Brick Lane - Monica Ali

I've had it for years, and have started it several times but cant get more than a quarter of the way through it. It used to live by the side of my bed, but now it's on the bottom shelf of the bookcase in my loo, where it just looks at me dolefully... I keep meaning to retry it, but so many people say how awful it is, I just don't have the heart. You think I should persevere?

Same here. Seems slow and traditional. I used to envy Ali her success, but now I feel for her with the backlash she's had from the Bangla community. You'd think they'd be pleased to be put on the map, but it's not that simple.

I probably wouldn't say you should persevere Liana. If you've read a quarter then it's probably just that her style doesn't do it for you. DB, I think it is slow and traditional but is sharp and witty too. The character of Mrs Islam, for example, is so well put together that you don't even think about labels you just get right into her world. I never knew about backlash, I saw the book on some recommended list and got it from the library without really knowing anything else about it. I looked it up on the internet and a lot of it - the criticism - strikes me as ridiculous and very intolerant. The organisation which drew up the 18 pages of criticism has had a "team of intellectuals" run through the book twice and has highlighted all those lines which they don't like and have passed this on to the publisher asking for them to be removed. They don't like the attitude of the main character, Chanu - a self educated man who regards a lot of the other Bengalis in brick lane as peasants who have kept the mentality of their Bangladesh villages and brought them to bricklane. The point about Chanu though is that he is the least self aware person in the novel. His best friend Dr Azid is his best friend because Chanu is the only person he knows who is sadder than he is! The pubishers told the protesters that: “Chanu is a pompous, bigoted man. We should not confuse Monica Ali’s views with the views of this character.” The leader of the protesters Taher Choudhury said he feared that many white readers would fail to make that distinction. And of course this is a work of fiction and writers are allowed to create characters who can say or think anything they please. The thought of a "team of intellectuals" going through fiction and excising what they don't like has been tried and the consequences are there for anyone to find out about it. So I don't have any sympathy for those kind of views. For anyone who is interested Monica Ali gives an interview about the negative reaction to her book at: Or you can read some criticism of her from the Bangladeshi community at: [%sig%]

That is an extreme case; but it is a risk of fiction-writing that a character's views or actions may be muddled up with the author's. An example that comes to mind is "Saved" by Edward Bond, which includes the stoning of a child. The popular press attacked the play as violent when it was actually a condemnation of violence. There are those who accuse "Trainspotting" of glamorising drugs, simply because some of its characters mistakenly find drugs glamorous. The fact that they live in squalor and neglect a baby till it dies is not necessarily taken into account. There are even sexual or gender questions that can be misinterpreted. I have an idea for a story about a guy struggling for contact with his kids. I won't write it, however, because even though (like Chanu in "Brick Lane") the guy is obviously a jerk, some readers might take the story as an attack upon women, rather than an attempt to understand men. It's tricky. Most authors end up taking the bland opt-out. Or balancing everything at the expense of voice.

Surely, 'Lolita' is relevant to this, eh? Am reading that at the moment!

Yes, definitely. The first film version made it clear that Humbert had a problem. Good. The more recent version, with Jeremy Irons, made me feel that the film had a problem, not just Humbert. In misreading the book, it became a queasy enterprise, in my opinion - paedophilic rather than about paedophilia. I had to switch it off.

I agree on the Lolita films- an excellent analogy. However I enjoyed Brick Lane. I found the characters warm and human. I know just how difficult I found it to adjust to Indian society - and I was 22 years old with the benefit of a University education and a good knowledge of the world. Can you imagine how tough it is for someone from a Bangladeshi village to suddenly be transplanted here - with a new husband she has never met? Brick Lane brings all of that to life. It's an intelligent, witty, perspicacious book that is being attacked by the jealous, the bigoted and the ignorant.

Trainspotting didn't glamourise heroin, but it didn't half make me feel like having a dab of speed when I was reading it.

Oh I'm doing my Uni Thesis on it! I'm from Italy . Bye!

First of all a question to Liana: You are saying that you've had the book "for years" although it's been first published in 2003. Are you sure we're talking about the same book here? I'm just reading 'Brick Lane' at the moment and think it's absolutely brilliant! Although I'm trying not to be ignorant I have to admit to myself that there are many things I don't know and never really thought about - Monica Ali has a knack of conveying nuances that inspire me to think for myself rather than guiding me to her own conclusions. I appreciate that. In the book, nothing and nobody are ever absolute - there are no Goodies and no Baddies but just real people made of flesh and blood. Ali never takes shortcuts, never pretends there are easy answers; she never betrays any of her characters, who might have their shortcomings but at the same time you're always given the opportunity to see where they're coming from and what makes them tick. And that's quite an achievement! It's a very intelligent book and it's often very funny. I can see where it's criticism is coming from but I have a hunch it's mainly by those whose perception of the world is stuck in black or white rather than trying to make sense of the shades of grey and colours that make the reality we live in. [%sig%]

No, I meant since last year - got it in September I think. Just feels like years. (I am prone to exaggeration) (...one of my lecturers also thought it dire, but he's a bit of a dick, so that's no recommendation...)

