Brick Lane: A Novel

As a good Muslim 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.

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"Monica Ali's gorgeous first novel is the deeply moving story of one woman, Nazneen, born in a Bangladeshi village and transported to London at age eighteen to enter into an arranged marriage. Already hailed by the London Observer as ""one of the most significant British novelists of her generation,"" Ali has written a stunningly accomplished debut about one outsider's quest to find her voice. What could not be changed must be borne. And since nothing could be changed, everything had to be borne. This principle ruled her life. It was mantra, fettle, and challenge. Nazneen's inauspicious entry into the world, an apparent stillbirth on the hard mud floor of a village hut, imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents when she is married off to Chanu, a man old enough to be her father. Nazneen moves to London and, for years, keeps house, cares for her husband, and bears children, just as a girl from the village is supposed to do. But gradually she is transformed by her experience, and begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. Motherhood is a catalyst -- Nazneen's daughters chafe against their father's traditions and pride -- and to her own amazement, Nazneen falls in love with a young man in the community. She discovers both the complexity that comes with free choice and the depth of her attachment to her husband, her daughters, and her new world. While Nazneen journeys along her path of self-realization, her sister, Hasina, rushes headlong at her life, first making a ""love marriage,"" then fleeing her violent husband. Woven through the novel, Hasina's letters from Dhaka recount a world of overwhelming adversity. Shaped, yet not bound, by their landscapes and memories, both sisters struggle to dream -- and live -- beyond the rules prescribed for them.

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.


"If you mix with all these peopleyyou give up your culture."   August 27, 2003
Mary Whipple (New England)
55 out of 60 found this review helpful

Nazneen, a young bride married at sixteen to a 40-year-old man, is wrenched from the only life she has ever known in the countryside of Bangladesh and conveyed to England, where her new husband, Chanu, has a job. Taught from the day of her birth that "fighting against one's Fate can weaken the blood," or even be fatal, she accepts the miserably lonely existence that fate has bestowed on her in a London council flat. Nazneen's only contact with home is the letters she exchanges with her sister Hasina, whose own fate back home in Dhaka changes throughout the fifteen years that this novel takes place. Through these letters, author Ali shows the similarities and contrasts in the lives of Nazneen and Hasina, both subservient to their husbands, and, like other Bengali wives, powerless to control their fates in the culture in which they live.

With warmth and sensitivity, author Ali draws us into Nazneen's world, showing it in all its earthy details. The reader sees her increasingly cluttered apartment, hears the constant excuses and boasts from Chanu, gets lost with her on a walk in the city, and feels Nazneen's confusion and frustration with the isolation of her life, as she continues to act the dutiful wife, cutting Chanu's corns and trimming his nose hair while planning mini-rebellions. Her sister, eventually alone in Dhaka, struggles to support herself, doing whatever she has to do to stay alive in a culture in which her life has no value. But, as their mother once said, "If God wanted us to ask questions, he would have made us men."

Speaking directly to the reader in unpretentious but vividly descriptive prose, Ali recreates the minutiae of Nazneen's life, showing how the seemingly unimportant decisions she begins to make acquire new meanings in her life. Through striking details, the reader watches her gradual acceptance of a new culture (which some would call "growth"), while her husband Chanu remains anchored in the traditions of the past. Her slow evolution is neither simple nor without conflict, and no member of the family escapes her transformation. Brick Lane reveals the emotional conflicts and the subtle changes that occur when an immigrant sees the possibilities inherent in a new culture, radically different from the culture of the past, and begins to embrace it.. Step by inevitable step, Ali shows just how this process evolves, creating a vibrant portrait of a family in transition and of a woman coming into her own. Mary Whipple


Sweeping the past from the Yellow brick Road   November 11, 2003
Luan Gaines (Dana Point, CA USA)
37 out of 43 found this review helpful

I am a devoted fan of Indian novelists, those particularly observant writers who miss no detail while creating intensely personal landscapes of time and place. In Brick Lane, author Ali examines the life of Nazneen, a young Bangladeshi wife. The young woman settles in a London enclave filled with other Bengali tenants, all seeking assimilation while maintaining their cultural identity. Surrounded by familiar objects and customs, the immigrant community is constantly assailed by the inevitability of Westernization.

