Review: Brick Lane

Brick Lane

By Monica Ali

Black Swan Books 2004

492 pages

Borrowed from a friend

As an eighteen year old girl, Nazneen is given in marriage to a man she has never met. Her husband, Chanu, takes her from her home in Bangladesh to London. Since childhood, Nazneen has been reminded that she was left to her fate as a baby and should continue to do so. So she tries to make the best of her situation, listening to each of her husband's impossible schemes, raising their children, and tending to their increasingly cluttered apartment. But tensions are rising in London between immigrants and long time residents. As things begin to change around her, will Nazneen finally change as well?

This is a good novel. It brings up a lot of interesting questions. Can immigrants become a part of a new community or will they always be outsiders? How can women overcome their oppressive upbringings? Can we ever truly leave our pasts behind? While it was a thought-provoking read, it ultimately suffered from two major problems.

The first problem is that no book could ever live up to the amount of hype that surrounds this novel. The edition that I read exclaims on the front cover that it was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize and then opens to four pages of ecstatic blurbs from every publication in London and the US. As I read, I had one of those moments where I wondered if I was reading the same book that they all gushed so enthusiastically about.

The second problem is the length. The reader knows just from looking at the back cover that Nazneen is going to go through some change. We know that she will begin an affair with a younger man who is involved in the uprisings. But it takes an incredibly long time to get there. Karim, the man in question, does not show up for 200 pages. Brick Lane is very repetitive. I have to imagine that this is a conscious decision on Ali's part, that she gives the husband so many schemes and ways to berate his wife in order to show the painful monotony of her days. In spite of all of these pages, I never felt connected to the characters. Part of that may be their cultural upbringing - Nazneen is told to let fate do what it will. But those circumstances don't make for captivating reading.

While I'm talking about the things that bothered me, there was one smaller bit that drove me crazy. Nazneen often gets letters from her sister Hasina who lives back in Bangladesh.  Her life is very different from Nazneen's and the relationship between the sisters is one of the most interesting parts of the story. We know that Nazneen speaks very little English, so we can only assume that her sister writes to her in her native tongue. For some reason, Ali chooses to represent Hasina's writing in Bengali as extremely mangled English. This was an irritating and confusing choice.

Brick Lane is a very long book where not much happens. It is not a terrible book - it will give you some insight into the lives of immigrants in modern times and the struggles between a traditional upbringing and a modern world. I wish it had been a shorter book with characters who do more and evolve more. As it stands, it was a disappointing experience for me. 

Wednesdays with David: The Great Fairy Tales Treasure Chest

The Great Fairy Tales Treasure Chest IV

Tormont Publications 1992

Adaptation by Jane Brierley

Text by Peter Holeinone

Illustrations by Tony Wolf, Piero Cattaneo, and Severino Baraldi

The Stories: This collection of fairy tales includes the well known stories of The Golden Goose and The Pied Piper of Hamlin along with lesser known stories such as Sasha, Mansor, and the Storks and The Red Dragon. These huge books are good for cuddling over and have gorgeous illustrations that accompany each story.

Mama opines: This collection belonged to me as a child and I read these stories over and over again. I like that it has a mix of fairy tales from different cultures and it has some that are laugh out loud funny (as David discovered today) and some that are a little scary, like The Witch in the Tower. Today, we only read The Golden Goose and The Pied Piper of Hamlin. It takes a little bit of convincing these days to read something we haven't experienced before.

Thoughts from David: I like The Golden Goose because it’s so cool. And that’s because I love it so much.

Favorite part: It’s when they get stuck together in a parade.

What is your favorite fairy tale to read with your little one? 

 

Review: Gone Missing

Gone Missing

By Linda Castillo

Minotaur Books 2012

277 pages

Won from Nise of Under the Boardwalk

Kate Burkholder is the chief of police in a small town in Ohio. She works in two very different worlds - the modern town of Painter's Mill and the traditional Amish community that dwells within it. Kate grew up Amish, but left her church as a teenager, which gives her unique insight into the lives of both the Amish and the Englishers. When State Agent John Tomasetti asks her to assist on a case involving a missing Amish girl, Kate wonders if it is connected to the cold cases of other missing Amish teens. Are Amish teens enjoying rumspringa and then choosing a modern life or is something more sinister at work in this close community?

Gone Missing is the fourth novel by Castillo with Kate Burkholder as the protagonist. But this doesn't mean that it can't be read as a standalone. We get just enough information about Kate to understand how she works as a police officer, her history with the Amish people, and her growing relationship with Agent Tomasetti. As a character, Kate is very engaging. She is strong and self-assured, but has doubts too. She regrets the distance she has from her family, who are still Amish. She is invested in her relationship with Tomasetti, but unsure where it will go with two officers working difficult jobs in different towns. Her moments of hesitation with the people she loves balance out the tough demeanor necessary for her to succeed as a female police chief.

