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Nancy's Reviews > Brick Lane
Brick Lane
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Could it take me longer to read a book? I made myself read this book everyday so I could be done with it and properly hate it.
Look at what the NY Review of Books said:
"Ali succeeds brilliantly in presenting the besieged humanity of people living hard, little-known lives on the margins of a rich, self-absorbed society."
WHO IS THIS CRAZY NUT? You need to read a book like Brick Lane to understand "besieged humanity" or what it's like to live a "hard, little-known" life?
The protaganist moves around in the book like she's had a lobotomy. It wasn't until page 152, I believe, when Nazneen giggles. FINALLY, the woman shows a sign of life. Her senses are completely dulled. Don't buy into the crap about "what it must be like to live a suppressed/oppressed life as a Muslim woman." That's not what's going on. Compare Nazneen's character to that of her sister, aunt, and friends. It's a wonder that lifeless Nazneen even moves into an affair with a younger man.
The most ridiculous part (and because of that, maybe the most enjoyable?) of Nazneen's story is when she stops this evil money lender Mafia-like woman in the story by asking her to swear on the Qu'ran. Really, is that all it took? This woman is an interest-charging money lender (which, apparently, is a big NO-NO as a Muslim) who runs a religious school for girls and raises her sons to be repo-man thugs but she's afraid to swear on the Qu'ran because of an accounting discrepancy? Score one for Nazneen and her growing independence!
OK, to be fair, Nazneen is supposed to be a woman who is passive. Her own mother left Nazneen's entrance into the world up to Fate and that fatalism is what she was raised on. But how she moved from that passivity into an affair with a younger man? Kind of muddy. And her decision to stand up to her husband and stay in the UK with the kids? Little murky. But why should I nitpick? Who knows why we do anything in this world?
Back to being unfair (because I was so bored by this book)...
If you read it, you'll actually end up sympathizing with her husband Chanu..seriously. If you've started reading the book, you will understand what I mean. I know he's supposed to be some idiot windbag who talks like a bigshot at home but deals with the disappointed fragments of his dreams outside the home, but do we need 200 pages of his pathetic flaps to understand this??? And, if one could isolate the number of sentences or paragraphs that concerned the corns on his feet, could there be about 20 pages? Is this the same "brilliant book about things that matter" that Ian Jack of Granta refers to? People! Puh-leeze give me a break!
THE ONE REALLY GOOD THING ABOUT THIS BOOK is the story about Nazneen's sister. She writes letters to her sister detailing her life in Dhaka. The character Hasina is everything that Nazneen is not: angry, sad, happy, determined, loving, and alive. Her life is amazing. The letters alone saved the book. However, even this was ruined by Monica Ali. Why did Hasina's letters need to be written in some strange broken English or literally translated Bengali? If we can view Nazneen's life through grammatically correct English, why can't we understand Hasina in something gramatically correct? Is this to emphasize her distance? Whatever. Weird and frustrating to read.
Look at what the NY Review of Books said:
"Ali succeeds brilliantly in presenting the besieged humanity of people living hard, little-known lives on the margins of a rich, self-absorbed society."
WHO IS THIS CRAZY NUT? You need to read a book like Brick Lane to understand "besieged humanity" or what it's like to live a "hard, little-known" life?
The protaganist moves around in the book like she's had a lobotomy. It wasn't until page 152, I believe, when Nazneen giggles. FINALLY, the woman shows a sign of life. Her senses are completely dulled. Don't buy into the crap about "what it must be like to live a suppressed/oppressed life as a Muslim woman." That's not what's going on. Compare Nazneen's character to that of her sister, aunt, and friends. It's a wonder that lifeless Nazneen even moves into an affair with a younger man.
The most ridiculous part (and because of that, maybe the most enjoyable?) of Nazneen's story is when she stops this evil money lender Mafia-like woman in the story by asking her to swear on the Qu'ran. Really, is that all it took? This woman is an interest-charging money lender (which, apparently, is a big NO-NO as a Muslim) who runs a religious school for girls and raises her sons to be repo-man thugs but she's afraid to swear on the Qu'ran because of an accounting discrepancy? Score one for Nazneen and her growing independence!
OK, to be fair, Nazneen is supposed to be a woman who is passive. Her own mother left Nazneen's entrance into the world up to Fate and that fatalism is what she was raised on. But how she moved from that passivity into an affair with a younger man? Kind of muddy. And her decision to stand up to her husband and stay in the UK with the kids? Little murky. But why should I nitpick? Who knows why we do anything in this world?
Back to being unfair (because I was so bored by this book)...
If you read it, you'll actually end up sympathizing with her husband Chanu..seriously. If you've started reading the book, you will understand what I mean. I know he's supposed to be some idiot windbag who talks like a bigshot at home but deals with the disappointed fragments of his dreams outside the home, but do we need 200 pages of his pathetic flaps to understand this??? And, if one could isolate the number of sentences or paragraphs that concerned the corns on his feet, could there be about 20 pages? Is this the same "brilliant book about things that matter" that Ian Jack of Granta refers to? People! Puh-leeze give me a break!
