East End Girls.. (Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee - Meera Syal)

Name: vhart

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Product:	Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee - Meera Syal
Date:	11/01/01 (134 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: amusing, but serious, more substance than some girly-buddy books

Disadvantages: a little bit predictable

This is a book which follows a familiar 'group of friends who take different paths' route, but that doesn't necessarily make it any less enjoyable.

It set within the second or third generation Hindu Indian community in east London, and the three protagonists, friends since childhood are Chila, Sunita and Tania.

The book opens with Chila's impending wedding, she is the quiet, traditional type, although she is really the epicentre of the book and although all the characters change during the course of the book, she probably changes in the most surprising and ultimately pleasing way. The name of the book, incidently, is one of the stock saying that Chila's mother has, to explain the vagaries of her forthcoming marraige!

Sunita was the radical, who got married and has a young family, having lost some of the radical edge with the arrival of her children and dealing, all the while, with a husband who seems to wonder where the woman he married has gone.

Tania is the 'career-girl'. The one who has moved away from the community, ostensibly, at least, and works, successfully in the 'media' field as a director of documentaries with a white partner.

All the women have to contend, in different ways, with the expectations placed on women, both in the traditional Hindi culture, the so-called 'Western' culture and the conflicting demands of each.

The book follows these women, through Chila's wedding and the year afterward, as their friendship changes and their circle grows to include (or not) husbands or partners.

The friendship between these women is driven to the brink by two acts of fundamental betrayal, which it wouldn't be fair to go into, though neither come as a particular surprise.

The book is pleasantly written. Syal made her name as a comic, and there are definitely comic elements in this book, but it is a bittersweet comedy, rather than a
'laugh out loud' comedy. The book seems to be written from the heart, and certainly reflects the challenges faced by modern Asian women living between two cultures and the particular challenges faced by both racism and sexism.

It is a good read, not too difficult or challenging, but it has a substance to it, and isn't just fluff-read, there are aspects of it which will pause to make you think, but Syal doesn't lay it on too heavy, ultimately, it is a comic novel.

Summary: