Book Review: Love Marriage by Monica Ali

This is the story of Yasmin Ghorami, a young British Asian Muslim, a junior doctor in a London hospital, who lives with her doctor father, Shaokat (aka Baba), her mother, Anisah (Ma), who is, on the face of things a very simple Indian woman albeit from a good, quite wealthy, family, and her younger brother, Arif who is full of good ideas but no job. Yasmin is engaged to Joe who is also a doctor and works in the same hospital. Right from the outset it is clear that the relationship between Arif and Shaokat is extremely strained, largely because of Arifโ€™s different way of living and their lack of respect for each other. While Yasmin knows that her father had a very poor start in life but made good, she has no knowledge of how he came to marry Anisah who was from a much wealthier family. Despite several attempts to get them to explain, she and Arif remain in ignorance right up to the end of the story.

The fun starts when the Ghoramis are invited to meet Joeโ€™s mother Harriet, a very liberated, and opinionated lady, a writer and commentator on sexual hang-ups and womensโ€™ freedoms; a class or two above and so very different from Yasminโ€™s parents. Yasmin is horrified about how the meeting will go, especially as Anisah has, in her view, awful dress sense and insists on bringing huge quantities of her home cooked Indian foods with her to this first meeting. Fortunately, the two mothers get on like a house on fire, though Yasmineโ€™s not sure whether Harriet is being genuine or secretly mocking of Anisah.

Anisahโ€™s relationship with Harriet grows as the weeks pass. She is even persuaded to give cooking demonstrations to Harrietโ€™s circle of lady friends and ultimately encouraged, together with Harrietโ€™s living in friend, Flame, to develop her own brand of pickles.

Through all this, Yasminโ€™s relationship with Joe becomes strained, not least because Harriet is so imperious in her manner and sets out to override their plans for the wedding, talking a bigger celebration, rather than the smaller event Yasmin and Joe wanted, even to the point of persuading Anisah that it should be an Islamic celebration conducted by an Imam.

There is something of an earthquake when Arif moves out to live with his pregnant girlfriend, Lucy, (in Mottingham) which leads to Shoakat refusing to have anything more to do with him. This provokes Anisah into leaving him and the family home and going to stay with Harriet and Flame. Meanwhile, Joeโ€™s relationship with his mother comes under strain as a consequence of counselling heโ€™s having, ostensibly to do with his father having left when he was only a child but, in fact, about an addictive behaviour and his relationship with his mother. As if that isnโ€™t enough, Yasmin herself spins out of control, has a fairly steamy relationship with a doctor from the hospital and has serious doubts about both her relationship with Joe and continuing in medicine. Eventually, Yasminโ€™s relationship with Joe comes to an end and he leaves home, Harriet and London to take up a new post in Edinburgh.

Can this family saga possibly end happily? Youโ€™ll have to read the book to find out but some good news is afforded by the fact that when Arif and Lucyโ€™s baby, Coco Tallulah becomes seriously ill, it is Shoakat who is using all his skills and knowledge to diagnose her illness. Will he be able to save her life? Again, youโ€™ll have to read the book to find out.

Phil Leighton

book cover The Testament John Grisham

Book Review: It Ends With Us – by Colleen Hooverย 

A story about true love and romance on one hand tainted with destructive love and domestic violence on the other. Human kindness, hope, tenacity and resilience on display. It’s easy to have an opinion of others in a certain situation when looking in from the outside. If and when tables are turned many would probably do the same as them. This book teaches one not to be so quick to judge others. Somethings are not as easy as they may seem when one is just an observer and not the one walking in the shoes. This is a fantastic book. Is it destiny, is it fate? It broke the cycle. True love protects, true love is selfless, true love shelters but is love enough ? Difficult decisions are needed to end difficult situations. It truly ends with us.
Watch out for the sequel – ‘It Starts with Us’.
Ayo Adeosunย 
7 Books The Clifton Chronicles

All of these books and many more are available to borrow now at Blackfen Community Library. Come along, sit and have a read at our community hub and enjoy a fresh coffee from the Rooted Coffee House, our in house cafe.

To enquire about the availability of these books you can login via your membership loginย or pop into the library and ask our team.

@hello_blackfen

@helloblackfen

@helloblackfen

This message is only visible to admins.
Problem displaying Facebook posts. Backup cache in use.
Click to show error
Error: Error validating access token: The session has been invalidated because the user changed their password or Facebook has changed the session for security reasons. Type: OAuthException

Get in Touch
020 8301 1433

[email protected]

7โ€“9 Blackfen Parade,ย Blackfen, DA15 9LU

Newsletter Sign Up
Social Media