Love Marriage

3.5 stars

Author
British writer of Bangladeshi origin. Brick Lane, her debut novel, about two Bangladeshi sisters, one of whom elopes while the other submits to an arranged marriage, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2003. Ms Ali was voted Granta's Best of Young British Novelists on the basis of the unpublished manuscript. Three more novels followed, one about a hotel chef in the north of England, another about a girl in a small Portuguese village, and the third a speculative effort about Princess Diana’s life had she survived the car crash, failed to impress the critics or the reading public. A despairing Ms Ali turned her hand to TV scriptwriting instead. Nineteen years on from Brick Lane, she returns to a female British Bengali protagonist for fifth novel.

Plot
Yasmin is 26, the daughter of Muslim parents who emigrated from Calcutta, and junior doctor at a fictional NHS hospital. Her father was born in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, but his parents died when he was very young and he ended up a street kid in Calcutta. Her m other’s family was wealthy and “took the boy on” for reasons we eventually learn about at the end of the novel. He became a doctor, ultimately a GP in suburban London, dedicated to his profession and his own continuing medical education. Our gal is the oldest of their two children, and engaged to Joe, a WM obstetrics registrar at her hospital. (She is a junior house officer in geriatrics.) Her younger brother was suspected of being nascent Islamic terrorist based on assignment he did while studying for his sociology degree. He was cleared, but left tarnished, now unemployed. Embittered too. Both Yasmin and Joe live with their parents: she in a lower middle class South London suburb, he in a grand home in Primrose Hill. Joe’s Mum Harriet, Harry for short, is a not-quite-as-celebrated-as-she-once-was feminist academic, writer and agitator. The two families meet. It’s not exactly fireworks, but life changes significantly for all concerned. Joe has issues, for which he’s seeing a psychotherapist. Yasmin has issues (her job, the NHS, the upcoming MRCP exam, the affair Joe has, the one she’s now having with her boss, people at work, the whole nine yards.) Her Mum and Dad have issues, so many issues. (Space precludes elaboration.) Y’s old school chum, now a lawyer specialising in immigration and discrimination cases, injects some humour. Speaking of issue rather than issues, Y’s lil’ bro has a pregnant GF (white, decidedly working class, and living in a small flat with her unmarried Mum and grandma). Y’s Mum moves in with Joe’s Mum. Y’s Dad drinks to excess, but comes good with a rare diagnosis in his sick neonate grand daughter (named Coco Tallulah. Good Muslim name, right?). Yada, yada. Stuff happens. There’s a fair bit of racism, both overt and covert, and lots about how bad conditions are for junior docs in the NHS (2016 was when they all went on strike, or threatened to).

Writing
Solid overall. A little too much back and forth in the narrative for my liking. The author could have told the same story in 100-120 fewer pages IMHO, although I was impressed by how much research she did on the medical aspects. (Apparently, she subscribed to the New England Journal for a while. Got right into the Case Presentations!) Brick Lane was literary fiction. When Ms Ali tries to get high falutin’ here, she comes off clunky. Neither is it full blown romance genre fiction. Would likely translate well to the small screen though, and probably reflects Ms Ali’s recent writing experience rather than her style at the start of her career, which is not a bad thing. The average rating for this on Goodreads is >4.0. Brick Lane is 3.4.

Bottom Line
Entertaining enough read, if not particularly memorable.

This book had a depth of meaning which surprised me. The writing complex and clear at the same time. Wonderful.