Wordless Wednesday: Destin

Destin, Florida
More Wordless Wednesday here.
Photo by moi.

Brick Lane

Brick Lane 

by Monica Ali

★ 

Nazneen is a young woman living with her family in Bangladesh and dreaming of her future. Soon she’s shipped to England where she’s married off to an older man. Her life becomes so small, confined almost entirely to their apartment. Her husband is gross and selfish and treats her like an employee. I understand it’s an arranged marriage, but it’s an awful situation. There’s no physical abuse, just a continual wearing down of her spirit. Her casual acceptance of her situation is heartbreaking and it was hard for me to identify with her.  

When she finally has an affair you honestly don’t even care about the man she is sleeping with, it’s more about the fact that she’s finally done one tiny thing for herself. Even then it seems to make her more miserable than before. She also has two daughters who grow up in England and have a hard time embracing their parents’ culture. They are children of England, not Bangladesh and that divide makes it difficult for them to understand their mother’s decision to stay in a loveless marriage. 

Part of the book consists of letters back and forth between Nazneen and her sister. Hasina ran away from home and married for love, but her life was not a happy one. I think the main purpose of that plot was to show Nazneen that things could always be worse, but at least Hasina chose her own life. 

**SPOILERS** 

I felt like we are waiting for something to happen for the entire book and then nothing does. It’s this uphill slog that you think will end with an incredible view, but when you reach the top there’s nothing to see. She never goes to see her sister, she never gets caught in the affair, etc. She just decides to stay at home when her husband leaves. That was good in its own way, but there was no real resolution. 

**SPOILERS OVER**

The fact that I couldn’t identify with the main character wasn’t a deal breaker for me in anyway. I love learning about different cultures. I love seeing the struggle that comes from immigrating to a new country and trying to understand their customs. The problem was that Nazneen didn’t seem interested in anything. I felt like I couldn’t root for her when she couldn’t even root for herself. 

BOTTOM LINE: Geez I struggled with this one. It’s such a slow moving novel. I felt like I was living through those years of stifling boredom with Nazneen, and not in the good way. There is some beautiful writing, but for me it wasn’t enough to balance out the slog through the story.

Fables: Volume 1 and 2

Fables 1: Legends in Exile 

by Bill Willingham 

★★★★ 

The premise of Fables is pretty well known at this point, not because of the graphic novels themselves, but because of the TV show Once Upon a Time. They are not the same thing, but Fables (which came first) shares the same basic story. Fairy tale characters have been transplanted from their home world into our world. They have no way of getting back and have to make it here without their fortunes and castles, etc. 

I've been hearing about this series for a while and I'm so glad I finally checked it out. The fable characters live in a secret society of sorts in New York City. The Big Bad Wolf runs the community's security. Old King Cole is the Mayor and Snow White serves as the Deputy Mayor. This volume deals with the disappearance of Snow's sister Rose Red. 


The characters are snarky and fun. I love the way they play with the assumed ideas about them, like Prince Charming, who is a womanizer in Fables instead of a hero. Yes, the art is definitely stereotypical comic book style. Maybe we can one day have good female characters who aren't ridiculous caricatures of what a woman actually looks like, but it's a small complaint when the story is this fun.  

BOTTOM LINE: So far I love the series and I can't wait to read more.  


Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm 
Bill Willingham 
★★★★ 

Volume two picks up exactly where the last one let off. Rose Red and her accomplice/boyfriend are working off their community service hours for their antics in Vol. One. Red’s sister Snow White is about to make a trip to The Farm, where the non-human fables live, and she decides Red needs to come along for the ride. At the Farm, the sisters quickly realize something is wrong. A revolution is happening and they’ve arrived at the worst possible moments. In the midst of the chaos we meet Goldilocks, the three little pigs and a slew of characters from The Jungle Book.  

The second volume is less about introductions and more about developing the established relationships, especially between the two estranged sisters. Their history is a complicated one and makes more sense with each new revelation. I particularly love the fact that from these first volumes, the author doesn’t rely on romantic relationships to drive every story. The two strong women at the forefront of the story are interesting enough on their own and the author trusts the reader to appreciate that. 

BOTTOM LINE: I’m sold. I think the series is so well done. I love the variety of characters that are featured. It could rely completely on the novelty of such characters in each new volume, but instead it takes the assumptions that we have and tosses them out the window. Each character is given new life in the Fables series and I’m excited to see what happens next. 


Two other great reviews of the series at You've GottaRead This and Iris' blog. 

Also, Kailana wrote a great post about the order of the series. I'll definitely be referring back to this as I read more of the volumes. 

Last thing, I found a Wikipedia just for Fables! I won't be reading any spoilers on it, but it might come in handy for fans of the comics.