Brick Lane

I have now finished Brick Lane. Well, I say finished, but I actually skipped through most of the last third. I am sorry to say I just got bored. I got bored before the last third, but ploughed on, hoping something would happen. But alas, nothing did. OK, things did happen (obviously) but just not enough to hold my interest.

Maybe I missed something. I sympathised with Nazneen, her family and especially her sister back in Dhaka, but there was not enough 'meat' in the story to hold my interest. It was a bit of a shame, as the themes were interesting. I suppose the story reflected Nazneen's life for the first years of her life in England - the boredom and repetitive routine, but it didn't make for a story I really cared about very much.

Even in the later parts of the book, after she meets Karim, I didn't really care about what happened to them. I found it quite unbelievable that their affair would have begun in the first place, and when it did happen it was just there, seemingly without any warning. Maybe that is how it was supposed to come across. Maybe that's how these things happen sometimes, or, again, maybe I just missed something. The ending was at least [moderately] happy, but also slightly cheesy and formulaic, especially when Nazneen starts dancing around the flat.

The writing style was ok, but not what I expected from a book that had such rave reviews when it was first published. It seemed like Ali was trying to copy the style from other books she had read, but it didn't really work for me.

One thing I will say, the book did a good job of highlighting the horrible conditions endured by immigrants coming into the UK, and the dangers and hardships of being a Muslim woman (both in the UK and in Bangladesh).

I'm sorry I didn't like this book. I wanted to. Maybe Monica Ali's next offering will be better...or maybe I'll just 'get' it next time? I don't know why I'm criticising anyway, I can't do any better!