Following custom, Nazneen dutifully accepts marriage to the much older Chanu. Nazneen is an obedient wife, settled now in her London flat, her homesickness brightened by letters from Hasina, Nazneen's sister, who flaunts tradition by marrying for love. Over the years, the differences in their worlds are apparent, as the letters they exchange reflect their diverse paths. Through their letters, Nazneen examines her days as mother and wife, governed by minutiae, while Hasina is often at the mercy of changing circumstances.

Bengali lives are governed by strict traditions. While eyes watch and tongues wag with gossip, most of the women shun Westernization. Still, there is a profound cultural disturbance beneath the surface of the Bengali's world. It is nearly impossible to make a decent living; most are forced to work demeaning jobs to support their households, regardless of education and among the young people, there is a growing unrest. Some embrace the new lifestyle, while others are outraged by the implicit denial of Islamic tradition.

Nazneen is patient, wedded to her fate, but the couple's two daughters are a constant irritation to Chanu, especially the oldest, who exhibits the usual teenage angst. Accepting employment as a taxi driver, working nights, he finally acknowledges the sad truth of his diminished job prospects. Borrowing from a moneylender, Chanu purchases a sewing machine for Nazneen so she can do piecework for a local manufacturer, contributing to the family income.

While doing this piecework, Nazneen meets a young man with revolutionary dreams who yearns to direct the local Muslim population away from secularization and back to strict religious traditions. Karim picks up Nazneen's sewing daily and befriending her, he gradually challenges Nazneen to redefine her priorities and unquestioning acceptance of Fate's directives. For the first time, through his eyes, Nazneen views herself as a woman.

This is a small story on a large canvas, the universal struggle of people searching for personal definition and quality of life. Like pieces of a quilt, Ali stitches her eccentric characters together with subtle precision, from kind-hearted, plain-faced friends to hawkish moneylenders bleeding customers dry and pedantic old men longing for their birth country. While they trudge through daily difficulties, dreaming of home, most Bengali's accept their gradual acculturation, if unwittingly. In her way, Nazneen struggles to find her voice as a mother and wife, a woman of two worlds. Luan Gaines/2003.


Total Immersion Experience   January 1, 2004
prisrob (New EnglandUSA)
32 out of 41 found this review helpful

Monica Ali appears to be telling a story about what she knows best in her novel, Brick Lane. Monica Ali was born in Bangladesh and grew up in London. Most of us do not have a background knowledge of Bangladesh, and this book gives us insight into that land and culture.

Nanzeen at age 18, is sent to London to marry a man twice her age, a Bangladesh born man, Chanu. For Nanzeen this is a way to escape this land that has not much to offer. She accepts this arrangement, as she has accepted much of her life, "what could not be changed must be borne. And since nothing could be changed, everything had to be borne." She settles into her marriage with Chanu. Chanu is a man who is not happy with much, and whose perception is that he is always being overlooked a racist thing he expects. He goes from job to job, never really accepting his lot in life. His friendship with Dr Azad is one of his most interesting relationships in the book.

Nanzeen moves willingly into her marriage, and the birth of her
son. A heartbreaking, sudden illness and then death, not fully explained. Nanzeen has two more children, both girls. They are beloved by both parents and are brought up with both cultures. We can see the girls trying to break free from the "old world" and move into their real life. Their parents can see this also, and try to turn them around.

Nanzeen has a sister, Hasina, who stays in Bangladesh. Through their letters, we can see Hasina's love marriage to an abusive man. She flees this marriage and goes to Dhaka. The years and her escapades move on, and the adversity that Hasina braves is reflected in her letters. She is a loving and faithful sister, and they remain close through their letters.

Nanzeen falls in love with a young man in the community, and through this relationship Nanzeen awakens and starts to flourish. We can see the change in Nanzeen, and she is transformed into a young woman who can make her own decisions.

Nanzeen and her husband, Chanu are marvelous cooks. The descriptions of the preparation of their meals with the spices and ingredients from their world permeate this book. The food is colorful and many decisions are made with Nanzeen eating from plastic containers by the kitchen sink. The spices and flavors of this world bring to mind many wonderful curries and Indian foods. Colorful saris and cloths and pictures bring to us a culture we have read about, and are now beginning to understand.

