Monica Ali

For a few years now I have enjoyed reading fairly popular novels and short story collections written by expatriates from India, Pakistan ad Bangladesh, or their children who were born abroad. These authors have included the incomparable Jhumpa Lahiri, Kiran Desai, Arundhati Roy, Aravind Adiga, and my own college classmate Rakesh Satyal (about whom I still owe a blog post.) Some of their works are set in the old country, while others are in the diaspora. In this latter category, Monica Ali's novel of 2004, Brick Lane, is a shining example. The film adaptation of Brick Lane came out last summer and I dragged two reticent friends to see it and I think they enjoyed it. (In a side note, I am shocked by the rather limited profile of Ali on Wikipedia and the focus upon controversy that I had not thought too important at the time of the novel or the film.)

When I saw that Ali had a new novel to be released, I realized I had missed her second work and got that from the library as I waited for her third publication. This book, Alentejo Blue, was a severe departure from Brick Lane. It was almost a collection of short story character sketches of the inhabitants and visitors of a neglected portion of the Portuguese coast. Unfortunately, I found none of the characters sympathetic, and few of them interesting. Their disparate stories would have been served better if once character were chosen to be more integral to the tale, perhaps as an observer of the others.

Happily, her newest novel returns to her strengths as a writer. In the Kitchen follows Gabriel Lightfoot, a middle-aged London chef, who has to navigate romance, family and work concerns while suffering a breakdown. The tense nature of a professional kitchen is well-described, as are the grey lines surrounding illegal immigration in the service industries. The difficulties for a man to commit to a relationship, and his self-sabotage are handled as realistically as the portrayal of familial mental illness. I was pleased to see that Monica Ali could successfully write outside the niche market of immigrant South Asians.

(Looking at reviews only after I have written the above, I find myself once again agreeing with the Washington Post review.)