Book Reviews for Adults

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 Arif’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 Joe’s mother Harriet, a very liberated, and opinionated lady, a writer and commentator on sexual hang-ups and womens’ freedoms; a class or two above and so very different from Yasmin’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 Yasmine’s not sure whether Harriet is being genuine or secretly mocking of Anisah.

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

Through all this, Yasmin’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, Joe’s relationship with his mother comes under strain as a consequence of counselling he’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 isn’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, Yasmin’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? You’ll have to read the book to find out but some good news is afforded by the fact that when Arif and Lucy’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, you’ll have to read the book to find out.

Phil Leighton

Book Review: It Ends With Us – by Colleen Hoover 

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.

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