THE ONE REALLY GOOD THING ABOUT THIS BOOK is the story about Nazneen's sister. She writes letters to her sister detailing her life in Dhaka. The character Hasina is everything that Nazneen is not: angry, sad, happy, determined, loving, and alive. Her life is amazing. The letters alone saved the book. However, even this was ruined by Monica Ali. Why did Hasina's letters need to be written in some strange broken English or literally translated Bengali? If we can view Nazneen's life through grammatically correct English, why can't we understand Hasina in something gramatically correct? Is this to emphasize her distance? Whatever. Weird and frustrating to read.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
July 1, 2007
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Finished Reading
July 11, 2007
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suzy
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 11:47AM)
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Jul 31, 2007 12:23PM
Thanks for the warning!
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can i borrow that ice pick!?!?i chuckle reading this review because i started this book 2 years ago and can't bring myself to finish it. I read A Fine Balance just prior and thought another indo-ethnic book would be interesting....Dead wrong.
Maybe I'll finish it one day...when I'm fighting insomnia or something...
Forced myself to read this book for a book club. Great review...may have to bring your review to the meeting. I think I was the only one who finished the book.
I agree with many of your comments. After 150 pages I kept flipping ahead a few pages saying, "Who cares?" Reading a little more and then flipping ahead again. Stolid, boring, uninteresting...
Exactly! Ditto! All of the above! I wasted weeks of my life on this book when I usually finish a book in a matter of days.
I completely disagree with what you have said, for anyone with any experience of this culture, this book would make a lot more sense, and therefore probably be a lot more interesting. The book beautifully depicts the sacrifices so many women have to make on a day to day basis.
I haven't finished it yet. I have to agree with you, I am forcing myself to read a portion of it everyday, and it isn't working anyway. This, is outrageously incredulous for me. You are reading the text of a girl who has troubles putting books down, who reads until 05 in the morning, almost no matter what kind of book it is! I have given up on extremely few books, but I almost wonder if I shall leave Nazneen's life to people who for some questionable reason would enjoy reading about it.
I couldn't agree more with everything you've all said, apart from Annika (sorry). We've been given this book to read for our Baccalaureate; we had the choice between Great Expectations and this. And the teachers chose this. Unfortunately. We've had it for two years now, and I've only got through about half the book (but I didn't -couldn't?- read Hasina's letters).
And I usually quite like reading. I got through Germinal, le P猫re Goriot, 1984, or Bel-Ami quite easily. But I simply could not finish this book. I'll just have to rely on chapter summaries and stuff...
It's the kind of book you start full of good will. But before long you end up flicking through the pages to see how many are left before the end of the chapter. Usually with this book you also groan when doing this, despairing at the idea that you've still got more than half the chapter to read. And then you fall asleep. And you haven't finished your daily chore-chapter
Annika wrote: "I completely disagree with what you have said, for anyone with any experience of this culture, this book would make a lot more sense, and therefore probably be a lot more interesting. The book bea..."I'm late to this party -- I recently joined goodreads and am just checking out books I loved or hated, and this falls in the latter category.
Annika, I love novels set in similar cultures to this; I grew up in a country with a strong Hindu-Muslim population and I identify strongly with such people. I go out of my way to find such novels. But this book -- I hated it with a vengeance, for exactly the reasons given in this review. Unfortunately, I could not even read the letters of Hasina. They were a torture to read, so I just skipped them.
I couldn't agree with you more. I checked out the reviews after i started reading it. I wanted to see if i was the only one who didn't appriciate this higly praised book. It has never taken me longer to read a book and i still i have only gotten through half of it. i hate it with a passion.
Agree completely, have to force myself to finish it for a university module. After pushing myself through 400 pages, I kind of want to finish it, but I couldn't care less about Nazneen at this point. I just have an aversion to passive people and she is a classic example. In my opinion, the book isn't bad, it just isn't.
A lot of good points in your review, but I actually loved the grammar of Hasina's letters. I thought they were meant to be translations of the mistakes that Hasina made in Bengali and it showed how quickly and passionately she wrote, in opposition to Nazneen's carefully edited letters. And in themselves, I found the unusual rhythm had a haunting beauty.
I felt this book was as well-received as it was due largely to its 9/11 reference, and publishing date during the first few years post-9/11. Being culturally relevant doesn't mean it's good!
I had to force myself to finish it. It was short listed for the Booker Prize, which I usually find is a sign of a good read. Not this one. Yawnsville.
I had to force myself to finish it. It was short listed for the Booker Prize, which I usually find is a sign of a good read. Not this one. Yawnsville.
