Until recently, all of Monica Ali’s novels seemed to be cut from different cloth. In Brick Lane, her breakout debut, she wrote about the aspirations of Bangladeshi immigrants in London’s East End. This was followed by arrivals at and departures from a Portuguese backwater in Alentejo Blue. Then, there were upheavals in the life of a hotel chef in In the Kitchen and after that, the somewhat strange Untold Story which imagined Princess Diana’s life if she had staged the 1997 car crash.
Now, a little more than ten years later, there is Love Marriage, which will inevitably be compared to Brick Lane. There certainly are points of intersection, but Love Marriage is not an attempt to return to that earlier novel’s milieu. It is an overloaded work that ranges across London strata and situations in an assured, enjoyable manner.
The love marriage of the title is the one between Yasmin Ghorami and Joe Sangster. Yasmin, the daughter of immigrants from Kolkata, is training to be a doctor, as is Joe, the son of an author known for vigorously promoting her brand of feminism. While Yasmin and Joe’s upcoming wedding is the book’s locus, it also encompasses developments in the lives of several other characters from their families.
As a result, one way to read Love Marriage is as a series of overlapping contrasts. In these pages, well-observed distinctions are drawn between those living in north and south London, between the well-off and the weighed down, between the traditional and the unconventional, and – this being England – between social classes.
Underscoring this are details of differing attitudes to sex, clothing, language, gender roles and food. At one point, we read: “In the Ghorami household salad meant kachumbar, a mix of onion, cucumber, tomato, green chillies and coriander leaves. In the Sangster house the word could mean almost anything.” At another time, we’re told that Yasmin’s father didn’t understand, any more than her mother, “that affection could be expressed in insults”. This was “a level of Englishness to which he could never aspire”.
Yasmin and Joe share a relaxed and comfortable relationship but soon, a worm emerges from the apple. In sections dealing with Joe’s sessions with a therapist, it turns out that he suffers from an addiction to sex, being tormented by guilt as well as urges that he cannot control. When Yasmin learns of her fiancé’s recent dalliance, she embarks upon an unplanned affair herself. This is not exactly a retaliation, but more a means of exploring her own needs and desires.
Things fall apart in other ways. Yasmin’s brother leaves home after an argument with their father; her mother decides to stay with Joe’s mother for a while; and her own work in a hospital’s geriatric ward is in danger of being upended by a nosy colleague and patriarchal boss. The author’s approach to all this is even-handed. For the most part, the novel shows us Yasmin’s reactions, torn between reconciliation and independence.
At times, it does seem like Ali is trying to take on too much, and unnecessarily so. There are commentaries on modern life, such as when Yasmin’s friend tells her that she could become an influencer if she had more social media followers. “I could use it to talk about some important stuff as well,” she continues unironically. Then again, writers known to Joe’s family wander in and out, making statements such as: “we live in an age which demands reality, authenticity, immediacy, transparency. Making up characters called Fred and Flora won’t do.” Later, they clash over publishers giving “a leg-up to minorities”. These asides sit uneasily with the rest of the material.
On the other hand, the situations involving Yasmin’s patients show how background research can be woven into compelling scenes. Here, there is a deft interplay between characters, symptoms and consequences.
The complications in the lives of the couple continue, leading to a finale that combines dramatic revelations with a medical crisis. “Life is not simple,” Yasmin’s mother is fond of repeating, yet the ending of the novel does point to a simpler state of affairs.
Love Marriage is a carefully patterned work, and steady pulses of information keep one turning the pages. With dilemmas and denouements leading to rising and falling character arcs, it offers many of the satisfactions of a traditionally-crafted novel.
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