Review of Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bangladeshi Immigrants' New Lives in London, Women's Roles Change
Monica Ali's first novel shows immigrants taking old identities with them, but change is inevitable and the mix of old and new makes for a better life.
Together with other British fiction such as Hanif Kureishi’s Black Album and Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, Monica Ali's 2003 debut novel Brick Lane offers a fresh perspective on multiculturalism. Ali’s is not a brown/white, Western/Eastern, Christian/Muslim world.
The writer, who is of English and Bangladeshi origin, sets her novel in the complex reality of a multiethnic East London neighborhood, where migrants from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh live—ethnically and culturally diverse countries themselves. When People move from there to England, they take their nationality and those identities with them. It is perhaps inevitable that old-country alliances and conflicts continue in the new home.
New Opportunities for Muslim Women
The novel follows Nazneen, a young woman born in Bangladesh in 1967. At 18, she marries a man twice her age and follows him to London. Chanu, her husband, tries to raise their two daughters with an awareness of their heritage and never stops talking about returning home. But the girls prefer the British side of their identities and want to stay.
More surprising may be that Nazneen also refuses to leave, even though she appears to lead the stereotypical life of the female Muslim immigrant who isn’t exposed to the world around her, has trouble learning English, and seems to submit to her husband. But she quickly realizes what this new life may have to offer. Her identity as a woman rests within her ethnic and religious background, but it is changed by her exposure to new ideas.
Wife finds Confidence, Love
Ali is not saying that it is better or easier to live in Britain, it is just different. Nazneen begins an affair with a younger Bangladeshi man who was raised in London. The relationship leads to her sexual awakening, but it doesn’t take Nazneen long to notice that her lover Karim is only a modernized version of a familiar type of man. After he becomes an Islamic activist, she sees how little he has to offer her and how disingenious he is when he continues the affair.
The relationship between Chanu and Nazneen also goes beyond stereotypes of dominant husband and submissive wife. He is pompous and unappealing; his career ambitions never get him anywhere, and he likes to present himself as a victim of discrimination. But she grows to love him, and the reader can’t help but sympathize with both Nazneen and Chanu, who tries hard to fulfill the traditional male role in an environment in which he is uncomfortable.
Their family represents the reality of multicultural life in Britain: while the parents' generation may struggle with older values, change is possible, and the children grow up with a new, broader set of values.
Success and Controversy
In Britain, Brick Lane was shortlisted for several literary awards, including the prestigious Man Booker Prize. It won the British Books Awards Newcomer of the Year and the WH Smith People's Choice Award, received excellent reviews in the U.S. and made several Best-of-2003 lists. Ali's second novel, Alentejo Blue, appeared in 2006 but wasn't as successful as her debut.
News that Brick Lane was to be turned into a movie triggered criticism of the writer as being disrespectful of Bangladeshi culture and not being sufficiently Bangladeshi herself. Considering that Ali takes care to avoid pigeonholing and essentialism in Brick Lane, those accusations seem quite groundless. The movie opened in British theaters in late 2007 and is scheduled for release in the U.S. in June, 2008.
Brick Lane
Monica Ali
Scribner
ISBN: 978-0743243315
$15 (paperback)
432 pages
