Brick lane 'despicable'

[anisa22]

Brickbats fly as community brands novel 'despicable'

Matthew Taylor
Wednesday December 3, 2003
The Guardian

Community leaders from the neighbourhood in the East End of London that inspired Monica Ali's Booker-nominated first novel, Brick Lane, have branded her work a "despicable insult" to Bangladeshis living in the area.
The Greater Sylhet Welfare and Development Council, which represents many of Britain's 500,000 Bangladeshis, has written an 18-page letter to the author outlining their objections to the "shameful" way the book depicts the community.

They feel the book portrays Bangladeshis in Brick Lane as backward, uneducated and unsophisticated.

A copy was sent to John Carey, chairman of this year's Booker prize judges, and to the Guardian, which has shortlisted Brick Lane for tomorrow's Guardian First Book Award.

Yesterday a spokesman for the GSWDC said: "We have serious objections to most of the content of this book which is a despicable insult to Bangladeshis at home and abroad. This has been an awful slight on us and people feel very strongly about it."

"It is a completely stereotypical view of Bangladeshis living in Brick Lane and one we simply do not recognise. The book says we got here by jumping ships and it says we have lice and live like rats in their holes. These comments are simply untrue and hurtful."

Marianne Velmans, publishing director at Double Day, which published the novel, said it was important to remember the book was a work of fiction.

"The views expressed by Chanu or any other character in the book should not be confused with those of the author," she said.

But Ghulam Mortuza, a Labour councillor whose Spitalfields and Banglatown ward covers Brick Lane, said the novel had caused a lot of anger. "I am certainly aware of the public concern about Brick Lane the book among people who actually live in Brick Lane the place," he said.

"People think it is belittling them and their way of life, and there is a lot of talk about it - and what can be done. I think a lot of people feel genuinely offended."

Community leaders say they are determined to keep up the pressure on Ali.

"We will keep writing to papers and anyone else who may consider giving this book an award," the GSWDC spokesman said.

"There were celebrations here when this book did not win the Booker prize and I hope there will be again this week."

In the letter to the Guardian Brick Lane is compared to Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. "What mischievous sarcasm! It painfully reminds us of the insulting name of prophet Mohammed as 'Mahound' given by Salman Rushdie in his controversial Satanic Verses."

But talk of a campaign against the novel and mention of The Satanic Verses have stirred-up hostility in the literary world. "I think we should be very careful about this," said DJ Taylor, the novelist and one of this year's Booker judges, who said the GSWDC letter had not been taken into consideration by the judges who awarded the prize to DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little.

"If Monica Ali wants to write about Brick Lane, which as a Bangladeshi she presumably knows a good deal about, then she should be free to do so.

"Fifteen years ago we had people on the streets of Bradford burning Salman Rushie's Satanic Verses merely because they had been told to hate it. We do not want to go down that road again.

"Monica Ali's book is a work of fiction and it portrays warm and intimate relationships within a community in mostly a sympathetic way. It is crucial people remember this is fiction and not an attack on anyone or anything."

The novel - for which Ali was voted one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists merely on the basis of the manuscript - follows the life of a young woman sent from Bangladesh to Brick Lane to be married, and has won widespread critical acclaim since it was published.

It is one of five books shortlisted in the Guardian First Book Awards. The winner will be announced tomorrow night.

[Khilari]

Originally posted by anisa22
They feel the book portrays Bangladeshis in Brick Lane as backward, uneducated and unsophisticated.

but they are...

[anisa22]

Originally posted by Khilari

but they are...

thats what i thought too......

[Khilari]

we're gonna b hunted down by the bricklane mafia now

[SNOOP_KUTHA]

dhurror halar halain bastor okhol

i think the women who wrote the book should be slapped about by her dad and sent to bangladesh to get married to a guy who looks after cows for a living

i hate these kinda stories, oh wow, she wrote a book about bengali life, lets all stick our noses up her arse now, you all may choose to but i just think its all to cliche, she didnt write the story to be a honest portrayal on east london bengali life, she just wrote it to be someone special

she doesnt deserve any special recognition or any awards, nor should be called dispicable, she's still just a ordinary minor insignificant person, so lets all just treat her like what we do with all strangers

this aint a personal attack on anyone, this goes out to anyone who tries to make our people seem bad just to gain recognition...phuk you, pure n simple

[anisa22]

if she had presented it as a non-fiction book about bangladeshis in brick lane then people would have something to complain about.

at the end of the day, she wrote it as just a story, so who cares. if it had been a true reflection of what happens in the ordinary life of a bengali, it would be boring and noone would have read it.

(having said that, it was a really boring book regardless of the affairs and whatnot.... and the only reason why i read it from beginnign to end was because the main characters were bengali (my two sisters abandoned it halfway through cos they thought it was crap!.... the characters were not sylheti though!.... have you ever heard of non-sylhetis living in brick lane? me either. )

[SNOOP_KUTHA]

ur so cocunut