Brick Lane By Monica Ali (London: Doubleday, 2003. 369 pages.)

Abstract

Monica Ali’s debut novel Brick Lane has been met with critical acclaim.
Not only was Ali selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists,
her novel was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Brick Lane centers on
the life of a young Bengali Muslim woman, Nazneen, who moves to
London in order to live with her new husband, Chanu. At the beginning of
the novel, Nazneen is a devout but docile and uninspiring character. By the
end of the novel, she has journeyed “towards self-realisation,” had an affair,
separated from her husband, and decided to bring up her two daughters
alone.
Much of the praise that Brick Lane has elicited focuses on its “authenticity.”
Reputable critics have praised Ali for her “timely insights,” and her
novel has been judged to offer a “terrifically subtle portrait” of a Muslim
marriage and provide “an insight into a religion that people often find confusing.”
Articles that commend Ali for her “honest” and “precisely
observed” descriptions of Muslims attest to her perceived status as a “native
informant.” Although literary critics frequently warn that texts should not be
read as transparent mediums through which you can drag “the real,” this is
frequently forgotten when the author is someone from an ethnic or religious
minority. Those critical of the current trend to read Brick Lane as a “window”
through which to view the Muslim “Other” have been dismissed with
alarming efficiency. Despite recent concurrent developments in literary theory,
challenges to this assumed “transparency” have been dismissed as the
opinions of “mullahs,” “Islamic fundamentalists,” or people who have
“probably never read the book.”
Unfortunately, cliché-ridden characterization and clumsy stylistic
weaknesses have been overlooked in the rush to applaud Ali for her “fascinating”
depiction of what has been referred to as a hitherto “invisible”
Muslim community. So why should we be concerned that her Muslim characters
have been judged to be authentic? One could look at the dark hole
that is Bangladesh, in which, according to the novel, Muslim men do little
else but beat, pimp, or rape women. Or, one could focus on the central
female character’s journey toward “self-realisation.” This journey panders
to a 1960s style of western feminism. The fatalistic and passive Nazneen,
having spent years praying in a “drugged”-like fashion and tending to her ...