Rating: 
Summary: Not quite there...
Review: I really looked forward to reading this book, having read so much about it. It is also a subject close to my heart, because I am a Bengali woman who doesn't live in her homeland. It began promisingly enough,(but what on earth was that about the rice stalks as tall as skyscrapers?)but doesn't keep it up. Most reviewers have complained about Hasina's letters to her sister. My understanding of them at the start, having tried to translate them back into Bengali, was that they were a literal, word for word translation from Bengali. They don't continue that way, but I think this is what the author intended.
The characters could have been fleshed out so much better. They felt cold and one-dimensional. I felt more of a connection with Zadie Smith's Samad and Alsana than with Nazneen. Chanu comes across a pompous, sorry figure...I know many men who are like Chanu, but they are usually less benign than he; men who know everything are usually more aggressive- it doesn't fit. Nazneen is not really shown growing as a person; all at once, she seems to acquire the courage to speak her mind. The ending-this is England, you can do anything- is reminiscent of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Bharati Mukherjee,; that the West equals freedom. and it is impossible to be free in the Third World. Of course, she reminds us that women in Bangladesh get acid thrown on their faces; this is horrifying and has been going on for several years, though many of her readers will have heard of it for the first time.So, you are meant to think, isn't Nazneen lucky, that she escaped that? Ali also misses the fact that immigrant communities are usually steeped in the values of their homeland at the time they left, so that Bangladeshis in London might be more conservative than those in Dhaka or Mymensingh.
For Westerners, maybe this book is a bit of exotica, but I don't see what the fuss is about. It's not a bad book, but I doubt I'll remember it in 5 years time.
Rating:
Summary: showed promise, but ultimately overrated
Review: I was excited to read this book when it was selected by my book club, but I found it disappointing. Though Monica Ali is a talented writer who uses words beautifully to capture the mood, look, smell, and emotion of a scene, the book introduced too many concepts and themes that either went nowhere or that were wrapped up much too easily and conveniently. Nazneen is an interesting character whose traditional upbringing and deep faith conflict with some of her life choices (such as her extra-marital affair with a much younger man), but I never felt that the author delved into how the character resolved or worked through those conflicts in any significant way. I found myself bored by the last 100 pages, skimming through the conclusion only to find out what happened, but not really caring one way or the other.
Rating: 
Summary: A big yawn
Review: Bought it after reading the hype and proceeded to be extremely disappointed. Just goes to show you that slick marketing by publishers can suck you in.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Read
Review: Monica Ali's debut novel is a good, but not great read. Normally I devour novels such as these that have roots in Eastern culture, but this story although it opened well seemed to drag along in the middle section of the book. To me it seemed as if the story was drawn out in order to fill pages. The essence of the story, for me at least, was lost in the middle part of the novel. Fortunately the thread of the novel was found again in a triumphant conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: Way overrated!
Review: I bought „Brick Lane" because of all the publicity surrounding the author Monica Ali and her debut novel: "A magnificent coup" according to the „Observer", with a "comic touch" according to the "Guardian". Neither did I find "Brick Lane" magnificient, nor a coup. Hints of a comic touch may have been there, but I must have missed missed them.Don't get me wrong, at times I did enjoy reading "Brick Lane", but it was not a book that I did not want to put down until I had finished reading the last page. It started out good, but weakened by the page. "Brick Lane" is basically the story about Nazneen's and Chanu's marriage, their life in Tower Hamlets in London and that of a woman who was left to her fate until she took fate in her own hands. Throughout Nazneen's stay at Tower Hamlets she receives letters from her sister Hazima, who ran away from home for a love marriage (whereas Nazneen submitted to her father in marrying Chanu). Hasina's letters are not only updates of life in Bangladesh but also mirror Nazneen's life in London. Some of the characters are indeed very well developed, but mostly I found the read tedious and somewhat lengthy. 200 pages less would have sufficed and a tad more spark would have been good! Result: Don't set your hopes to high on this one or you might be as disappointed as I am!
Rating: 
Summary: A Fantastic Novel
Review: I can't remember the last novel I read that created such a wonderful character as Nazneen. I thought of Faulkner when reading the italicized passages about her sister. The little philosophic twists of insight throughout the novel completed for me what was the ultimate reading experience.
Rating:
Summary: What A Marvelous book!
Review: Readers of this book will not be disappointed with their time invested in this wonderful and poignant story of an arranged Bengali marriage and her life in the projects of London. The story is not writ large but a personal story told through the passage of years as Nazneen,the Bengali bride, learns the ways of her new husband, who is under employed and seemingly adrift in a society he does not enjoy. His fantasy life about his station in life causes friction between him and his wife. The story is charming and poignant. The author has done a brilliant job bringing this family to life.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, in a way
Review: I can understand all the hype about the book, but it just didnt have anything to lead up too. After about page 100, it's just repeats of characters actions and stuff, it gets kinda lame. And the muslim group part makes the book sooooo slow, you gotta skim it. But then you can't help but feel pity, the way the author throws emotions about how Nazneen feels is almost real. if the book was only had the first 100 pages it would've been cool, but at then end you're just like, dude, this book blows.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not great
Review: Not as much fun as White Teeth and not as deep as Midnight's Children. I did enjoy reading Monica Ali's much hyped new novel, but really felt it a quite light, entertaining novel that was let down by lapses into cliche. I think there is a curious situation with books that refer to a specific community and are written by someone who comes from that community - the voice is taken to be very authentic and that allows them to draw upon a pool of 2-dimensional characters that an outsider would not necessarily get away with. I thought the novel was well paced and well written, but I did feel frustrated by the gallery of characters - the rebellious friend, the hypocritical maintainer of old-style values (who is a Usurer), the not-good, not-bad sad husband, the down-trodden doctor, the sexy revolutionary. I felt I had met them all before in a myriad of other novels. I do however think that Nazneen is an immensely likeable heroine and she did live for me. More than that Ali should be commended for dealing with the impact of 9/11 on the Muslim community so directly. I'm sure Ali will develop and grow as a writer and there a signs of something very good here - but she's not there yet.
Rating:
Summary: underwhelming
Review: I loved the idea of this book and was very open to it being as good as the hype, but it's not. To start with, the characters are too black and white, and not well drawn. Some characters don't even have names, they're a category: "The Questioner" and so forth. The characters that do have names are given characteristics much more that features. Chanu, the husband, is a pompous gasbag in the way that only the men of patriarchal cultures can be. He is a castles-in-the-air-type of person, and we read over and over about the selfish things he does, how he lords over and oppresses his wife and two daughers, how fat and revolting he is physically. His wife, Nazneen, married off by her father is virtuous, thoughtful, pious and not only runs the household, but ends up supporting her family with sewing piece-work. This book is LOOOOOOOONGGG, at least a hundred pages too long, and not in the good way. It's long in the way that has you skimming over pages, especially the ones about the Muslim group forming, losing your place and not caring, and basically just trying to get through it. After all that work, the denoument doesn't satisfy -- one can't believe that characters that have been shown to act one way (over and over and over) would suddenly start acting otherwise so the book could have the endig it did. Skip it.
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