A review by sahanac
Love Marriage by Monica Ali

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

this book was actually a revelation. I think I’m just past the age where I realized my parents to be people with fully realized lives and dreams and aspirations beyond my lifetime and my comprehending, and Yasmin, who is really our central character…has not quite gotten there yet. She’s so self-absorbed, and to be fair, she is quite In The Thick Of It with her own life, but she has such a hard time seeing her parents as people. It’s quite frustrating, but also so understandable, that I can’t help empathize with her. She shuts people down, doesn’t want to listen, and doesn’t want her worldview interrupted, but the status quo that she grew up with is changing. She’s resistant, but it changes nonetheless. The beginning of this book was a little slow, but it was all really worthwhile set-up for the nature of the relationship turmoil and drama that laced the back half of the book. Each revelation made my heart hurt for each character in turn, and all of the minor characters in this novel were so memorable and well-created and lovely, that it was perfectly plausible for me to imagine them with full lives, loves, and worlds of their own. Monica Ali managed to put to paper what it is like to have come of age, but still not feel quite grown up, still be muddling it out, and we follow both Yasmin and Joe as they make mistake after mistake. The most frustrating and satisfying part of this book was that I could hardly blame them.