A Clever Examination of Race, Class and Identity: Read an Extract From Monica Ali’s Love Marriage

A Clever Examination of Race, Class and Identity: Read an Extract From Monica Ali’s Love Marriage

In the Ghorami household sex was never mentioned. If the television was on and a kissing-with-tongues scene threatened the chaste and cardamom-scented home, it was swiftly terminated by a flick of the black box. When Yasmin began her first period, her mother had slipped her a pack of Kotex Maxi pads and murmured instructions not to touch the Qu’ran. This was confusing because Yasmin never touched the Qu’ran anyway, except at the behest of her mother. But it also made sense because menstruation, as she had learned in a biology class, was linked to reproduction. And the dotted-line diagrams in the textbook were, surprisingly yet undeniably, linked to the actors who pushed their tongues into each other’s mouths, thus ruining everyone’s viewing pleasure.

Now, at the age of twenty-six, Yasmin knew all about sex. The human body had long since yielded its mysteries. She had slept with three men, and was engaged to be married to the third, Joe, a fellow doctor at St Barnabas hospital. Her parents, Shaokat and Anisah, liked Joe because as a doctor he was automatically suitable, and because everyone liked Joe, he was gifted that way. If Anisah longed for her daughter to marry a good Muslim boy it was an opinion she kept to herself.

Yasmin sat cross-legged on her bed, surrounded by medical texts, waiting to be called down for dinner. She should have been studying for yet another exam, but couldn’t concentrate. Four books lay open to demonstrate a commitment that she was unable to put into effect. Instead, she leafed through a magazine she’d found discarded on the train. On the cover: Fake Split! Secret Reunion! She’s a Wreck! The headlines referred to celebrities, all pictured, only one of whom Yasmin could identify. This dampened her enjoyment only marginally. She preferred, in any case, the stories about ‘real people’. The one she had just finished was about a mother-of-three from Doncaster, who had recently
discovered that her seven-year-old daughter was not her biological offspring, a mix-up having occurred at the hospital when she was born.

The things people go through! And she, Yasmin, had nothing to worry about, and so much to be grateful for. When tomorrow night was over she’d laugh at herself. It wouldn’t be as bad as she imagined. Her parents would meet Joe’s mother for the first time. They’d all eat dinner together at her house in Primrose Hill and discuss wedding plans and make polite conversation. Big deal…

Continue reading the extract here…

Buy a copy of Love Marriage here.

Reviews

Book Club Notes for Love Marriage by Monica Ali

Review | Book Life

23 February 2022

Book Club Notes for Love Marriage by Monica Ali

    A Sensational Read: Review of Monica Ali’s Love Marriage

    Review | Our Review

    14 February 2022

    A Sensational Read: Review of Monica Ali’s Love Marriage

      Publisher details

      Love Marriage
      Author
      Monica Ali
      Publisher
      Hachette
      Genre
      Fiction
      Released
      25 January, 2022
      ISBN
      9780349015491

      Synopsis

      Yasmin Ghorami has a lot to be grateful for: a loving family, a fledgling career in medicine, and a charming, handsome fiancee, fellow doctor Joe Sangster.

      But as the wedding day draws closer and Yasmin's parents get to know Joe's firebrand feminist mother, both families must confront the unravelling of long-held secrets, lies and betrayals.

      As Yasmin dismantles her own assumptions about the people she holds most dear, she's also forced to ask herself what she really wants in a relationship and what a 'love marriage' actually means.

      Love Marriage is a story about who we are and how we love in today's Britain - with all the complications and contradictions of life, desire, marriage and family. What starts as a captivating social comedy develops into a heart-breaking and gripping story of two cultures, two families and two people trying to understand one another.

      Monica Ali
      About the author

      Monica Ali

      Monica Ali is a bestselling writer whose work has been translated into 26 languages. She is the author of five books: Brick LaneAlentejo Blue, In the Kitchen, Untold Story and Love Marriage. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, in 2003 she was named as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. She has been nominated for, amongst others, the Booker Prize, the George Orwell Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and in the U.S. has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She lives in London.

      Books by Monica Ali

      COMMENTS

      Leave a Reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

      1. nicolhill says:

        Assuming you google some photographs of attractive Haitian ladies, they will all have midnight skin, very much like Garcelle Beauvais. Without a doubt, by far most of the Haitian populace slips from dark cleaned slaves imported from Africa by the French pilgrim government that had controlled the land hundreds of years prior. In that capacity, the vitally communicated in language here is haitian brides https://latindate.org/caribbean/haitian-women-for-marriage/ which utilizes dominatingly French jargon with sentence structure acquired from West African dialects. That sounds like a fiery blend, isn’t that right? Indeed, this is both a brief and depiction of outlandish Caribbean marvels, as well. Picking Haitian ladies for marriage, you will undoubtedly enliven your existence with energy and experience.

      2. anna says:

        Many men surprise whether a Colombian dating app works. You do no longer want to waste your time and chat with ladies who need to have a laugh. You also would really like to avoid women who search for sugar daddies. So is assembly columbian wife your perfect fit possible through a dating app? By choosing one of the indexed exceptional dating apps in Colombia from the listing above, you are assured to satisfy proper women. The 3 well-known packages furnished in this newsletter are recognised for handing over awesome online relationship services to Latin and western singles.