Brick Lane

This Booker Prize-nominated novel provides engaging characters and thought-provoking insight into the Muslim immigrant world.The main character, Nazneen, is a young "unspoiled" Bangladeshi village girl who enters into an arranged marriage with a much older Bangladeshi who lives in London. Her beautiful sister defies her father's wishes and elopes in a love match, running off to Dakha. Nazneen has been raised to accept whatever happens to her, but in London, gradually (over the course of 15 years or so) begins to take control of her own life.Her husband Chanu at first seems clownlike, for example, he frames a collection of meaningless certificates for very minor achievements. Chanu regards himself as a scholar, because he has a BA from a Bangladeshi university, but he realizes that in Britain, he is regarded as nobody of any importance). Nazneen is expected to trim his corns every night, and later, his daughters are expected to sit beside him as he reads to turn the pages for him. But Chanu is a complex person who has a good heart, and the reader develops a fondness for this would-be patriarch. Life has not turned out as he wanted or expected, but he is devoted to his family.Nazneen, on the other hand, had no expectations of life but has been swept along like a piece of wood in a river. Her transformation -- how to combine the traditional values and reject what is problematic in the western world while recognizing what is bad about the old ways and changing -- forms the plot of the book.In the background is her sister's story, told in letters; the sister, who was more proactive in her choices, suffers the consequences, and it's hard to avoid wondering if the sister would not have been better off in an arranged marriage. The reader is left pondering Western vs. non-Western values, particularly with regard to love and marriage.Like other reviewers, I found the use of broken English in her sister's letters baffling and annoying -- fortunately they were a comparatively small part of the book. If her sister was writing in Bengali, wouldn't it be grammatical at least? And why would her sister write in English (which would explain the bad grammar)?The author has done a great job of creating a very different world for the reader to inhabit. Life for Muslim women both in a council estate (public housing project) in London (Nazneen's story) and a large city in Bangladesh (her sister's story) are described vividly and without romantic illusions.This is not a quickly read book, but it certainly held my interest all the way through, and I will remember these characters for a long time.

Such a great read of every day life and love. And things working themselves out when you least expect it!

Interesting story and well developed characters but a slow read. The story was good and kept my attention but wasn’t riveting and took a while to get through.

A young Bangladeshi girl’s life journey from a small rural place to London is full of sadness and disappointments. Over the years, she grows stronger and finds peace and happiness in her life.

I thought the story was good, but parts of it dragged. I think it could have been better edited to move the story along.

This book could have been better. I wanted to read it to gain some insight into the lives of immigrants from Bangladesh trying to adjust to life in London. It did deliver that. But it went on and on and on.

It was enlightening to become part of the story, she’s in an arranged marriage to an older man that has big hopes for success that is never fulfilled. He has many faults but he loves her and their children and he’s a kind man. They are Muslim living in London, already a minority, the 9/11 and the world hates Muslims. You get a personal view of being hated through no fault of your own.

I found this book when I was visiting Brick Lane in London. It looked like an interesting neighborhood, so I looked forward to learning more from a novel.The novel is exquisitely well written. Almost too much so. The heroine's experiences of being pulled from Bangladesh into the slums of London were very painful indeed. The letters from her pretty sister who stayed behind are just as depressing. Reading these stories for chapter after chapter is very hard. The structure of the novel provides minimal break from the pain of their lives.I found that, at the very least I had to intersperse my reading with more "entertaining" novels. According to my Kindle, I am only 30% in. I don't know if I will be able to finish.

I bought this five years' ago and only just got roung to reading it! What a disappointment. I don't understand the rave reviews. It's so dull and boring. It's not engaging me at all. I've read a third of it - the first 150 pages cover 3 years of Nazneen's life in England (very slow and mostly uninteresting), have now got to the bit in 1988 where Hasina is writing to her sister, Nazneen - and the next 13 years are covered in 20 pages of more letters from Hasina. It's so dull. I have to force myself to pick up the book whereas I usually can't wait. So I've deciced to give up - life's too short to read books you're not enjoying.

A wonderful story. Unlike anything I’ve read before. No spoilers but I cried at the end and it takes a lot for a book to move me in such a way. The characters are fantastic and I actually fell in love with them all (except Mrs Islam who I enjoyed though!) Worth a read for sure

I had been meaning to read this book for a long time.The book tells the story of a ypingg 0akostanj girl who moved to the UKK andoved I'm the famous titular Brick Lane in London.A slow story from start to finish, and althpigh the book was 500 plus pages the book did take me a long time to read. My favourite sections of the book were the letters sent by the main character's sister still in Pakistan.I really struggled with this book and for me it is only a two star read.

Often an arranged marriage was viewed as good because the wife wasn’t beaten!The sister’s life, in comparison was equally bad. Left me feeling that I am very blessed in my own life.Thankfully a positive ending 😁

I used to pick this book up in the bookshop near work a few years ago, and each time, I put it back down again. I wish I'd trusted my instincts when it was chosen for our book club and said I didn't fancy it, but as the whole point of a book club is to read something you wouldn't usually read, I thought I'd give it a try.If it was a struggle to start, it was certainly a struggle to finish. I don't usually struggle through books; my feeling is there are too many books in the world to bother struggling through one you're not enjoying, but as it was for my book club, I felt obliged to see it through to the end.I've given it two stars as it is very well written (except for the letters from the sister: why were they in there?). If I was rating just for the story, it'd get only one star.Nazneen has no personality or character as far as we can see. Chanu is better developed as a character, although I found his sudden rages towards his eldest daughter - Shahana - out of character. Why the aggression?The letters from the Nazneen's sister I just couldn't fathom; either the terrible broken English (why were they in English? Nazneen couldn't read or write English, broken or otherwise) or why they were added in the first place.The affair with Karim didn't seem to begin or end; it fizzled in, then it fizzled out.The only bit that really moved me in any way was when Nazneen told Chanu she wasn't going to Bangladesh with him.The other bit that really stands out was the singing and dancing to Lulu bit. I have never read anything so excruciatingly cringeworthy. Terrible, really terrible.One of my book club readers said he didn't get further than the first page. He was lucky. I wish I hadn't bothered with the other 400+ pages.