I'm amazed - reading all these reviews by people who think it's a great book - I was bored silly, thought it desperately 'flat' - but then I'm amazed that people rate books like Birdsong, Captain Corelli etc . . . There's nowt as strange as folk etc etc

I think the explanation might be that people recognize Ali's style as from a tradition they're used to, with detailed characterisation, steady storytelling, incremental depiction of relationships in society. It has been pointed out that one of the strengths of British Asian fiction has been its re-use of a tradition that has exhausted itself for many British writers, though not necessarily for readers. I never finished it: I was thinking, this is well done, but slowly, and in a way that's nothing new. It is possible that your familiarity with so much contemporary fiction has skunked you for reading stuff like this, as it has me.

Peter - how can you slate Birdsong. It's a tender, moving, beautiful book. Captain Corelli is a great 'beach read' - it'sa good pot boiler and so much better than Jeffrey Archer or others of that ilk. Popular fiction is not inevitably bad.

Well Capt Corelli I thought awful... sorry. The thing with that book I find, is that the kind of people who read it and enthused (in the main, of course not everyone, she says, hastily) are the sort of people who read articles in the broadsheets which tell them which book to buy this season... they took the Cap'n on holiday and dutifully read it, then brayed to all their dinner party guests how marvellous it was, when really, they wouldnt know a truly great work if it bit them on the arse.

Liana, what is a "truly great work" and who defines it? Don't you think it just depends on who's reading it? Sounds to me like you're doing exactly what you are criticizing in others - including their dinner party guests... I can't help the feeling that a lot of the postings in this thread, particularly the negative ones, reflect as much on the people issuing them (if not more), as they do on the books they are meant to comment on. Interesting. Freud would have a field day! Is it really necessary to be so world-weary, or to let cynicism and disillusionment hang out to such an extent that it begins to seem like being all clued up? I'm sorry but I'm not an inhabitant of the ivory tower - been there, done that, and found the air too cold and thin up in those heights. [%sig%]

I never get asked to dinner these days... maybe it's my habit of setting the cocktails alight that deters people. *gloomy* And I wonder why does it have to be the case Pschmitt, that someone who disagrees with your stance, be cynical and negative? Tis just a view is all... lighten up a tad.

I haven't got a problem with anybody disagreeing with my view - my life really isn't dependent on anybody liking or disliking this book. So why don't you lighten up a tad, Liana? I do, however, have a problem with the arrogance and ignorance of a certain kind of criticism that looks down from a great height, generally not realising the incredibly narrow remit of where it's coming from, a tiny bauble filled with delusions of grandeur and style. And as so often, it's completely missing the point. Somebody wrote this book in order to try to make sense of something; somebody attempted to communicate and express what was close to her heart - I think this deserves a little more than just the glibness of some intellectual diarrhoe and whether the novel's style is traditional or cutting edge or whether I, the critic, have honed my literary senses to such an inhuman degree that I won't manage to digest anything but the literal equivalent of truffles and beluga caviar. Where did the content go? Has anybody actually read the story and its context rather than the letters and words? (BTW, thanks to Kevin for the links!)

But I dont like it! And I'm not alone! Why does that make me have delusions of grandeur or be arrogant and ignorant? I read phenomenal amounts... have to as a matter of course (no pun intended). I base everything on its own merits, not because of what some toff article I read in magazines and newspapers, although that will often sway me as to whether I buy something or not (a la monica ali, sadly). I read the Beano... Scott Fitzgerald, Marie Claire, The News of the World, the backs of shampoo bottles, Kureishi, Drakulic, Winterson, Atwood etc etc ad nauseum. I'm not interested in whether something is "cutting edge" or "of the moment" or "the book you must read this year". I make my own mind up thanks. That doesnt make me haughty or ignorant, but it does mean that I am not a sheep...

