 Book Reviews
with Robin Osborne
Brick Lane
By Monica Ali
Doubleday $29.95
 Condemnation from fellow Bangladeshis greeted London-based Monica Ali after the release of her cloaked-as-fiction exposé of Bangledeshi society in England.
Her inability to speak Bengali disqualified her from the task, while her highlighting of male oppression, venal moneylending, token Muslims and youthful drug abusers added insult to injury.
Yet the novel achieved critical acclaim and wide readership, becoming the favourite for the Booker Prize, just awarded to a personally dodgy Australian writer using the pen-name of DBC Pierre.
After a brief scene-setting on the family farm, Brick Lane's focus moves to London in the 1980s where the teenage Nazneen is living with her 40-year old husband Chanu, a pompous, but not unlikeable, man in a bleak council flat.
The fatalistic Nazneen accepts her lot in life: 'Fighting against one's Fate can weaken the blood' What could not be changed must be borne. And since nothing could be changed, everything had to be borne.'
Forbidden to leave home, even to shop, Nazneen does housework, watches incomprehensible TV - ice-skating is her favourite - prepares elaborate meals, massages her husband's feet and gossips with women from her community.
An English speaker more verbose than profound, her husband waxes nostalgically about Bangladesh, to where he vows to return.
Nazneen is unconvinced, for she receives regular letters from her sister, Hasina, recounting the difficulty of life there, especially the women whose 'fate' is to be subjugated to male dominance and even acts of extreme cruelty.
Into their life come a boy, who dies as a baby, and two girls whose teenage ambitions provoke conflict with their more traditional parents.
Eventually Nazneen, now in her thirties, emerges from the cocoon, venturing to the shops, then further afield, and finally to Islamist meetings organised to combat a white racist group.
Here she meets Karim, a younger Bangladeshi activist, who ignites the flame of love and lust, and encourages her to participate in the unthinkable. Their sexual liaison heralds Nazneen's liberation, as she joins forces with friends to develop a fashion business based on the garment industry that engages so many Asians, and finally top resist her husband's pleas for the family to return 'home'.
To her daughters' delight, she urges Chanu to go on ahead, for as friend Razia says, 'This is England. You can do whatever you like.'
At last, Nazneen can be herself, but her counterparts in the real world should be so lucky.
- Thanks to Book Warehouse in Keen Street, Lismore for supporting this column.
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