Ali's Blues

Monica Ali's second novel, Alentejo Blue, dealing with disparate characters in the Portuguese village of Marmarossa, seems to be a complete departure from the themes and characters of Brick Lane. Not that there's anything wrong with that -- but it leaves Natasha Walter quite unimpressed: "While her first novel grew cumulatively, with characters who were gradually revealed through different situations, this novel is structurally piecemeal, a collection of vignettes with no forward narrative thrust at all...All the characters bow off too hurriedly, little sketches that never get fleshed out, people glimpsed from a train that is moving too quickly through a strange landscape. Even if you enjoy the ride, you can't help wishing that Monica Ali had chosen to write about somewhere she knew better, or wanted to know better."