We aren't given the choice of whether we are born or not, and Nanzeen associates her own powerlessness with the way that--after the howling and screaming--we must acquiesce to the fact of our existence. We certainly can't go back into the womb, but more importantly, it wasn't in our power to stall our delivery in the first place. For Nanzeen, one is a baby, or an immigrant, or a wife; what we do as each of these is extraneous to the fact that suddenly we have become them. Fate is key, setting the terms for how we live. Our power to affect the future is negligible; we can only understand how we got there. Ironically, Nanzeen is reborn in London, but her rebirth occurs against her own insistence on the supremacy of fate. At thirty-four, she is suddenly "startled by her own agency like an infant who waves a clenched fist and strikes itself upon the eye." Birth never looses its existential importance, just its orienting lesson.
And after more than a decade in London, it has acquired one additional meaning. Nanzeen has witnessed the maturing of new generation fervently devoted to Islam. These young men and women (but mostly young men) are disillusioned by the immigrant experiences of their parents, who struggled in a country that was at times hostile to their presence and at best sadly inept to help with their transition to English life. In the community centers of Brick Lane, Islam was reborn into a potent political force.
Ali's book was resoundingly praised. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and Ali was named as one of the best young British writers. I suspect that everyone's enthusiasm for the novel is, in part, that Ali is like a magician revealing all her secrets. Every Western country is facing off with its Muslim populations, and no one has offered a definitive way of protecting civil rights while preserving security. This book, however, provides its readers a look at a community that, frankly, frightens them; it is, in short, an education. And we have a better chance of surviving our most current mess of civilization if there is less smoke and fewer mirrors.
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Ali's book was resoundingly praised. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and Ali was named as one of the best young British writers. I suspect that everyone's enthusiasm for the novel is, in part, that Ali is like a magician revealing all her secrets. Every Western country is facing off with its Muslim populations, and no one has offered a definitive way of protecting civil rights while preserving security. This book, however, provides its readers a look at a community that, frankly, frightens them; it is, in short, an education. And we have a better chance of surviving our most current mess of civilization if there is less smoke and fewer mirrors.
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