Brick Lane: A Novel (Paperback)

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.

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

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.