The mystery speeds along with a lot of tension and perfect pacing. The actual plot is interesting, but I wonder how plausible it is. Kate and John discover a dark side to the seemingly simple Amish life. When young people go through their rumspringa, they are allowed to partake in English life and experience the things that normal teens take for granted - blue jeans, driving, cell phones, cigarettes and drinking. Their choices lead to problems between the extremely conservative, religious, Amish people and their teenagers as they engage in behavior that is seen as a sin. This is a dark and very violent story. While I was very engaged, I have to wonder how many stories Castillo can come up with portraying the Amish people as villains.

Gone Missing is a fascinating mix between a gritty mystery novel and the stories of the Amish people that are so popular these days. Kate Burkholder is a great character and I am interested to see what else Castillo has in store for her. I am willing to overlook my skepticism about the amount of crime stories in an Amish community in order to enjoy an excellently paced mystery with a wonderful protagonist. 

Ladies and Gents, It's Monday!

Hello there, reading friends! How were your weeks? We had a good week, and today (Monday) we are off to the aquarium with some of my siblings. David is in love with a TV show called The Octonauts, which is all about cartoon animals saving sea creatures. I have a feeling he is going to have a blast. 

I'm getting back into the swing of reading after a slow week last week. I really liked Outcasts United and the first few chapters of The Devoted are flying. It's so nice to love books again!

Read This Week:

Brick Lane

By Monica Ali

Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Town

By Warren St. John

Posts from this Past Week:

It's Monday

September Wrap Up

Wednesdays with David: Froggy Gets Dressed 

Review of Swing Low: A Life 

Reading Now:

The Devoted
By Jonathan Hull

Up Next: 

Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore

By Robin Sloan 

What are you reading this week? 

Review: Swing Low

Swing Low: A Life

By Miriam Toews

Harper Collins 2000

228 pages

ARC won from Jennie of Life is Short, Read Fast

Miriam Toews' father left the hospital where he was being treated for depression and hitched a ride to a nearby small town. After speaking with a waitress at the diner, he walked onto the train tracks and took his own life. After his death, Miriam collected the pieces of paper she had given to her father. She wrote in his voice, reminding him that 'things would be alright' and that 'my family loves me.' Swing Low is Miriam's attempt to bring her father's final days and thoughts to life.

This book is marketed as a memoir and it is, to some extent. The author spent a great amount of time speaking with her mother and other family members to better understand her father. But a lot of this book comes from her imagination. She admits that her father rarely spoke to the family and seemed to use all of his energy in his beloved job as a school teacher. There is little she knows or understands about the father who impacted her life so greatly. Toews imagines her father writing his thoughts down during his final days in the hospital. In addition to suffering from bipolar disorder, his memory is starting to go as well. Mel writes about his fears about his family and the hospital staff and tries to remember the life that he is starting to forget.

This is a situation which obviously causes Miriam and her entire family a great deal of pain. To know that your father is an enthusiastic teacher by day who spends the evening in bed not speaking to you  create a very difficult home life. This memoir is Miriam's way to better understand a man who was largely distant and find some closure about his absence from her life and his tragic death. It is a very compassionate story and I think that speaks volumes about Miriam as a person. She is able to look past her own pain and see the difficulties that her father dealt with every day.

Swing Low is a cathartic journey for Toews and for anyone who has lost a parent tragically. The power of this book though, is that it transcends even these limits. The writing is beautiful, concise, and powerful. It  gives haunting insight into the life of someone living with mental illness and causes each of us to think about the ways we care for and relate to the people we love most. 

Wednesdays with David: Froggy Gets Dressed

Froggy Gets Dressed

By Jonathan London

Illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz

Puffin April 1994

Borrowed from Aunt Sara

The story: Froggy wakes up in the middle of winter and, although his mother tells him that frogs hibernate for the winter, he is determined to go play in the snow. He must find all of his winter clothing before he can go out. This is easier said than done as his mother calls him back inside because he has forgotten his pants, his shirt, his coat, and his underwear?!?

Mama opines: This is a perfect book for winter. Any little person and their parents can relate to the frustration of having to wait to go outside until you have put on all of those pieces of winter clothing. It has some repetition, so your child may be able to recite some parts along with you, even if they aren't readers quite yet. Froggy Gets Dressed is laugh out loud funny and the twist ending will have moms and dads smiling at the wisdom of Mama Frog.

Thoughts from David: I like it because it's so cool that he gets dressed and when he had almost got his last mitten on, then he stopped and went back to bed.
Favorite part: When he forgot his underwear!

Happy Reading!

September Wrap-Up

This month, I tried to work through some of my own books. I stayed away from the library and tried not to buy new books (it didn't work). It felt good to make a little dent in the big pile of books on my shelf, though. I always feel a little silly buying new books when I know I have so many books at home I haven't read yet! 


Books Reviewed in September: 11
Pages Read: 3,574
Fiction/Non-fiction: 9/2
Female authors/male authors: 7/4
My books/library books: 2/9
Lindsey's favorite book in September: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Books reviewed by David: 2
David's favorite book in September: The Magic Tree House books (I may have to start hiding these...Momma can only read them so many times!) 


What was your favorite book in September?