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 I'm giving five stars to "Love Marriage," by Monica Ali.


My sense is that Ali spends a good deal of time reading Tolstoy; like Tolstoy, she isn't afraid to exaggerate a character here and there. Like Tolstoy, she takes on the big subjects: love, death, sex, marriage, social change.

"Love Marriage" concerns Yasmin, who is training to be a doctor in London. Yasmin's parents emigrated from India; it's Yasmin's understanding that Mom and Dad had a "love marriage," and that Mom accepted Dad even though Dad came from the world of the untouchables. (The truth is a bit more complicated.)

Yasmin contends with nuttiness in the workplace--and the work scenes are among the strongest. (Who doesn't know what it's like to find the office unbearable?) A white woman looks at Yasmin and requests an "English doctor." Yasmin says, "I'm English. I was born in London." The woman becomes upset and says: "You seem to be accusing me of racism. How dare you!" Ali's observations ring true: Yasmin has *not* made the accusation, though, even if she had, she would have been simply pointing out the obvious. And yet it's Yasmin who must make amends--according to the overlords.

The hypocrisy of the overlords is also notable. One preening doctor congratulates Yasmin for standing up to a racist troll--but it's later this very same doctor who insists that Yasmin make an apology. The doctor wants the glory of seeming to be a "friend of the little guy," while he also wants the convenience of making a political problem go away. And the doctor can't be bothered to notice the contradictions within his own behavior.

Yasmin sometimes fights with a workplace busybody, Niamh, who is unable to self-reflect: "You know no one here works harder than I do," says Niamh, while visiting gossip sites on her iPhone. When Yasmin finally erupts, it's in the pettiest way imaginable: Yasmin and Niamh scream about nail polish in the ER. This feels so much like actual life.

There is a love story here--Yasmin seems en route to marriage with a charismatic white guy whose mother is like a thinly veiled version of Germaine Greer--but the romance doesn't go where you expect it will go. Lives are upended. Marriages crumble; our definition of "family" begins to change.

I thought this was a smart, passionate, witty, shrewd novel. I was transported.
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