are not explained, and these might cause the reader some confusion. Overall, however, this book is a seamless blend of the Old Country and the New, and it brings new insights to the immigrant experience.
Rating: 5
Summary: No wonder this book has received so much accolades!
Comment: You know you are dealing with an acclaimed book when the critical praise blurbs run to four pages at the beginning of the novel. Monica Ali's BRICK LANE made it to no fewer than ten "Best of 2003" lists, including a nod from the editors of the New York Times Book Review. It won the 2003 Discover Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. All of which makes it slightly intimidating to review. What if the emperor has no clothes?
Luckily for me and the rest of the book buying public, the emperor is not only wearing clothes, it's an all-Prada outfit, complete with a pair of Manolo Blahnik stilettos.
At the novel's outset, however, the protagonist, Nazneen, is about as far from Prada and Manolo Blahnik has one could get. BRICK LANE begins with her birth in what was at the time East Pakistan, soon-to-be reborn as Bangladesh. Born into a small Muslim village, a premature baby who wouldn't eat, Nazneen was Left To Her Fate. Frequent retellings of the story dictated the capitalizations; her Amma (mother) refused to take her to the hospital, leaving Nazneen's life in God's hands.
Nazneen's fate becomes the central spoke of the novel as her parents arrange a marriage to a much older Bangladeshi man and pack her off, sight unseen, to London. Her husband, Chanu, who sees Nazneen as an "unspoilt girl from the village," is himself a mass of tics and insecurities, as full of puff and blather as he is devoid of social graces. The walls of his flat are covered with his framed certificates of achievement. "This one is from the Centre for Meditation and Healing ... Here's one from the Writer's Bureau ... This is not actually a certificate ... it's just directions to the school, but that's all they gave out." As is seemly in her culture, Nazneen submits herself silently to his theories and his many needs, including using a razor to slice the corns away from his toes. Not surprisingly Nazneen spends time forcing herself to accept this new way of life. "Every particle of skin on her body prickled with something more physical than loathing. It was the same feeling she had when she used to swim in the pond and came up with a leech stuck to her leg or her stomach."
As time passes and the two weather various crises, Nazneen learns to view Chanu with a bit more acceptance. They have two daughters, one of whom (Shanana) battles constantly with Chanu, mainly over her assimilation into British culture. The other daughter, Bibi, craves stability and acceptance. "It was like walking through a field of snakes. Nazneen was worried at every step ... It was up to her to balance the competing needs, to soothe here and urge there, and push the day along to its close ... It took all her energy. It took away longing." Adding to Nazneen's worries is the fact that her sister Hasina still lives in Bangladesh, and Hasina's letters present a life even harder than Nazneen's.
In an attempt to earn a little money, Nazneen agrees to take in some sewing projects, turning out garments in a sweatshop-like arrangement. Her projects are arranged by a young man, Karim, with whom Nazneen launches into a torrid love affair. She moves outside her passivity and forgets her fate. "It was as if the conflagration of her bouts with Karim had cast a special light on everything, a dawn light after a life lived in twilight. It was as if she had been born deficient and only now been gifted the missing sense."
Living in a post-9/11 world fills Chanu with conflict. He worries simultaneously that his daughters are becoming too English and too Muslim. His solution? Move back to Bangladesh. But can Nazneen accept this as her fate?
Ali's characters are a study in subtlety. It is to her credit that she can create such a vivid world with someone who rarely even speaks as its centerpiece. It is a tight, compact story that adds a new dimension to the immigrant experience, evoking the line they all walk between two cultures, between fate and responsibility, between duty and freedom. Nazneen, above all, understands this.
"Bibi always asked for stories. She wanted the words because the words stitched her mother close."
"Tell us the one about How You Were Left To Your Fate."
"Not that one," groaned Shahana. "It's boring."
"True," said Nazneen. "I'll tell you a better one."
--- Reviewed by Shannon Bloomstran
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