Scala Radio Book Club: Love Marriage by Monica Ali
From the bestselling, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Brick Lane
Last updated 17th Aug 2022
In the Scala Radio Book Club this week (Thursday 10th February), Mark Forrest chatted to Monica Ali, on her brand-new novel Love Marriage.
From the bestselling, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Brick Lane comes a powerfully humane, hilarious and heartbreaking story of a young couple about to tie the knot as their families from two different cultures try to understand each other.
Yasmin Ghorami has a lot to be grateful for: a loving family, a fledgling career in medicine, and a charming, handsome fiancee, fellow doctor Joe Sangster.
But as the wedding day draws closer and Yasmin's parents get to know Joe's firebrand feminist mother, both families must confront the unravelling of long-held secrets, lies and betrayals.
As Yasmin dismantles her own assumptions about the people she holds most dear, she's also forced to ask herself what she really wants in a relationship and what a 'love marriage' actually means.
Love Marriage is a story about who we are and how we love in today's Britain - with all the complications and contradictions of life, desire, marriage and family. What starts as a captivating social comedy develops into a heart-breaking and gripping story of two cultures, two families and two people trying to understand one another.
Mark was interested to know more about how these different cultures are brought together in this novel. ‘What comes to the fore at the beginning of this book, is this idea of Yasmin being a bit of a fish out of water. Her family are more buttoned-up, they don't talk about their feelings, and they're parachuted into Joe's family, this liberal North London family who talk about these things all the time. How difficult is it to balance the observation of this culture clash, without ridiculing any of the characters?’
‘You see, I don't see it as a culture clash at all,’ said Monica. ‘They're certainly two different cultures. The two families are trying to understand and love each other. Now, Yasmin, at the very beginning of the book is anxious, because the two families are going to meet for the first time. Part of it is a feeling that so many of us can recognise. The feeling that one’s own family is peculiar, and everyone else’s family is normal. Of course, that is not true.’
Mark asked, ‘Love Marriage has been much anticipated because it's been a decade that your fans have had to wait for this new novel. Why did it take that amount of time?’
‘Well, it took four years to write,’ said Monica. ‘I also had a loss of confidence, so I stopped writing, and when I stopped writing, I got depressed. So that depression faded into a lack of confidence, with sort of a downward spiral. But I came out of it. Oddly enough, what helped me to come out of it was writing for television dramas. Nothing ever actually got made, but I worked with a number of different production companies, and I really taught myself the craft of screenwriting because it's very different to writing a novel. I enjoyed it, and it gave me back some of the joy of writing. And now it's come around again, because I'm adapting love marriage, for television. That's really exciting.’
Mark asked, ‘What do your grown-up children think about what you do? Your fame, your celebrity, the fact that you are doing interviews like this one?’
‘I remember a few years ago, my daughter coming back from a friend's house, and her friend's mother had a couple of my books on her shelf. She came home saying, “Well mum, I didn't realise that you are actually like a well-known writer!” So that shows you where I am in the pecking order at home! She's read Love marriage. She was a bit horrified about all the sex scenes but did really love the book. My son says that he might read it one day…’
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