Recommend the following book by Monica Ali, Synopsis is followed by an up-close & personal interview with Ms. Ali, which was taken after her book was short-listed for Booker Prize Award, enjoy!

Synopsis:

Monica Ali’s gorgeous first novel is the deeply moving story of one woman, Nazneen, born in a Bangladeshi village and transported to London at age eighteen to enter into an arranged marriage. Already hailed by the London Observer as “one of the most significant British novelists of her generation,” Ali has written a stunningly accomplished debut about one outsider’s quest to find her voice. What could not be changed must be borne. And since nothing could be changed, everything had to be borne. This principle ruled her life. It was mantra, fettle, and challenge. Nazneen’s inauspicious entry into the world, an apparent stillbirth on the hard mud floor of a village hut, imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents when she is married off to Chanu, a man old enough to be her father. Nazneen moves to London and, for years, keeps house, cares for her husband, and bears children, just as a girl from the village is supposed to do. But gradually she is transformed by her experience, and begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. Motherhood is a catalyst — Nazneen’s daughters chafe against their father’s traditions and pride — and to her own amazement, Nazneen falls in love with a young man in the community. She discovers both the complexity that comes with free choice and the depth of her attachment to her husband, her daughters, and her new world.While Nazneen journeys along her path of self-realization, her sister, Hasina, rushes headlong at her life, first making a “love marriage,” then fleeing her violent husband. Woven through the novel, Hasina’s letters from Dhaka recount a world of overwhelming adversity. Shaped, yet not bound, by their landscapes and memories, both sisters struggle to dream — and live — beyond the rules prescribed for them. Vivid, profoundly humane, and beautifully rendered, Brick Lane captures a world at once unimaginable and achingly familiar. And it establishes Monica Ali as a thrilling new voice in fiction. As Kirkus Reviews said, “She is one of those dangerous writers who see everything.”

Monica Ali: MA

Shahnaz Yousuf: SY

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SY: What was the inspiration for your writing? I read your academic background was in politics, philosophy and economics ?

MA: Which writers you mean ?

SY: Writers or personal. You said your mother took you to the library when you were very young...

MA: Yes, well I suppose I have always been a big reader all my life, right from childhood. I was one of those kids who always had her head in a book, walking into the bus stop.

I suppose that’s where my love of literature started from an early age. My father introduced me to writers like Narayan and Naipaul. And also my mother used to take me to the library every Saturday. I didn’t grow up in a house with lots of books, because we couldn’t afford lots of books, but we went to the library and that was a big treat. She introduced me to a book by Iris Murdoch, called The Bell. I think I was about 10 or 11. That was a bit of a turning point for me I suppose in terms of how exciting literature could be. I didn’t start to write myself seriously until much later. It wasn’t until after I had my first child, that I started to write for myself. I started with short stories.

SY: With the short stories, do you have anything published or was it just for yourself ?

MA: More for myself. I’d go onto the internet late at night. I’d joined these on-line writing groups - critique groups. Other people would submit their short stories, you would send in yours. You would swap criticisms. That was very good just to get me into the habit and discipline of writing on a regular basis. I couldn’t get out of the house very easily with a baby. I could do it anonymously, which was good. I wouldn’t have to read out my work in front of strangers, which I would have found embarrassing. I don’t think it’s how I learnt to write, but I learnt quite a lot about how not to write. Because if something didn’t work, you’d have to really think why. That was useful. That got me started.

SY: How did you do the research for your book, considering you were very young when you left Bangladesh. Because when I’m reading your book, you are talking about places like Dhanmondi, Motijheel… it feels like you’ve been there many times.