I don't need to review this book now and can get back to my loathing of it. Thanks for summing up what I was feeling! :-)
why read a book just to not like it? there are too many books to enjoy. if you don't like after 50 pages just put aside and pick up something else.
The book is a less like a book and more like an ailment on paper! Your review diagnosed the ailment beautifully!
My thoughts exactly, Nancy!
I'm already o far into it that I have to finish. I neither hate nor love it. I find myself skimming parts, which I only do with boring parts of books. But, I've been doing it a lot with this one. I, personally, after reading 50 pages of a book don't always ave a definitive opinion and, usually, after 50 pages, I have to finish it.
One of the things I liked the most about this book was the wonderful language in the letters. If it had been proper English I would not have enjoyed it. Sorry you thought the book was boring, I loved it. Funny how people are so different. Be well.
I loved this book...and yes, I sympathised with Chanu, as well.
Fantastic review, I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn't. That I read Thomas Pikkety's Capital in the 21st Century quicker says it all.
This review hits it on the head for me. I've struggled through this airy, pointless book and found the characters lifeless and completely without merit. The dialogue is dull, nothing at all happens for the entire book and it's covered in rave reviews on the cover that made me convinced that I had missed the point. Glad that I wasn't the only one that found this a yawn-inducing pile of over-hyped rubbish
I've just finished this book and agree with this review - I found the last 75 pages or so were the best.
Your review of this book is perfect.
Glad to see I'm not the only one who struggled with this, I didn't mind the first 100 or so pages and then struggled with it. It did have it's good parts but I skim read a lot. If it was half its size I think it would have worked better - and I love big books.
I came here to make sure I wasn't being too hard on this book. Apparently I'm not. It's poorly written. There were times when I had to reread a paragraph because there was no transition and I was wondering if I was reading the same story. There's no rhythm or flow to this. Today I read the back cover again and I'm wondering when we get to the affair and if it's even worth it. That description has nothing to do with this book.
I loved this book. I don't understand the negative reviews.
Thank you. Just finished the book. Felt better reading your review!
I so agree with Nancy. I kept plodding through this book, waiting for it to pick up. It seemed to drag even through her relationship with Karim. Ali doesn鈥檛 give us much heat in those parts.Where was her editor? Do I have to read again about her cooking in the kitchen? The end of the book (no spoilers here) was also totally anticlimactic. I was hoping at one point that one of her daughters would have some interesting side story but no - that didn鈥檛 happen. Perhaps Ali wants us to feel the pain of her drudgerous life? Ok! Got it! Felt it! Success on that level! Yes, I felt the monotony of her life. I do feel accomplished that I finished it as it was a challenge.
Wish I鈥檇 read this review before starting this dull, dull book. I鈥檓 toying with skipping to the end...
Also, briefly, why does Monica Ali have to portray the love marriage as a failure? Was she perhaps worried about offending her Muslim culture? Arranged marriages are so much better aren't they? What does love have to do with anything? Are we as women not allowed to make our iwn choices in life? Muslim, Hindu women of the world rebel and snatch a bit of happiness, take a chance, why you should all continue to become domestic drudges and sexual objects, it seems happiness and independence are not for you.
I couldn't agree with you, or the other dull souls who dislike this book, LESS.
Wow Thomas...you 'got through...1984...' I kept back from reading this until 1984 and oh my, it blows my mind even today, especially today with all that is going on in the world. Books like 1984, Brave New World, We and The Handmaid's Tale have iconic status for good reason...because they are the very best in their genre. If you like dystopian fiction (which I do), maybe consider Christine Dalcher's Vox or Naomi Alderman's The Power. As for Germinal, again another bastion of French literature...I've wanted to read Brick Lane for quite a few years, so I will be interested to see if I feel the same way so many people seem to have felt about it when/if finish it. What surprises me is that people have felt the need to finish it if they are not enjoying it. Why bother? Why not just put it down and move on to something else? Unless you are studying a book for a reason, no one is forced to complete a book. Life's too short surely?
I battled my way to page 169 and then abandoned it. I just don鈥檛 care what happens to any of them.
I thought it was ok, actually. But I have a thing for "boring, regular lives".
I have to agree with parts of this review. Especially the broken English in Hasina鈥檚 letters. I had to just skip them at one point because they were too frustrating to read.
i loved this book but the lobotomy thing is hillarious
I鈥檝e just finished the first long section of Hasina鈥檚 letters. I love reading and have read books longer than this in as little as 2-3 days, this has taken me several weeks. I hate to leave it. But after reading this review, and the comments, I might leave it.
Just got 100 pages and it was a battle so thank you for pointing me in the right direction. Time for a different book , critics can be so infuriating at times
Page 87 and read reviews. It's taken me 11 days to get here and I read 2 books in the 11 days before I started this, and that's where I'm ending it....
okay I'm sorry this review made me laugh so hard
