Brick Lane in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

May 28, 2007 Jessica Haider rated it really liked it

Shelves: immigrant-experience, bipoc-author, book-to-film, fiction, indian-pakistani, bookclub, islam, london-calling

Brick Lane is the story of a uneducated woman from a small village in Bangladesh who moves to Brick Lane in London with her new husband after an arranged marriage. Like many other immigrant novels, this book touches on themes of culture clash and the struggle to adapt to the new country. The main character in "Brick Lane" initially feels that it is her fate to be the dutiful wife, living in her husband's shadow. She slowly begins to realize that she can be her own person.

The descriptions of the ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 06, 2009 Lydia Presley rated it did not like it

Interesting how some reviews of this book are as I feel, and others praise the story and the telling of it.

Personally, I hated it. I couldn't even read past the first 100 pages and for me, that's saying something. The sisters letters to Nazneen made no sense - they were full of choppy language and made my head hurt to read - but it's clear that Nazneen didn't know English so was her sister so uneducated that she didn't know how to form a sentence in her native language?

Nazneen herself was aloof ...more

Like · see review

Jul 29, 2008 Tori rated it did not like it

Shelves: read-in-my-30s, novel, read-in-2008, women, immigration, europe

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Like · see review

Jul 22, 2009 Kate rated it it was amazing

Just a fantastic novel.

Like · see review

Dec 13, 2007 Maggie rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2008

I really enjoyed this. Much more than I thought I would actually. I like learning more about different cultures, and seeing important national events and concerns through different perspectives. The love story was sort of the sub-plot to me, but over all this was great. I highly recommend.

Like · see review

Apr 16, 2008 Jaime rated it it was ok

If I were in a different frame of mind, I probably would have finished this. I liked the first half, where it was primarily about Nanzeen, but then... I completely lost interest once it became about politics.

Like · see review