Brick Lane - by Monica Ali
An insight into the life of a Bengali girl who is sent to England for an arranged marriage. She moves into a high-rise flat in Tower Hamlets (a notoriously run-down area of London), and begins to live a life that is completely different to the one she knew before. Reviews that I've read praise this novel for being an accurate portrayal of such life - I don't know if that's true, but what I do know is that it reinforces the negative stereotypes of Muslims that exist in Britain. The repression and violence towards women, for starters.
It was interesting to read about events such as 9/11 from the viewpoint of a Muslim, and about day-to-day life in Tower Hamlets, but I wouldn't say it's a book I enjoyed, particularly. I felt pretty sorry for the main character throughout it.
Things ended up happily for her, but I wonder how many women don't get the same break that she did and carry on living in such a manner for the rest of their lives?
Were there riots on Brick Lane in 2001/2? I wasn't sure if this was just part of the story, or whether it really happened. If it
was just a story, the author did a pretty amazing job of describing what would happen ten years later - the scenes she described were very reminiscent of those in London a few months ago.