MA: Thank you ! Well, I suppose I researched different parts of the book in different ways. A lot of times I drew on personal experience, things like conflicts between first and second generation immigrants, observations of family and friends, my experience growing up etc. For parts of the book, I went into the area around Brick Lane, Bethnal Green, talked to youth workers, drugs workers, social workers, women’s centers, restaurant workers, that opened my eyes to a lot of what was going in that community. I knew there was a drugs problem, for instance, but I didn’t realize the extent of the heroin problem till I actually went and talked to people. I hung out on a Saturday night on the ‘estates’ [these are low income housing areas provided by the government …] to see where the kids got there drugs from, see what was going on. And then, for the letters that Najnin wrote, partly I drew a lot of inspiration on a book by Naila Kabir, she’s an academic, she’s attached to Sussex University in England. She has spent a lot of time in Dhaka. She wrote a book about Bangladesh garment workers, in the East End of London, and in Dhaka - Really disparate case studies, but a common thread in the women, of an impulse toward self empowerment. I found that inspiring. I researched on the internet, I talked to people, I read books, and I talked to my father. I have all these inherited memories. I’ve traveled in the subcontinent before. I haven’t been back to Dhaka yet, but I’ve been to West Bengal on the other side. So, I have a stock to draw on…

SY: How long did it take you to do the research before you started writing? Or was it a simultaneous process?

MA: Simultaneous really, because there was such a lot I was drawing on from the inside. I’ve been in Britain thirty odd years. I did research when I needed to. But after a while you need to step back from the research if you’re not a journalist. You don’t want to be constrained - first when I was going to Bethnal Green, I had to step away and allow myself some freedom to imagine myself in this context.

SY: Through your characters in BRICK LANE - how much does it reflect in your growing up?

MA: I think there’s more than a bit of me in Shahana !

SY: You grew up in England. There are so many mainstream topics, yet you picked Bangladesh? Why the interest?

MA: Because of my background, and where I’ve come from. I think particularly because I’d had my family then. I’d had my son first, started to write the short stories - then my daughter. Once you have children you start to think where you’ve come from. And also a desire for them not to lose one part of their heritage. It would be an enriching thing for them. There was an impulse to preserve some of my father’s stories for instance. And to think about the family dynamics. how that works and how reflects on your own childhood. The story is set in a immigrant community. They raise all the themes about identity, loss and longing, struggle to succeed in a new environment. These are things that go to the heart of the human condition. They are of fundamental importance.

SY: Which part of Bangladesh are you from ? Are you from Sylhet, Mymensingh?

MA: I was born in Dhaka.

SY: In your book you had a lot of references to Sylhetis. I guess in the UK a majority of Bangladeshi are Sylheti ?

MA: Yes , what about here ?

SY: It’s very diverse here. Have you been to Jackson Heights yet?

MA: No I haven’t. Is that somewhere I should go?

SY: Yes, It’s a place where South Asian community - Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi visitss and also resides. When I read BRICK LANE, I kept thinking of Jackson Heights - a mini version of Brick Lack You can see women in the salwar kameez, sari, people speaking in native languages, you don’t need to speak in English.

MA: I need to go !

SY: Going back to BRICK LANE. Your personal interest about Bangladeshi culture and history ? Was there any channel through which this was handed down to you ?

MA: I was always interested in Bangladeshi history. So, when I was in university, for instance, I took a course in South Asian politics and history. That was an opportunity. I had another opportunity taking a course in Development economics. I’ve always had that interest. My father also told me about the history and stories about Bengal. He was certainly influential in sparking that interest

SY: With your recent visa experience, would you plan to go to Bangladesh still?

MA: I’d love to go to Bangladesh. It was a big blow when I couldn’t get the visa at that time. There had been a big job to arrange the trip, get the child care, and get the tickets. There was a lot invested emotionally, I hadn’t been there since I was three. I hope now that would be ok, they would be ok about the visa. I would really like to go, but now it’s about fitting it in, I knew this would happen, I’ve got a busy schedule, traveling, promoting the book, my son’s just started school, it’s a difficult and a practical problem to fit it in, fitting in with the seasons as well. I hope to go.

SY: How do you picture yourself when you go to Bangladesh? do you have any plans, or will you go there and just take it from there?

MA: I’d like to travel a bit as well. Not just Dhaka. Maybe to the Sunderbans, and to the Hill Tracts. Everyone says how beautiful it is there. I’d like to travel around a bit as well.

SY: Congratulations being on the list of the Booker Prize. It would be good to hear your name on 14^th October! What were your feelings when you heard that you are long listed for the Booker Prize ?

