Love Marriage

Yasmin Ghorami, a resident physician, is planning to marry Joe, a fellow resident. Her parents are Muslim immigrants from India, and Yasmin has always been enthralled with their "love marriage" story: how her upper class mother met and fell in love with her lower class, orphaned father, a man who made his own way in the world, eventually becoming a doctor. But family life in their home isn't perfect. Yasmin's brother, Arif, is considered by their father to be a wastrel with no ambition and faces constant criticism. Things only gets worse when his girlfriend becomes pregnant. Yasmin is the golden child, the one who follows her father's dreams.

Joe seems to have the perfect relationship with his mother, Harriet, a feminist, activist, and show more writer; his father abandoned them when Joe was just a few months old. When Yasmin's parents come to their home for dinner, Harriet is captivated Anisah, her mother--and vice versa. And Anisah seems to be even more captivated by Flame, Harriet's performance artist friend. A few days after the dinner, Anisah moves into Harriet's house, throwing the Ghorami family into chaos.

The unravelling of two families is told from several points of view: Yasmin's, Joe's, and Sandor's (he is Joe's therapist). Lots of secrets are uncovered, and some of the characters have a more difficult time dealing with the truth than others. Yasmin, in particular, has to face some uncomfortable truths about herself, her family, and her relationships.

There's a lot more going on here than I want to give away. I found this novel to be both thoughtful and entertaining. Even the minor characters, such as Yasmin's colleagues, her friend Rania, and her elderly patients, are also interesting and well developed. Ali is always good at analyzing family, class, and social issues, and she does not disappoint here. show less

This novel begins with a dinner to introduce Yasmin's family to the mother of Joe, her fiancé, then expands to look at the two families and Yasmin and Joe's relationship. Yasmin grew up with the story of her parents's love marriage, with her mother's family being wealthy and her father a menial worker who didn't graduate high school until his mid-twenties. He's now a respected doctor living in a quiet part of London, his wife occupies herself with cooking and bargain-hunting. But the details of their love match were never made clear and as Yasmin worries about her own love match, as her family begins to shatter, she wants the whole story. And Joe is seeing a therapist, who is pushing him in a direction he doesn't want to go; looking at show more his relationship with his (in)famous well-to-do mother. As family issues consume their thoughts and time, as their careers as doctors put another pressure on their emotions and their time, will Joe and Yasmin manage to get married?

Monica Ali is fantastic at pulling at the threads of family and seeing what emerges. Each character, from Yasmin's tense, regimented father to her unemployed and seemingly directionless younger brother, are given time and space to be full characters. Having each chapter follow a different character only works when each character is interesting and fully developed and their story ties in with the larger novel, things Ali pulls off effortlessly. This is an excellent novel and now I need to go back and read the books by this author that I've missed. show less

Yasmin seems to have it all - a successful career as a doctor, a handsome doctor fiancee and loving close-knit family - but something is not quite right. Her future mother-in-law is a feminist firebrand, confident in her sexuality and everything Yasmin's mother is not yet when they meet they form a fast friendship. Her fiancee Joe has secrets which he only divulges to his therapist and Yasmin worries about whether she is capable in bed. As Yasmin discovers sex, her mother discovers independence and her world collapses.
Monica Ali is a favourite writer of mine as she manages to straddle a number of genres very successfully. Put this book in a pink cover and it could pass for superior chick-lit but there is too strong a streak of rebellion show more in the characters to totally convince in that genre. It's a populist and entertaining read and therefore not high literature yet it includes psychology and racial issues as well. Needless to say I loved it! show less

Award-winning Bengali British author Monica Ali was born in Bangladesh and emigrated to Bolton with her family. Sadly, she has been previously criticized both for her portrayal of Bengali people in England, and then for writing about Princess Diana, presumably because this topic was too white, leading to a long period of absence from writing and loss of confidence. It makes me so cross that in this outrage-addicted world authors cannot write about whatever they choose, after all it is fiction. Happily Ali has picked up her pen again and written this complex multilayered story about two families in London. Yasmin Ghorami is a junior doctor negotiating the rigors of training in the NHS, the inadequacies of the aged care system, and the show more patriarchal attitudes of her white middle-aged male superiors. Her fiancé Jo Sangster has grown up with his single mother Harriet, a feminist and commentator on sexual politics who likes to shock and draw attention to herself. The story delves into Yasmin’s relationship with her Bengali parents, the embarrassment of a young person trying to fit in, and cringing at their parents’ otherness. Initially Yasmin sees her mother as a narrow-minded, traditional woman who has lived a sheltered life. Eventually she learns to see her mother for the brave and strong woman she is. Yasmin has grown up on the tale of her parents’ love match: her mother, Anisah, the privileged daughter of a wealthy family, and her father, Shaokat the son of a poor family who has defied all odds to become a respectable doctor. With time she learns that all is not as it seems.

The book delves into many areas including sexual addiction, toxic parental relationships, racism, sexism, islamophobia and the deficits in the aged care sector. I enjoyed her subtle, insightful approach to racism and family issues. My only complaint was maybe her research into medicine and psychology did not need to be quite so fully showcased. A valuable and enjoyable book. The audio narration by Ayesha Dharker was also excellent. show less

I think my disappointment comes from high expectations. The novel is compulsively readable but it lacks depth and believability. The actions of virtually all the characters are not realistic. That said, it was entertaining and well written.

This really is a fun, enjoyable and thought provoking novel about love, death, old age, sex, sexuality, birth, social class, the immigrant experience, upper middle class life, the smells and sounds of London hospitals, race and gender. There is sharp observation and smart dialogue throughout, and the threads of the messy collision of two families are cleverly interwoven and finish in a complete, but sometimes abstract pattern. Highly readable and thought provoking.

One is not prepared for the high level of raw emotions as one starts reading. But the story line is swelling up with more and more of them as you turn the pages. Things pile on and on. Incredible, unfathomable revelations. And then there is also immigrants' theme, racism theme, Moslem question, hospital politics and reality - this is the background that adds a lot to the family saga. But in the end, the denouement is a breath of fresh air and it then becomes very worthwhile having gone through so much heartache. I also have to point out the skillful lyrical touches sprinkled throughout the narrative and the dialogue. After "Brick Lane", "In the Kitchen", and "Alentejo Blue", I had a feeling that this would be another worthy novel by show more Monica Ali, and I was not mistaken. show less