Although Brick Lane was published in 2003, I have only just got round to reading it.  In the novel, Monica Ali tells the story of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi woman who moves to London as a result of her arranged marriage to a man twenty years older than she is.  She accepts her fate without complaining, and is a dutiful wife to the tragi-comic Chanu, who though pretentious and authoritarian, treats her relatively well. He is less kind to his two daughters, forcing them to learn long passages of Bangladeshi literature, punishing them cruelly if they fail.

As the novel progresses, Nazneen grows to realize that she is in charge of her own destiny, and begins to rebel, first with subtle acts like putting chillis in her husband’s sandwiches, or leaving her community area and walking in the streets, and later, much more dramatically, by having an affair, and finally with a dramatic decision that changes her life.

 With humour and attention to detail, Ali skillfully introduces her small London world and its vivid cast of characters: Dr Azad, Chanu’s unlikely friend trapped in a miserable marriage, Mrs Islam, the hypochondriac moneylender who ends up being far more dangerous than you would expect, Razia, Nazneen’s anglicized friend who struggles with her son’s drug addiction and introduced Nazneen to sewing, and Karim, Nazneen’s revolutionary activist lover.  Her affair draws her to a different world, a world in which tradition and fate can be questioned.

The novel gives us a clear picture of how a Bangladeshi community in London lives; their joys and sorrows, and also shows us life in Bangladesh through the regular letters Nazneen’s sister Hasina writes.  An unfortunately, although the letters are colourful and written straight from the heart, describing in detail Hasina's struggle to make a living through her various jobs, they are also the book’s main stumbling block.  Hasina writes in broken English with perfect spelling: ‘The girls are pride to you. Tell them auntie send love and never forget.’ At one point these letters go on for thirty pages without a break, and it is taxing and irritating to read them.  One wonders why Ali chose to write them in this way: since the sister would have written in Bangla, rather than English,  is she trying to portray her sister’s lack of education?

But overall, this is an excellent début novel.  I picked it up hoping to learn something about Bangladeshis, their country, and their culture.  Brick Lane by far exceeded my expectations.