How can someone be haughty if they won't buy a book just because a broadsheet told them to? Surely they are the opposite. In any case I thought Liana was talking about the phenomenon of dinner party chat, 'Oh I just read The Lovely Bones,' 'Oh, really? Me too!' That kind of thing.. the way books take off because people are 'told' they are good. That doesn't always mean that they are not good (I really liked Rose Tremain's The Colour and all the broadsheets were raving about that), but it does mean that an awful lot of really good books go unread. I happen to have not enjoyed Monica Ali's Brick Lane - not because it wasn't cutting edge actually, but because it was strangely dull. I was interested in the story, but I feel slightly that her topic was taken on cynically and people feel that the topic *should* be revered. I read Captain C's Mandolin and found it easy on the eye but couldn't see why everyone loved it so much. I found it an okay read though because it takes quite a lot for me to give up on a book.

Ok, Liana, so you don't like the book - I won't even try to convince you otherwise. The problem, you see, is that I still haven't got a clue as to why you (and some others) don't like the book. Glib explanations like 'boring' or 'slow' or 'traditional' haven't exactly enlightened me, and because I can think about a million and one reasons why someone could like or dislike a book, most criticisms on this thread have been disappointingly self centred and one dimensional. Also, what I find very strange is the fact that nobody remarked on the relevance of the book within the current social and political climate. Fear of terrorism, prejudice and hate towards Islam and the muslim community, who are drifting further and further into ghettos with their backs to the wall - all these things are happening right now and God knows what's going to happen to those communities if (or rather when) the UK equivalent to 9/11 has finally happened. This thread could have been an opportunity to discuss some of these aspects... [%sig%]