MA: My agent rang me up, I was in San Francisco. She caught me in my jet lagged sleep and woke me up quite early in the morning. My first reaction was , oh God! but then that’s really quite fantastic!!. For me, it’s my first novel that feels like winning to me. That’ll do me, that makes me happy. I don’t need more than that. I’m delighted !

SY: You working on your next novel, is it about Bangladesh or is it too early to talk about it?

MA: No, it’s too early for me to talk about it. I’m excited about it. I’m doing the research. It’s another contemporary novel.

SY: On the internet, I saw some discussion that they may offer you a Hollywood movie. Have you heard about that?

MA: There’s talk, people always talk about every book. I have no expectations about a film. I think it would be very hard to make BRICK LANE into a good film. Not impossible if the right people came a long with a vision where I thought it was a possibility, so few British films get made that I have no expectations.

SY: I was reading some of the negative reactions of the Bangladeshi community in local newspapers. Have you read those ?

MA: No – I’ve had some great reactions from the Bangladeshi community… I have to say, I’ve done events in London and elsewhere in England where there have always been people from the Bangladeshi community and they wanted to share with me how they related personally to the book, how this character reminded me of my mother, or so and so, the book doing the rounds with their friends, that’s gratifying, it’s really nice. Men and women of different ages someone said to me when they finished the final chapter, sitting on a bench in a park, they had a little weep finally someone is writing about us. She felt that was an important thing. I’ve had Bengali grandmothers coming up and hugging me, ‘we are so proud of you’. I’ve had the same reaction when I’ve traveled through the USA. I’m sure there will be other people who don’t seek me out, ‘ they’ll say, that’s not my experience ‘ that’s fine, because there isn’t just one experience. And as more voices come out we’ll hear different stories. Anyone who reads the book will see it’s a portrait of a community done with a great deal of affection, humor as well, but also with a huge amount of empathy and sympathy. My own background is also Bengali ! … I think that (negative feelings) will go away when people read the book ? to the extent that it exists. I get so much positive feedback don’t forget, when I’m going around, so when someone says that, I think, when they read the book it will be a non-issue.

SY: Do you feel it will be easier for the next generation? Your son and daughter ? will it be easier for them to embrace both their cultures, Bangladeshi and British? You’ve already been through this experience of mixed expectations ?

MA: Their experience will be different from mine, I straddled two cultures in a way that they won’t. For them, I’m just anxious that they don’t lose one side of their heritage, that’s my issue. But I wouldn’t want to force things on them. It’s a shame, because I don’t speak Bangla any more. When I was young, both my brother and me stopped answering my father in Bangla. That was my first and only language in Dhaka, I wouldn’t speak English to my mum, so she was having trouble keeping up. Then we came over to England, and by the age of 6, I had stopped answering my father in Bangla ? gradually forgetting the language. Now my son says, how do I say this or that in Bangla? I feel terrible, I can’t tell him. I guess I’ll just leave him with my father for a couple of weeks and I’ll just have to learn with him.

SY: Do you have any words for aspiring writers? Those looking to publishe their first books, especially the women writers.

MA: If you’re going to be a writer, it doesn’t matter what anyone says to you about the difficulties or whatever. If you’re going to do it, do it regardless. Don’t censor yourself and keep going. I would have thought it was very unlikely for me to meet with this kind of success.

SY: Do you want to say anything about the ADHUNIKA group that we are trying to create for Bangladeshi women on the internet. We aim to share our stories, thoughts, bring out issues - the things we don’t want to talk about ?

MA: I think it sounds like a wonderful idea, you draw strength from each other, the opportunity to exchange stories and information. It’s very important. A website’s a good way of doing that. People might feel more comfortable with that format than they would in face-to-face meetings.

SY: I want to thank you for your time, and wish you good luck.

MA: Thank you very much!

New York, September 2003

Courtesy: Special thanks to Udayan Chattopadhyay for transcribing the interview, and also to Erin L. Cox, Assistant Director of Publicity of Scribner, Simon & Schuster, for arranging the interview with Monica Ali, and providing photographs to use at Adhunika.

Author Photographs: Robin Mathews, Brick Lane, Scribner
Jacket Photographs: Darryl Joe Georgiou/Photonica

Related: The movie opens in NY & LA on June 20, & selected theater in the following weeks in USA.