A review by pomoevareads
Love Marriage by Monica Ali

emotional reflective relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is my fourth book by Monica Ali and I am reminded of the wonderful characters she builds. 

Love Marriage begins when newly engaged couple Yasmin and Joe bring her parents over to meet his feminist, writer, intellectual mother, Harriet.

Yasmin’s parents are Indian born and share that they have a love marriage. Shaokat, Yasmin’s father, a practicing general practitioner in England, came from a very poor background. Anisah, his wife, came from a well to do family. Her father funded Shaokat’s education. 

 Harriet likes to see herself as open-minded and progressive when it comes to sexuality, family, culture and ideology. She loves her son, Joe, to a fault and can’t see the lack of boundaries as problematic. 

Yasmin and Joe are both doctors working at a local hospital. We are invited into the inner workings of Yasmin’s experiences as she completes her session in elder care. 

Ali’s writing flows so vividly. The character arcs are believable and whole. The reader gets to know smaller details about each character while still having a good sense of the overall figure. This is an emotional book at times but it is not sad. The author expertly weaves a number of storylines to an ending that feels actualized. 

Tackling tokenism, micro aggressions, trauma, identity and purpose in a quiet way, I thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience and would highly recommend this book to those who adore literary fiction and family stories. If you are looking for suspense and drama then this might not be the book for you.

I have also just learned that this book is being made into a tv series. I do hope it will be available in Canada when it is complete. 

Thank you @netgalley and @scribnerbooks / @simonschusterca for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinions. Love Marriage publishes May 3, 2022 in Canada and the US. 
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