Suzi Feay
A Heady Brew
Monica Ali’s third novel is described by her publishers as a follow-up to Brick Lane, which is a puzzle in that it is quite different in tone, setting and scope. Thankfully, there is no sign of Nazneen, one of the most low-energy heroines of recent years. After her second novel, Portugal-set Alentejo Blue, In the Kitchen shows Ali returning to the tensions, problems and promises of multicultural Britain.
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The minimalist Fumio Sasaki 'confesses that as he began to purchase fewer consumer goods, his meals shrank in size. He decluttered and lost weight. Accumulation is not just an economic way of life but a form of embodiment too. Enlightenment is reduction.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/gardens-of-emptiness
'The river’s desecration mirrors Colombia’s long history of violence: "for years we treated it like a sewer," says Ahmed, a survivor of a particularly brutal paramilitary massacre, "just like we treated each other".'
Patrick Wilcken on the Magdalena.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/troubled-waters-3
It's 'all lively and entertaining but rather too black and white. Her account of British politics and the success of the Brexit campaign verges on the cartoonish.'
@David_Goodhart on Anne Applebaum's 'Twilight on Democracy'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-tale-of-two-parties