Brick Lane
4 journalers for this copy...
I was thrilled when this was passed to me for BookCrossing - it's one of my all-time favourites. I love this book! I read it before all the hype leading up to it being shortlisted (and favourite) for the Man Booker Prize of 2003. I was very disappointed it didnt win & although I did read the winner I confess I didnt like it at all!
Amazon.co.uk Review
With its gritty Tower Hamlets setting, this sharply observed contemporary novel about the life of an Asian immigrant girl deals cogently with issues of love, cultural difference and the human spirit. The pre-publicity hype about Brick Lane was precisely the kind to set alarm bells ringing (we've heard it so often before), but, for once, the excitement is fully justified: Monica Ali's debut novel demonstrates that there is a new voice in modern fiction to be reckoned with.
Nazneen is a teenager forced into an arranged marriage with a man considerably older than her--a man whose expectations of life are so low that misery seems to stretch ahead for her. Fearfully leaving the sultry oppression of her Bangladeshi village, Nazneen finds herself cloistered in a small flat in a high-rise block in the East End of London. Because she speaks no English, she is obliged to depend totally on her husband. But it becomes apparent that, of the two, she is the real survivor: more able to deal with the ways of the world, and a better judge of the vagaries of human behaviour. She makes friends with another Asian girl, Razia, who is the conduit to her understanding of the unsettling ways of her new homeland.
This is a novel of genuine insight, with the kind of characterisation that reminds the reader at every turn just what the novel form is capable of. Every character (Nazneen, her disappointed husband and her resourceful friend Razia) is drawn with the complexity that can really only be found in the novel these days. In some ways, the reader is given the same all-encompassing experience as in a Dickens novel: humour and tragedy rub shoulders in a narrative that inexorably grips the reader. Whether or not Monica Ali can follow up this achievement is a question for the future; it's enough to say right now that Brick Lane is an essential read for anyone interested in current British fiction
With its gritty Tower Hamlets setting, this sharply observed contemporary novel about the life of an Asian immigrant girl deals cogently with issues of love, cultural difference and the human spirit. The pre-publicity hype about Brick Lane was precisely the kind to set alarm bells ringing (we've heard it so often before), but, for once, the excitement is fully justified: Monica Ali's debut novel demonstrates that there is a new voice in modern fiction to be reckoned with.
Nazneen is a teenager forced into an arranged marriage with a man considerably older than her--a man whose expectations of life are so low that misery seems to stretch ahead for her. Fearfully leaving the sultry oppression of her Bangladeshi village, Nazneen finds herself cloistered in a small flat in a high-rise block in the East End of London. Because she speaks no English, she is obliged to depend totally on her husband. But it becomes apparent that, of the two, she is the real survivor: more able to deal with the ways of the world, and a better judge of the vagaries of human behaviour. She makes friends with another Asian girl, Razia, who is the conduit to her understanding of the unsettling ways of her new homeland.
This is a novel of genuine insight, with the kind of characterisation that reminds the reader at every turn just what the novel form is capable of. Every character (Nazneen, her disappointed husband and her resourceful friend Razia) is drawn with the complexity that can really only be found in the novel these days. In some ways, the reader is given the same all-encompassing experience as in a Dickens novel: humour and tragedy rub shoulders in a narrative that inexorably grips the reader. Whether or not Monica Ali can follow up this achievement is a question for the future; it's enough to say right now that Brick Lane is an essential read for anyone interested in current British fiction
I'm taking this along to the 1st BBC Shropshire meet in Shrewsbury - hoping it will find a reader who will enjoy this book as much as I do. I have another book which is out on a book ring with very mixed reviews - it seems to me you either love this book (like me!!) or will be disappointed by it!
Journal Entry 4 by Molyneux at Armoury Pub in Shrewsbury, Shropshire United Kingdom on Friday, October 28, 2005
Released 18 yrs ago (10/29/2005 UTC) at Armoury Pub in Shrewsbury, Shropshire United Kingdom
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
Releasing at the BBC Shropshire 1st meet
Releasing at the BBC Shropshire 1st meet
collected this one from the Shropshire meet earlier today - it was recommened by molyneux so looking forward to reading it, I'll then pass it on to laneycakes who is also keen to read it.
passed to me by enilaup1...popping on the obcz
Heard a lot about this, but haven't read it yet. Picked up from an overflowing BBC Radio Shropshire OBCZ bookcase (beautifully constructed, such fantastic workmanship - I wonder what woodworking experts could have built it?)
