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The Curry Mile
A novel set against the backdrop of Manchester's world-famous Curry Mile. When the family business threatens to go under without her intervention, Sorayah Butt is caught on the horns of a should she come to the rescue of the family that left her out in the cold?
- GenresFiction
Paperback
First published February 11, 2006
About the author
Zahid Hussain
4 books11 followersZahid Hussain is a novelist, poet and screenwriter. He lives in Manchester with his wife and three children. His debut novel, The Curry Mile won rave reviews from the The Guardian newspaper and New Stateman .
Zahid Hussain set up the Manchester Muslim Writers in 2009.
He writers non-fiction, fiction, poetry and screenplay and teaches creative and academic writing.
Zahid Hussain set up the Manchester Muslim Writers in 2009.
He writers non-fiction, fiction, poetry and screenplay and teaches creative and academic writing.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 17, 2007
Ahh, it's an honour being the first to review a certain book, but as always with great power comes great responsibility; I might be responsible for making people read/not read a book. (Hmmm Brick Lane for the pakistanis...that's what this book REALLY is)
So it is with great trepidation that I say this book couldn't have been any worse, but was written very cleverly. The storyline is the whole typical "torn between two cultures" rubbish about British Asians, and how many of us are SO culturally divided we have to reject our Eastern heritage so greatly in order to embrace a western ieal of life. Utter tripe. I DID throw the book across the room many times during reading it, but always picked it up again, which is something of a review in itself!
On the other hand, there were some interesting uses of language that I think only Urdu/Punjaabi speakers would understand as there is no glossary provided with the book; the use of English idioms partly translated into urdu/punjaabi was actually quite witty, but cliched in places.
Some of the characters come across as very stereotypical: the controlling yet hipocritical father, the submissive Asian son, the jack-the-lad who is off the rails, the submissive Asian wife, the daughter in an unhappy arranged marriage. However, many of the fringe-characters are under-developed and two-dimensional.
The mekh (nail) in the coffin definatley was the protagonist who was for me at least, the most selfish Asian girl to walk the planet, and yet was presented as some kind of heroine. Without giving the story away too much, it would be prudent to say the girl (and her family) needed a serious reality check as in MANY (or most) cases, the daughter who leaves home NEVER gets a warm reception when she gets back!
On a more positive note, I read this book very quickly, as it was well-written and easy to read. Admittedly, the author presented life for many British Asians quite accurately; the cut-throat world of the restaurant industry and life on The Curry Mile.
For me personally, this book represents everything that I have come to hate about the British Asian culture at the moment: that we cling to cultural values that have no real ressonance with our faith, but we also embrace all to quickly a "Western" culture, emulating and striving to fulfil the Western ideal of freedom as defined as having as many boyfriends as we please.
However, despite all of my misgivings, much of the novel was quite amusing, the internal conversations of the protagonist's father, who a total womanising hipocrite, could swear which such skill and accuracy it was scary! I'm sure we all know an Uncle like that! The characters infuriate you, yet make you laugh, and that's the novel on the whole.
I would recommend you read for a laugh, refuse to treat any of the characters as a role model, and do not believe that it is a representation of what life is like for ALL british Asians, we are not ALL torn between two cultures and wanting to sleep around! The kanjar author needed to realise that, especially when he copied the cover from Monica Ali's Brick Lane!
So it is with great trepidation that I say this book couldn't have been any worse, but was written very cleverly. The storyline is the whole typical "torn between two cultures" rubbish about British Asians, and how many of us are SO culturally divided we have to reject our Eastern heritage so greatly in order to embrace a western ieal of life. Utter tripe. I DID throw the book across the room many times during reading it, but always picked it up again, which is something of a review in itself!
On the other hand, there were some interesting uses of language that I think only Urdu/Punjaabi speakers would understand as there is no glossary provided with the book; the use of English idioms partly translated into urdu/punjaabi was actually quite witty, but cliched in places.