The decisions made by Chanu and Nanzeen bring their family to a brink. We are allowed into the politics of this culture in London. We hear how events in the United States play in their life. We see that the more mature Nanzeen makes mature decisions that allow her children to lead the life that they want. This is the kind of book that you do not want to end. I want to know more, I want to know what happens next. The book ends with a hint of promise.. enjoy. prisrob


A gripping story about Bangladesh women at Home and Abroad   November 9, 2003
David Welles (New York, NY United States)
24 out of 29 found this review helpful

"A man's character is his fate." With this quote from Heraclitus, Monica Ali takes us on Nazneen's 35-year fateful journey from her birth in 1967 in the Mymensingh District of East Pakistan to her independence in London in 2002. As a newborn she did not nurse for five days yet survived. In 1985, at age 18, she marries a man 22 years older whom she had never seen, a man who had been living in England since the early 1970s. Chanu needs her to cut his hair, his nails, and his corns, clip his nose hairs, feed him, keep his apartment clean, wash his clothes and to bear his children. When she is 21 she bears a son who dies after a year and then she has two daughters.

Chanu is educated and she is not. He has a degree from Dhaka University in English literature and is working for an Open University degree. She knew no English. When she expressed a desire to go college to learn English Chanu said "there was no need." What English she learned she learned from her daughters, who "demanded to be understood [in English]." She lives in a cube, with thin walls, falling plaster, and two sinks, in public housing. Her husband's ambition is humbled by the racial wall-at the age of 43 he resigns from his job in the council of the local government. After months of depression he determines to return to Dhaka and to raise money for his trip he becomes "driver number one-six one nine" for Kempton Kars.

It is Nazneen, however, who makes the money for the family with her sewing machine. She has an affair with a younger man when she is 34, a man who brings her garments to sew and is a founder of an active Islamic group, the Bengal Tigers. She learns about love from the wise Dr. Azad: ". . . 'there are two kinds of love. The kind that starts big and slowly wears away, that seem you can never use it up and then one day is finished. And the kind that you don't notice at first, but which adds a little bit to itself every day, like an oyster makes a pearl, grain by grain, a jewel from the sand.'"

Nazneen's younger sister Hasina, is always in the background. She never leaves Bangladesh. At age16 she elopes in a love marriage, a marriage that fails. She works as a machine woman sewing garments but her beauty is too much and she is locked out of the factory, accused of licentious behavior. She becomes a prostitute and marries Ahmed, one of her clients. Family pressure causes him to later turn against her. She seeks refuge in the House of Falling Women, run by Brother Andrew from Canada. Lovely hires her as a nanny for her son and daughter. Ultimately she runs away again with Lovely's young cook. It is Hasina who tells Nazneen about their mother's suicide dressed in her best sari. This is the mother who told her daughters "'If God wanted us to ask questions, he would have made us men."
Although Chanu has been gone from Bangladesh for over thirty years, he pines for home. He yearns for the sixteenth century, when Bengal was the "Paradise of Nations". When Dhaka was the home of textiles. When the Bengalis invented muslin and damask. In the Eighteenth Century Bengal provided one-third of the revenues of Britain's Indian Empire. He is pushed to return home by the anti-Islamic hostility after September 11, 2001. Chanu, at age 57, returns shortly thereafter without Nazneen and his daughter. He has plans to go into the soap business and to gain self respect.

The minor characters are fascinating and suggestive. In Bangladesh, there is Makku Pagla, always reading and carrying an umbrella who kills himself by falling down a well. There is Tamizuddin Mizra Haque the quiet barber who always knows the correct information about every thing. In London, there is Mrs. Islam, the money lender with her two sons, Number One and Number Two, as enforcers. There is Razia, Nazneen's closest friend whose husband dies when seventeen frozen cows fall on him in the slaughterhouse where he works. Her response is that "I can get that job now. No slaughter man to slaughter me now." Nazneen too becomes free for the first time with Chanu's departure for Bangladesh.
The novel has considerable depth to it. I strongly recommend it.