Brick Lane

by Monica Ali

(New York: Scribner, 2004)

Trade Paperback, 415 Pages, Fiction

ISBN: 9780743243315, US$14.00

ABCD Rating: ACQUIRE

“Sternly, remorselessly, fate guides ach of us; only at the beginning, when we’re absorbed in details, in all sorts of nonsense, in ourselves, are we unaware of its harsh hand.” —Ivan Turgenev

“A man’s character is his fate.” —Heraclitus

From the Cover: 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 Muslin 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 marvellous and the terrifying spiral together.

My Review: While my educational and scholarly pursuits lie chiefly in the field of Contemporary American Literature, I have found myself fascinated by the genre that deals with a multiethnic Britain. Monica Ali’s Brick Lane falls squarely into that niche as she explores the conflicts and contradictions that a decadently Western Britain poses to an Indian Muslim woman.

I think what appeals most to me about Ali’s writing is that she is dealing with many of the same themes and issues and problems that American authors like Sherman Alexie, Charles Johnson, and Paul Beatty are dealing with in their writings, only with a British cast. Instead of L.A. or New York, Ali deals with—obviously—London. For Ali London can be sophisticated and savage at the same time. It can be empire and colony simultaneously. She plays on all of the stereotypes of immigrants in England (much as Beatty does with inner city life in L.A. or Alexie does with Native Americans) only she does it in such a way that is not offensive, but rather it blows apart all of those stereotypes. She turns the ideas of the “Barbaric Muslim” back on to the white Londoners who perpetuate that idea making them the barbarians, turning the marginalized into mainstream and vice versa.

She does this inversion not only with the Outsider-Insider dichotomy but also with the female-male relationships, especially how those relationships work within Islam. There is a strong feminist critique of the Islamic religion and a woman’s place within the religion. It is very provocative, the way in which Ali challenges these norms through the character of Nazneen. Ali has Nazneen go through a series of questions and answers about Islam and a woman’s role, working through the arguments and counterarguments, allowing the Reader to come to their own conclusions, just as the character of Nazneen comes to her own.

The other aspect of Brick Lane that I found interesting is like a lot of contemporary British authors, Ali draws on her British literary heritage. In particular, there are many Shakespearean overtones to the story (in the most overt Chanu, Nazneen’s husband, is a Shakespearean scholar), and taken as a whole, they show Ali’s connection to the history of British literature, as if she is saying, “I don’t look like Shakespeare, but I am a part of him and he is a part of me. We are both British authors.” The novel also draws on the 19th Century tradition of adultery novels (such as The Scarlet Letter) only with a contemporary twist. In the traditional novel of adultery, the adulteress ends the novel punished for her sin. Yet, Ali updates this ending and Nazneen is in fact, rewarded—so to speak—and even thrives. It is, an empowerment ending, a confirmation of Nazneen’s coming of age as a woman and a celebration of women, and even a celebration of the Islamic woman.

Brick Lane may not be a book for everyone, though I would highly recommend it. Ali’s ability to portray the struggles that an Islamic Indian woman in contemporary Britain is going through is nothing short of amazing, and the messages and themes that Ali tackles are epic in scope yet incredibly focused to the experience of women like Nazneen.