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October 11, 2005 12:44 PM

Life isn't all ha ha hee hee

The first thing that struck me when I picked up Meera Syal’s second fiction effort was the complete lack of information about the book. The back cover and first few pages are filled with quotes from other critics. All you can tell is that, unsurprisingly, everyone whose quote has been chosen loved the book. I have to admit this just made me more curious...

This is the story of three friends; Chila, Tania and Sunita, living in Leyton. Friends since their schooldays, this book chronicles the time when they truly grow up – marriage, childbirth, and all the twists and turns that life throws at them.

The first couple of chapters did not, I’m afraid, grab me. Thankfully though I persevered and found myself reading a thoughtful, touching and at times funny book. Readers expecting a tale that could have come straight from the scripting of ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ and ‘The Kumars at No. 42’ etc will be disappointed. This is a more subtle humour, reflecting the way that sometimes ordinary events in life amuse us. I think its also important to remember that whilst Syal accurately portrays the life of these three British Asian 30-something women, she is not trying to say that this is how all women who could possibly fit into that category behave. At the end of the day when we pick up a book set in the area in which we live, do we always expect to see ourselves in the pages? There is something for most readers though. Whilst I’m a 20-something white British female, I could identify with a lot of the feelings and experiences that the characters in the book went through.

I would definitely recommend this book, but if you have a short attention span, or find it difficult to persevere with books that start slowly then you might find this a little hard going. [Jenni Nock]

Life isn't all ha ha hee hee - Meera Syal

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Posted by Gemma on October 11, 2005 in British Authors, Modern Fiction, Rating: 4/5 | Permalink

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