Brick Lane’s dual narrative structure counterpoints nostalgic memory against admonitory letter.

Evidence

The narrative is punctuated by flashbacks to Nazneen’s childhood in Bangladesh and by the intermittent series of letters from Hasina. Memories of the lush landscapes of the past not only provide access to Nazneen’s back story but also serve in the first part of the book as a symbolic correlative to the grimy metropolitan cityscape in which she finds herself, offering the balm of familiarity in the hostile spaces of London: “Twice she stepped into the road and drew back again. To get to the other side of the street without being hit by a car was like walking out in the monsoon and hoping to dodge the raindrops.” But Hasina’s letters have a Richardsonian admonitory quality to them. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 189

Categorization

Category: Craft and Method

• XREF: The Bangladesh-vs-London symbolic correlative parallels the dual-geography structure in Naqvi’s Home Boy and the Lahore-New York axis in Hamid’s novel — a transferable close-reading template.