Some of the characters come across as very stereotypical: the controlling yet hipocritical father, the submissive Asian son, the jack-the-lad who is off the rails, the submissive Asian wife, the daughter in an unhappy arranged marriage. However, many of the fringe-characters are under-developed and two-dimensional.
The mekh (nail) in the coffin definatley was the protagonist who was for me at least, the most selfish Asian girl to walk the planet, and yet was presented as some kind of heroine. Without giving the story away too much, it would be prudent to say the girl (and her family) needed a serious reality check as in MANY (or most) cases, the daughter who leaves home NEVER gets a warm reception when she gets back!
On a more positive note, I read this book very quickly, as it was well-written and easy to read. Admittedly, the author presented life for many British Asians quite accurately; the cut-throat world of the restaurant industry and life on The Curry Mile.
For me personally, this book represents everything that I have come to hate about the British Asian culture at the moment: that we cling to cultural values that have no real ressonance with our faith, but we also embrace all to quickly a "Western" culture, emulating and striving to fulfil the Western ideal of freedom as defined as having as many boyfriends as we please.
However, despite all of my misgivings, much of the novel was quite amusing, the internal conversations of the protagonist's father, who a total womanising hipocrite, could swear which such skill and accuracy it was scary! I'm sure we all know an Uncle like that! The characters infuriate you, yet make you laugh, and that's the novel on the whole.
I would recommend you read for a laugh, refuse to treat any of the characters as a role model, and do not believe that it is a representation of what life is like for ALL british Asians, we are not ALL torn between two cultures and wanting to sleep around! The kanjar author needed to realise that, especially when he copied the cover from Monica Ali's Brick Lane!
August 27, 2021
I read this book in 2015, and thought I had left a review back then. I had seen it sat on a book shelf at the writers' group I attended, and thought I would read it when I had time. I had time when I was travelling around central America that year.
It sticks out even more, as it was the last poor book I read, and I have read a lot of books since then.
On a positive note if you are teaching metaphor and similes, the first half of this book has some of the worst cliched ones available, on how NOT to do it.
This book was obviously rushed though, and without the appalling metaphors and similes, and bit more intrigue and depth of characters could be half decent.
This is uncharted territory for me, writing a negative book review, but, hey, I waited six years to be measured! And read 70 to 80 books in the meantime.
Art is subjective!!
Ian M Pindar
It sticks out even more, as it was the last poor book I read, and I have read a lot of books since then.
On a positive note if you are teaching metaphor and similes, the first half of this book has some of the worst cliched ones available, on how NOT to do it.
This book was obviously rushed though, and without the appalling metaphors and similes, and bit more intrigue and depth of characters could be half decent.
This is uncharted territory for me, writing a negative book review, but, hey, I waited six years to be measured! And read 70 to 80 books in the meantime.
Art is subjective!!
Ian M Pindar
July 31, 2021
Really interesting perspective. However I didn't feel attached to characters.
August 5, 2016
A light read. Melodramatic and overly so. I wasn't impressed. The writing was ok but the myriad of flashbacks to explain and provide context got tiresome and stilted.
oh the use of high-end brand names, e.g., Gucci, Benz, etc... was extremely distracting and sophomoric.
(I don't think there was any similarity to Brick Lane aside from the setting of the UK.)
oh the use of high-end brand names, e.g., Gucci, Benz, etc... was extremely distracting and sophomoric.
(I don't think there was any similarity to Brick Lane aside from the setting of the UK.)
April 3, 2016
Met this author at a Library signing. I bought his book. The story line/plot was okay though rather contrived. I suspect the first half of the book had either been ghost written or deeply edited as it made good reading, then part way through the book the grammar and the story started to fall apart. I had the impression the book had been written and hyped to promote Asian culture.
April 26, 2017
Lost for words, I was really looking forward to reading this book. But the characters were so not real and lost, far from reality. Trying to cover too many topics at once which left many stories at loose ends. I wanted to like the relationship between the father and daughter but it was told very poorly. Overall some parts to the novel were funny but I don't think I enjoyed as much.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews