Brick Lane

It was just ok

While the story had potential it lost my interest midway through.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

The simple story ...

This was the first book that I read by Ms. Ali and she instantly became one of my favorite authors. I love to read and learn about different cultures and countries. Ms. Ali did not let me down. From her descriptive prose, I have been able to create an image of Bangladesh (and later London) - one that feels very real, including the sights, smells, dusty roads, etc.. As the characters developed, we were given glimpses into Bangladeshi and Muslim beliefs along with the Bengali people. It presented a nice introduction for the sheltered American. The story was simple: girl enters into arranged marriage, leaves her family behind, becomes the submissive partner, realizes her own self worth and finally stands on her own. Unlike some readers, I found the book to be a quick and enjoyable read. I recommend to those interested in immigrant life and those wishing to expose themselves to different cultures.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great

Great

horrible

cannot believe this was published. the plot had potential, but the writing was disjointed. gave up.

Interesting Story

I read this for a book club. I found it to be an interesting story with a good perspective, told from the female protagonists point of view. I was able to put it down but always got drawn in again when I picked it up. Characters are well developed and the plot flows well...I thought it was intruiging and a good book club novel as it can spark a lot of conversation regarding arranged weddings, the submissive role of women in some cultures, etc.

The story of a different life

For those of us who grew up as part of a Western society and have never known anything else, Brick Lane tells the story of a woman who must reconcile living in Western society with her own cultural beliefs. Nazneen is not representative of a whole country, as some have protested, but she is representative of women who come from an isolated area and who learn to live in a culture that is very different from the one in which they grew up. Brick Lane is a story not just of Nazneen, who comes to London from Bangladesh with her husband, but also that of her sister Hasina, who remains in Bangladesh. The contrast between the women's lives highlights the role of Fate in Nazneen's decision-making process; Hasina is defiant, choosing her own path through life, while Nazneen accepts changes in her life as part of the path chosen for her. As the novel progresses, Nazneen comes to challenge this belief and it is Nazneen's growth as a woman, wife, and mother that drives this novel.

Author should have 'trimmed the fat'

This book has a great story line. I enjoyed the way the characters developed and matured. I thought the author did an excellent job of sharing the lives of Bengali people, Muslims, and the immigrant experience. I disagree with the criticism that she made Bengali people 'look stupid', and I feel this is an extremely harsh and overly sensitive criticism. I was also not bothered by the fact that she chose to not have the letters written in standardized English. In fact, when you think about it, it makes sense. The sister clearly did not have a significant amount of formal education. I really enjoyed the plot, and I can understand why this book won a lot of awards. My criticism is that the book is too long. The author could have cut out a lot of unneccesary details. After awhile, I actually found myself skipping pages and speed reading. This book could have been cut by at least a quarter. The end of the book makes up for this flaw. I was very pleased with the character's growth and I feel she is an inspiration to all women. A part of womanhood is learning to find your voice, self realization, and learning to stand on your own. For this reason alone, I recommend this book so you can witness her journey. Good book, but it would have been great if the author had 'trimmed the fat'.

A reviewer

The book is well observed, full of wonderful imagery and vivid characterisations. It is very moving. It doesn't comdemn Bangladesh culture, it in fact shows a lot of the beauty of Bangladeshi beliefs and culture. At the end of the day it follows the lives of a few families. People who read the book know not to generalise to the whole of Bangladesh.

A year later...

I read this entire book minus the last 20 pages approximately a year ago. It was probably the most dreadful thing to have lost the book completely when I was so engrossed in the plot... But after reading some of the other reviews, I felt the need to share my emotion and sentiments that I felt so strongly while reading this book that I still remember it a year later. The transformation that occurs in this book towards the ending was beautiful. The formation of the Bengal Tigers, the need for the community to come together, the debates and the social tension was so real. The conflict between identifying with your race and your religion and the country you were born in is true. This is the first book I have ever read that accurately portrays some of the many emotions that I felt as a South Asian Muslim Woman after Sept. 11th. And as a side note- a letter written in broken English from a woman who may not speak English and probably has little education does not detract from a plot line. It is more real than a letter written with perfect grammar.

