Birck Lane by Monica Ali

Ali, Monica. Brick Lane, New York : Scribner, 2003.

This is a story about everyday life, where courage is required to live it.  It is about a young Bangladeshi woman living in London, struggling to make sense of home, family, Islam and even adultery.  At 18, after an arranged marriage to a middle-aged man ugly as sin, Nazneen is whisked away to London.  She is in an environment devoid of the language to communicate.  Chanu, her husband warns her not leave the apartment, as people will talk.

The excitement in this book is the unravelling of Nazneen’s new identity.  Motherhood is the first catalyst of change.  She loses her first child at infancy, but her daughters Shahana and Bibi thrive.  There is a shift in power when Shahana rebels against her father, an ineffectual martinet.  Nazneen plays the role of the peacemaker and holds the family together.  Nazneen soon becomes the breadwinner, as Chanu falls into the clutches of the money lender Mrs Islam.  Becoming the chief wager, doing piece work at home, Nazneen meets middleman and activist Kazim and they become lovers.  Chanu decides to return to Bangladesh and Nazneen asserts herself.  She deals forcefully with Mrs Islam, Kazim and Chanu and emerges as a strong, modern woman.

Monica Ali as the author sees everything.  She was born in Bangladesh and raised in the UK and records everything she sees.  An interesting read for those wanting to experience the loneliness that accompanies immigrants, when they head to new pastures.  They have no language skills and have either sink or swim.


This book has alos been made into a mive and the link to You tube is :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApKTtTyp_k8

Monica Ali was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and grew up in London.  She was recognised by Granta as Best of Young British Novelists of the decade and has been nominated for most of the major literary prizes in Britain.  Brick Lane was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the George Orwell Prize for political wiritng and the prestigious Commonwealth Writers'Prize.  Internationally too, she has been recognised in the United States by the national Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times "First Fiction" Prize where the book was shortlisted.

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Gifted by Nikita Lalwani

Lalwani, Nikita. Gifted, New York : Random House,c2007.

This story deals with an immigrant child, who is considered ‘gifted’ child.  Rumika Vasi struggles to fulfil her family’s demand on her.  Her father is determined that his daughter be accepted into Oxford University at the tender age of 14 – as the youngest undergraduate. 

Shreene, Rumika’s mother resentfully accepts the household’s dominance of Rumika’s studies, while contemplates how she is to raise her daughter as a proper young Indian woman.  Rumi grapples with maths and also with the new equation called love.

Lalwani portrays a myriad of cultural contradictions and Rumi’s warm relationship with India.  Although Rumi was born in the UK she has never felt at home in the UK.  The books deals with subverted immigrant identity clichés – neither of Rumika’s parents feel accepted in the Welsh community, so they channel their energies into making Rumika a child prodigy and thereby want to be recognised.

Interesting read to observe that Rumi, who has a deprived childhood a math nerd rebels against this regime and seeks a life of her own.

Nikita Lalwani, was born in Rajasthan and raised in Cardiff.  Her book “Gifted” was long listed for the Man Booker Prize.  Currently this book is being translated into 16 languages and the book has been adapted by BBC Radio 4 as a drama.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Lahiri, Jhumpa.  The Namesake, Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2003.

This is a novel about assimilation and generational differences written by the much acclaimed writer of “Interpreter of Maladies” Jhumpa Lahiri, and won the Pulitzer prize in 2000.

After an arranged marriage, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli emigrate to Massachusetts, and soon after Gogal is born.  The choice of this name for their son has a bizarre history to it – Ashoke was reading Nikola Gogl’s ‘The Overcoat’ which saved him when the train he was on was derailed and most passengers died.  The couple adopt American ways, yet all their friends are Bengalis.  For Gogol and his sister, Boston is home and trips to Calcutta are voyages to a foreign land!  Gogol finds his strange name irritating and eventually changes it to Nikhil.  The story is about a teenager, struggling to come to terms with his heritage and the challenges of growing up and the tugging of family ties.

The pace is relaxed and the storyline character driven.   This book has also been made into a movie.  The following is a link to You tube of the movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmH_ZKX23iA&feature=related

Jhumpha Lahiri was born in London and raised in Rhode Island.  Her debut collection of stories Interpreter of Maladies was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.  Her novel  The namesake was selected as one of the best books of the year by USA Today & Entertainment Weekly.

The unknown errors of our lives by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The unknown errors of our lives. New York: Doubleday,c2001.

