Book Review: Love Marriage by Monica Ali

 

Written by Safa Alhassan 

I honestly don’t know if words can do justice to how Love Marriage made me feel. It was powerful, emotional, and at times overwhelming in the best way. How do I even begin? Love Marriage by Monica Ali has been an amazing read and that in itself feels like an understatement. It was excellent. Whenever I truly love a book, I find it hard to talk about it. I’d rather just sit with my feelings in silence, maybe even selfishly keep them to myself. But however this review turns out, know that my words can’t fully describe how this book made me feel.

I went everywhere with this book: travelling, sitting in the salon, running errands. It became a companion.

The book is about the lives of an Indian Muslim family who lived in London. It is also about love, culture, pain, secrets, medicine, trauma, feminism, anger, truth, religion, and of course marriage. Yasmin Ghorami, a medical doctor, is engaged to Joseph (Joe), also a doctor. She wants the kind of life her parents had: her father Shaukat Ghorami, a doctor, and her mother Anisa, a homemaker. Should I say somehow, Yasmin only believed in love because her parents stayed married? She also has a younger brother, Arif Ghorami, who never quite fit into their father’s expectations.

At first glance, Yasmin and Joe seemed perfect together. They had the same profession and they were deep in love. But the book got to a point where you'll begin asking yourself: did Shaukat and Anisa really have a “love marriage”? Joe, raised mostly by his mother Harriet, a wealthy feminist writer, begins to uncover his own wounds in therapy. He realised his childhood trauma, his relationship with his father that almost wasn't there, his sex addiction, his love for Yasmin and his uneasy bond with Harriet.

Meanwhile, after being cheated on by Joe, Yasmin starts confronting her own truths, including an entanglement with her colleague, Dr. Pepperdine. Arif who was jobless also complicates the family picture after getting his girlfriend pregnant, leading to the birth of Coco Tallulah. And then, Yasmin’s parents whom she refered to as Baba and Ma, reveal a secret that changes everything. One by one, each character confronts their hidden self, their lies, and the trauma they’ve been carrying, knowingly or not.

The story may feel calm on the surface, but it is heavy with psychological depth. It will leave you wide-eyed, sometimes teary, and constantly questioning. Life, as Anisa herself says in the book, is never as simple as it seems.

Medicine shapes much of the novel’s atmosphere. The medical terminologies and lots of pages that was dedicated deeply to Yasmin's life in the hospital, the nurses, doctors and patients etc was overwhelming at first, but I ended up learning a lot. I learnt enough to even share with my brother, a medical doctor, who helped me translate some parts. Initially, I thought the book was simply Yasmin and Joe’s love story, but I was so wrong. The real twist was at the end of the book and the writer delivered brilliantly.

Another part I loved was the way Islam was included into the story. Characters' struggles of practicing, the hypocrisy of some, the influence of personal experiences on faith. Shaukat, who never prayed, contrasted sharply with Ma, a devout Muslim who later had a “special friend” named Flame. These complexities made the story richer and more real.

This book made me reflect deeply: Are you really who you think you are? Do you live in truth, or are you just good at hiding your secrets? When I finished, I sat in silence for a while, emotional and touched that it had ended. The characters felt like people I’d known for years. That’s what a good book does. It stays with you.

This was my first Monica Ali book, and I’m eager to read more. She did justice to every character, giving each one depth and individuality. Her research especially in medicine was spot on. I even caught myself wondering if she was a doctor herself. She probably is a doctor. And the cover is stunningggggggggggg! Gosh! With its pink, yellow, and blue design, my hardback copy is simply beautiful.

Overall, Love Marriage is a well-written, emotional, and thought-provoking book. Muslims will find parts of it especially relatable, but even if you’re not Muslim, you’ll relate well with the family dynamics and personal struggles. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. And if you’re reading it for the first time, I confess, I’m a little jealous.

Happy reading.