A slow, boring, dreadful book

This summer, I had to read Brick Lane for a school assignment. After reading the back of the book and seeing that it was critically acclaimed, I thought that it couldn't be too bad. However, I was wrong. First off, this book is poorly written. At times, it jumps all over the place and you can't even figure out what is going on. The book just plods along until you finally reach the end. Brick Lane is also very repetitive. It seems like the same exact events occur in every chapter! One of my biggest complaints were the letters written by the main character's sister. Because they were so poorly written and gramatically incorrect, the letters were almost impossible to read. I do not recommend Brick Lane to anyone. I enjoy reading and do not hate many books. However, this book was awful and at times I wanted to put it away forever.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Completely Over Rated

The book is really well written, however that doesn't account for the storyline. This book is HIGHLY OVERRATED! I've been reading for sometime that a lot of Bangadeshi people were unhappy with the book because it made them out to be ignorant amongst other things. After reading the book I can see exactly where they are coming from. Honestly, I find the letters between the main character and her sister Hasina to be rather pointless to the development of the story. And a lot of the story could have been shortened by at least 100 pages. There is a lot of useless information in the book, that could have been thrown towards other character developments and storylines. The gist of the story and what it's really all about, whirls at you rather quickly in the last 50 pages if so much. That's almost 350 pages that were rather pointless and could have been snarked into 150-200 at the most. And YES, it does make the Bengali people out to be idiotic, snivilling, ignorant fools. But that's the same with all races...you get them everywhere....just this book seems to emulate it for some reason. I wonder why, a person who is Bengali as Monica Ali is, would write a book, that seemingly denounces her heritage, culture and religion?

Mixed Feelings

The culture of this story is fascinating..but sometimes it's hard to find. As a book, it was a slow read but as a teaching instrument (of Bangladesh culture) it was good.

let's you live a different life ... from the comfort of your own

I'm only halfway through this book but I am completely engrossed and unlikely to be let down because ... Monica Ali is a wonderful writer. So far what I've read about Nazhneen and her sister, husband, children, neighbours, relatives, and prospective lover, makes me think that the news tells us what happens in the world, history tells us how events happened, but novels like Brick Lane can show us WHY human beings do what they do within the constraints of their circumstance, and this is the most illuminating for understanding and appreciating others.

Well written, but gaps in storyline

Considering the acclaim this book received, I expected alot from it. The story was interesting but lacked drive and I feel like certain characters behaved unlike themselves. There was no pull between Nazneed and Karim, no drive to pull them into an affair. Could've been a lot better.

Not What I Expected

I was so looking forward to reading 'Brick Lane,' but was disappointed with the extremely slow pace. I had a very hard time getting into it and would not recommend it.

not worth the hype

this novel took way too long to read ... and it wasn't worth the effort. as a bangladeshi i thought this work would be something worth praising and being proud of, but i felt far from wanting to praise this book. it was slow, it was dull, it didn't capture anything that i can remotely relate to as a second-generation bangladeshi-american ... and i've read far better works than this that have been able to capture the immigrant experience of bangladeshis. i also found the experiences of the two women to be far-fetched and not exemplary of the bengali experience. i also did not appreciate the usage of broken english because most bangladeshis speak english pretty well, and the broken english didn't even give any signs of being an actual direct translation of anything someone would say in bengali. i spent hours trying to figure out what was trying to be said in bengali that the english translation would look so disjointed and broken.

Unexpected Ending

I can understand why some would feel this book was a failure or too long-winded. However, Nazneen's life is a long buildup to self-realization, which the story manages to be as well. I really felt something at the end. The letters from Hasina served an important purpose, but there didn't need to be nearly so many of them. This book brings understanding of backwards immigrants in strange countries, the birth of radicals from normal people, and that love comes in different shapes and sizes. I really enjoyed the time spent on this book.

A fascinating story

Brick Lane is an amazing story of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi female immigrant who moved to a Bangladesh community in London as a young woman and wife of an old man. Through her, the author successfully captured the Bengali traditions and the clash their contradictions upon the Islamic religion. The misconceptions Bengalis and many other Islamic people have vis-à-vis their religion and culture incompatibilities is vividly portrayed in this book. Hindu practices, traditions and culture are intertwined with Islam to give it a different blend.

not there yet

Nice try, the objective of this novel was perhaps a bit beyond the author's ability. It was a great attempt but it failed and was long with characters who all felt the same, paragraphs that shouldn't exist, and a lot of added details which fail to support the 'climax.'

Great read actually

I read it from start to finish (without many breaks) and was disappointed to heve finished it as I enjoyed 'watching' the charaters develop and move on in their lives. The finale was great!