Brick Lane

This Booker Prize-nominated novel provides engaging characters and thought-provoking insight into the Muslim immigrant world. The main character, Nazneen, is a young "unspoiled" Bangladeshi village girl who enters into an arranged marriage with a much older Bangladeshi who lives in London. Her beautiful sister defies her father's wishes and elopes in a love match, running off to Dakha. Nazneen has been raised to accept whatever happens to her, but in London, gradually (over the course of 15 years or so) begins to take control of her own life. Her husband Chanu at first seems clownlike, for example, he frames a collection of meaningless certificates for very minor achievements. Chanu regards himself as a scholar, because he has a BA from a Bangladeshi university, but he realizes that in Britain, he is regarded as nobody of any importance). Nazneen is expected to trim his corns every night, and later, his daughters are expected to sit beside him as he reads to turn the pages for him. But Chanu is a complex person who has a good heart, and the reader develops a fondness for this would-be patriarch. Life has not turned out as he wanted or expected, but he is devoted to his family. Nazneen, on the other hand, had no expectations of life but has been swept along like a piece of wood in a river. Her transformation -- how to combine the traditional values and reject what is problematic in the western world while recognizing what is bad about the old ways and changing -- forms the plot of the book. In the background is her sister's story, told in letters; the sister, who was more proactive in her choices, suffers the consequences, and it's hard to avoid wondering if the sister would not have been better off in an arranged marriage. The reader is left pondering Western vs. non-Western values, particularly with regard to love and marriage. Like other reviewers, I found the use of broken English in her sister's letters baffling and annoying -- fortunately they were a comparatively small part of the book. If her sister was writing in Bengali, wouldn't it be grammatical at least? And why would her sister write in English (which would explain the bad grammar)? The author has done a great job of creating a very different world for the reader to inhabit. Life for Muslim women both in a council estate (public housing project) in London (Nazneen's story) and a large city in Bangladesh (her sister's story) are described vividly and without romantic illusions. This is not a quickly read book, but it certainly held my interest all the way through, and I will remember these characters for a long time. Read more

It was really interesting to read about a different culture and experiences that are so unfamiliar to me. We see the main character, Nazneen, journey from a Bangladeshi village to London at the age of 18, and watch her adapt to a much different kind of life. There are a series of letters exchanged between Nazneen and her sister (demonstrating the very different lives they lead and the role that fate plays), Nazneen and her husband create a family of their own (whose children assimilate more than the parents would like), and Nazneen begins an affair with a much younger man (who is very different from her husband). The book inspired me to watch the movie, but as per usual, the book was much better. I really enjoyed reading this book. Read more

I was inspired to read Monica Ali's debut novel Brick Lane, about Bangladeshis in London by my recent trip to Dhaka. It is an interesting novel that explores identity and the women's role in a society that still practices arranged marriages. It has come under attack for portraying some Bengalis as uneducated and backward. It reminds me of the Jhumpa Lahiri books, except instead of middle class academics what we have here is the tenement dwelling underclass in London. Read more

While this novel tells the tale of a young woman from Bangaladesh brought to London through an arranged marriage, at some level it could be a story of any woman. Monica Ali's poignant selection of events in the life of the featured character as compared to the story of her sister who continues to live in Bangladesh, could be seen as a commentary on the potentially suffocating life of an Islamic woman in an arranged marriage. But instead, both the featured character's and her sister's transformation through the years of learning to live with a marriage partner and raising young children, into confident, self-aware, mature women has a universal quality. A side benefit in this novel is the introspective description of life in Brick Lane, a street in London known to London residents and tourists for its Indian restaurants. Read more

I found this book when I was visiting Brick Lane in London. It looked like an interesting neighborhood, so I looked forward to learning more from a novel. The novel is exquisitely well written. Almost too much so. The heroine's experiences of being pulled from Bangladesh into the slums of London were very painful indeed. The letters from her pretty sister who stayed behind are just as depressing. Reading these stories for chapter after chapter is very hard. The structure of the novel provides minimal break from the pain of their lives. I found that, at the very least I had to intersperse my reading with more "entertaining" novels. According to my Kindle, I am only 30% in. I don't know if I will be able to finish. Read more

Great book by Monica Ali. I felt transported into the life of each character, as if I could feel even their subtle emotions. Loved this story, and how Ali makes another culture so approachable and immediate, with beauty, ugliness, kindness and cruelty, all expressed with unimaginable elegance. Complex and moving story. Read more

Interesting read, if you can figure it out. It jumps back and forth without really letting you know where you are at until you read a few lines and can put it all together in your head. I never really understood why the story was going in the direction it was and it was never explained. It is the type of book you just can't easily read through and enjoy. Too much having to think and try to figure it out. If that is what you like this is the book for you. If you just want to read to relax pass this one by. Read more

Found the book confusing in the beginning. Took a while to get into the book. An interesting view into the world of woman immigrants making the transfer from "old " and accepted ways to life as a new new immigrant in England. Woman who had to find courage to find themselves. Read more