A collection of short stories focussing on women,  striving to create a balance between the present and the past and forging a new identity for themselves.  Characters are searching or escaping – from what?  The “Blooming Season for Cacti” depicts a young woman fleeing from the riots of Bombay embarking on a voyage to California.  Mira, finds employment at an Indian restaurant and a home with the restaurateur’s mistress.  However, things are no different in Sacramento.

Another short story “Mrs Dutta Writes a Letter” portrays a widow living with her son’s family in suburban Sunnyvale.  She struggles to convey a glowing account of her new life to a friend in India – however she conveys her struggles with complicated machines and disrespectful grandchildren – much to the embarrassment of her daughter-in-law.

Perhaps the most beautiful story in this collection is “The Names of Stars in Bengali,” where a San Francisco wife and mother, visits her native village to see her mother.  Both mother and daughter understand and realise the emotional dislocation caused by “immigration”- like stepping into a time machine which makes all of them maladjusted.

An excellent read for students to appreciate the emotional scars that are left on people who take this perilous journey.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was born in Kolkata, India.  she resides in the USA and is the co-founder and former president of Maitri, a helpline founded in 1991 for South Asian women dealing with domestic abuse.

Writing on my forehead by Nafisa Haji

Haji, Nafisa. Writing on my forehead. New York : William Morrow & Co, 2009.

This book explores the collision of culture and religion; tradition versus modernity portrayed through the lives of individuals.  A tale of forbidden love woven through a dysfunctional family over multiple generations.

Saira Qader, is a young American woman whose parents are immigrants from a traditional Indo-Pakistani ethnicity and now living in Los Angeles. Unlike her sister, Ameena, who happily agrees to an arranged marriage with a handsome doctor, Saira—like her great aunt before her—has different aspirations.   She is inspired by her cousin Mohsin's photography and stories of their half-uncle's exploits; she goes to college and studies journalism.  Her career takes off and after five years, the twin towers tragedy strikes and forces Saira to take stock – to examine her place in the family.

Author Haji, very deftly positions her heroine as a witness to her family’s history.  The grandmother who soldiered on and kept the family together,  inspite of the grandfather’s philandering ways to the gay cousin, who comes out of the closet and thus alienates himself from his family.

Nafisa Haji was born and mostly raised in Los Angeles.  Her family migrated from Bombay to Karachi in 1947 during Partition, when the Indian subcontinent was divided into two countires.  She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley majoring in American History and later obtained her doctorate in education from the University of California, Los Angeles.  she serves on the borad of Freedom Forward, an organisation working to ensure the alignment of American ideals of freedon with the reality with American foreign policy.

A good Indian wife by Anne Cherian

Cherian, Anne. A good Indian wife, New York : W.W. Norton, c2008.

Anne Cherian writes about an arranged marriage between Anaesthesiologist Neel Sarath and Leila, a local English teacher.  Neel who is a fully assimilated Indian-American doctor,  returns to India, to see his ailing grandfather.  

Whilst visiting, to appease his family, Neel agrees to marry Leila, thinking it would be only a marriage of convenience.  On his return to America, he continues with his girlfriend Caroline, and Leila plays along unsuspecting even when their marriage is not consummated. 

However, soon Leila finds her own support group and thinks about studying creative writing at Berkeley. When grand father dies, things come to a head, as Caroline, thinks Neel would divorce Leila and marry her.  However, things are not as simple as they may appear.

Anne Cherian was born and raised in Jamshedpur, India.  She graduated from Bombay and bangalore Universities and obtained a graduate degree in journalism and comparative literature  from the University of California, Berkeley.

If today be sweet by Thrity. N. Umrigar

Umrigar, Thrity.N. If today be sweet. New York : William Marrow/Harper Collins, 2007.

This book deals with extended family joining the westernised family and the tensions that accompany such integration.  Tehmina is a middle-aged widow visitng her son Sorab and his American wife in Ohio.  She is heartbroken and is not in a position to make such an important decision which will alter her life for ever.  She has to decide whether she spends the rest of her life in the sterile Midwest or prefer the earthy, chaotic Bombay.  Meanwhile, the lack of privacy for her son and his wife, puts added pressure on their marriage.

This could have been another story about widowhood, but Umrigar, is able to convey emotions about love, death, identity crisis and bridging of cultures.  It will appeal to readers as it is a sublime tale of cross-cultural lives driven by tradition and transformed by love.

Thrity Umrigar is an Indian American writer, who was born in Mumbai and immigrated to US.  She is a journalist and writer by profession.  Other books to her credit are:  Bombay Time, The space between us and The weight of heaven.