Michael Casey 10 Reginald Rd Bearwood Warley B67 5AQ England Email michaelgcasey@hotmail.com(link sends e-mail) Web http://msnusers.com/michaelcasey(link is external) Internet Story © By Michael Casey So all I had to do was send an email , and then I’d be a writer , my book in every shop , my face smirking from cardboard cutouts of me holding my book aloft . My book had a great title , so it was bound to sell . A Nation Of Shopkeepers was a great title , if only people could remember their History , were people interested in History , and for that matter my book . It wasn’t a history book , would people think it WAS a history book , and then not buy it . It was a comedy drama , about a street of shops , interconnecting short stories , for all the family , but would people notice the levels , the strands of humour , or would they say it’s a Ma & Pa book , and miss the joke , just as one publisher called did ? I decided to keep the title , though I had a reserve title , The Butcher , The Baker and The Undertaker . Then I realised the US market would rename it The Butcher , The Baker And The Funeral Arranger . You don’t think about such things when you are writing the book , you’re just happy , on a roll , in love with your own intellect , or just surprized you actually DO have any intellect , then you discover that you are dyslexic , you really are dyslexic , thankfully not a really bad case , just dyslexic . As you proof read you see you have put BUT instead PUT , LEAD instead of READ , things like this and other strange things . Sure there are spellcheckers but or is it put , you have to check it anyway . As you read you are surprized at your own ability . You didn’t waste 4years in journalism school , but your writing is GOOD , Did I write that ? Then your chest filled with pride you get somebody else to read it , and guess what ? They think its crap . So now you have to decide , should I give up or should I carry on ? I gave up for as while , while is a unit of years in my case , my life took another path , so the writing was forgotten , it lay dormant for years , then like a phoenix it arose , or more truthfully , like a tortoise awaking from hibernation , sleep still in my eyes I slowly poked my head out , then back in , went back to sleep again , then finally with the pangs of hunger in my stomach I just had to do something . In my case it was eat , as in really eat , then I turned to my old Atari and realised it was not PC compatible , so I bought a new , or rather an old new Atari which was PC compatible . Then I spent a day copying my files so that I could read them on a PC . Then I wrote a few more pieces before I realised I’d get nowhere in England . The chances of being published were 1 in 2000 . So like a bear , I went back in my cave and slumbered . Meeting my wife Jing Jie was a turning point in my life , and not just because it was like Thunder as Jing Jie calls it , it was a turning point because I had a professional opinion on my writing , from a journalist at the very top of the tree . Her uncle is an editor in chief , so his comments were and are like gold , worth more than my first coffee and Cadbury’s chocolate , the pleasure rush I treat myself to every day , his comments really were that important to me , and I really DO like my Cadbury’s , so being better than Cadbury’s is the highest praise I can give . So I knew the quality of my writing , even if others said and say its crap . Getting a modern PC and internet connection was another turning point . Email in our house is like water and electic in any other homes . Jing Jie can “talk” to her mum in Shanghai every day . To friends all over the world as well . Birmingham IS the centre of the universe .So with hope and fear I had to transfer my files from my old Atari to the new PC . The floppy discs were old and battered , several were unreadable , finally my work , my babies were safely on the new PC . Just to be on the safe side I set up a website , so now my work was on somebody’s server in the US , thousands of miles away , safe from fire or theft . I could also put our new baby’s photos on the web site so that my Chinese family in Shanghai and Maimi and friends all over the world could see Annie and Jing Jie and me , they could even read my work too . So now all I had to do was market my work in the US , simple really , soon I’d be doing something useful with my life , making people laugh . I’d be a writing whore , I’d get paid to make others laugh , the best job in the world . So how would I set about it ? I got a list of radio stations from the internet and started sending emails galore . I’m talking in the hundreds now , to radio stations the length and breath of the US .They could publicise my site then eventually I’d get published , or my play would get produced . It was simple wasn’t it . So merrily I went about my business , sending emails galore . Years before I used to send off big heavy envelopes with my work in , with more persistance than hope in my heart .”Thank you for your pieces of paper“was the best put down . I once even met a writer and he agreed to to read my play Shoplife , then he wrote back calling me a plagerist , because it was so good . So I used his note as toilet paper , Shoplife was so good because I had 20years of experience given to me by my sister , I just improved on it , but yet I was called a Copyist , so naturally I was angry and used his note to wipe my bum . I wondered why my strike rate was so low with my emails to radio stations , then somebody casually mentioned , “You do know they will just delete anything with an attachment” . In these days of viruses or worms which I’ve discovered is the new trendy word , nobody can risk their PC , so I merrily send and they merrily delete . I’d been wasting my time , but not my money because I’d got a 24/7 package on my internet from AOL .However one radio station did read Shoplife . The DJ or is it Host , he called it hilarious and he could not stop reading it . It turned out he was an actor as well , though isn’t everybody an actor in the US ? So I thanked him , and quoted him in my future advertising .Humour is a funny thing . The things that make English people laugh are not the same as the things that make Americans’ laugh . We are constantly told by people on tv that English TV is the best in the world , the US material we see is the top 10% , the rest is rubbish . But I know I’d never get my foot in the door in England so I had to persist with my American campaign , so now I pasted in my material , no attachments . Just get them hooked , then paste in a sample then direct them to http://msnusers.com/michaelcasey(link is external) Then bingo part2 of my life could begin ,I’d be the man that made America laugh , a naïve sentiment , but it was honest .Only AOL turns things into zip files and some people cann’t unzip your files , its like wanting sex but your zipper is broke and you cann’t get your trousers off . Such a strong urge , but no forfillment . I switched to MSMAIL and pasted in my stuff , things started to happen , my files weren’t being deleted or too zipped up to be read . At least I wasn’t frustrated any more . Now I had an agent interested , and a new magazine , even a theatre replied .All praise to Bill Gates , and to a Christian called Pat Verato who pointed me in the direction of a few good sites .However some of the sites that I trawled through were just , so very American . Hey , you too can be a writer , just send me 10 dollars and I’ll send you my book “How to make 10 dollars” , and he does . Then there’s magazines you can subscribe to , yes you’ve guessed it , just send another 10 dollars “Writing for Beginners” . There’s all these agents too who are so successful , persuading tap dancing bus drivers to write about Tap Dancing For Bus Drivers , the complete self help book , costs 10 dollars . The agent gets 20percent , and the bus driver pays 5000dollars to print 500 copies , then he can boast he’s a writer , not just a bus driver , and guess what if you pay 10 dollars you can learn to tap dance too . As for me , what do I think of all this ? I’d say just keep on writing , stop your selling , or attempts at selling , just write a bit . Add to your catologue of 3 poems and 2 short stories , then search for an agent . Believe you’ll never be published and then you won’t be disappointed. There is one final thing you can do though , just tell everybody to go to http://msnusers.com/michaelcasey(link is external) And help find a publisher for my book , and then you’ve guessed it , just send me 10 dollars ! End

This thread *could* be an opportunity to discuss some of those subjects if it were relevent to the book, which in a way it is... But...Do you think that just because a book is about a certain 'subject' it should therefore be given gravitas and respect because it covers that subject? My point being that it still has to be judged as a book but the standards of engaging narrative (which I didn't think Brick Lane had), engaging characters (sometimes but not often) and something at its heart that grabs the reader. I know a lot of people liked it, but, I personally didn't. I have plenty to say on the subject: but didn't see this book as one that inclined me to do so. sorry. (I can't be forced to like a book just because it covers an important issue. If I want to read a book about an issue I will go to the non-fiction department and chose a relevent title)

Michael, please don't post stories in the forums, they won't get read, there is a place for posting stories, please use it... thank you

Liked this