An Interview with Monica Ali

Is there a particular moment where you knew you wanted to pursue writing as a career?

When I was growing up, I always had my head in a book. I was always reading. I read a lot of the classics, but I didn't grow up in a book-filled home at all. I mean I grew up poor, so I got all my books out of the library; I was a very avid library user in my youth. I never thought of writing as something that I could do; if people like me were writing novels, I hadn't come across them. It seemed like a very otherworldly aspiration and one that was not for me So, I only started writing when I had children. I had my son first, and when he was a baby, I often couldn't get back to sleep so I would just open my laptop and just start writing short stories, but I never did anything with them By the time I started what turned into Brick Lane, I had a toddler and a baby daughter. I went to my grandfather's funeral -- my mother's father -- and the very next day I started to write Brick Lane I think there was a connection between going to that funeral and realising you only have so many days on this earth so if you never try, you will never know I think that gave me the push that I needed.

In an article in 2006, Natasha Walter described you as "a writer who seemed to have found, right at the beginning of her career and with absolute confidence, her own voice." What do you think it is that helped you find this style of writing at such an early point of your career?

I'd like to think that I am still developing and learning, and it is every writer's aspiration to find their own voice. I've been doing a lot of interviews recently because I have a new book out and one question that cropped up again this morning was "Which book by another author do you wish that you had written?" I have many deep loves for lots of authors and novels, but I never wish that I had written them because what I want to do is find my own voice. I think that from all the advice for new, aspiring writers, I always say to write the book that you want to read Ignore all the fads and trends; do the thing that interests you and write from your deepest sense of curiosity about the world That's what I try to do

In an interview about Untold Story, you described this book as an "obliteration of self" and said you were "naive" in thinking you could write from the perspective of a white male. Do you think your audience only sees you for your gender and ethnicity?

I think there is partly a gender aspect, but I would say it is mainly to do with ethnicity. I remember people would ask me if I wanted to get away from Brick Lane after I had written the book, and now that I think about it that was quite an insulting question, to suggest that I would want to get away from my ethnicity. I mean firstly, how could I possibly, and why would I want to? I think it's that idea that people have that a person is very singular, and you only have one aspect to yourself. Whereas, for me certainly, I have a Bengali father, but my mother is English, and I've grown up here all my life. So, I think it was that questioning of authenticity, which is a word that I have come to hate really, but this is authentically me I'm not one thing, or the other. I'm both and I'm glad to be both. It is a very tricky area to explain. I find younger people usually find that easier to accept and understand than older people. I think they're more used to that idea of multiplicity in that we have more than one sides to ourselves.

In your opinion, do you think there has been a writer that has a type of work in terms of recurring motifs or style of writing that has inspired you?

I think I have had lots of sources of inspiration. Writing for me is not something that you can do without having read widely yourself. I mean, that is a necessary part of the training, and in fact it is the only way to learn. I've taught creative writing at university and for me, the only essential part of the process is to be a serious reader. I would say for Love Marriage, my latest book, most obviously i can trace back to my love of Jane Austen So Austen wrote endlessly about courtship, relationships and marriage which made her writing to be perceived as quite a narrow, domestic sphere but we can learn a lot about that time through her work. For example, she is very concise about money, class structure, power, and the position of women during this period So with Love Marriage, it is in a very different landscape. Yasmin, the protagonist, is a young doctor but still I think all the rituals and traditions of the family dynamic, for instance the arranged wedding, can be a very useful lens for looking at the wider society So, I would say I've taken that element out of Jane Austen's book.

How do you think characters of different ages in your novels would react differently to themes of acceptance, race, gender, immigration, and class struggle?

If I take the example of my latest book, I mean it is a multi-generational story. So, particularly in the Ghorami family, I think that we can see some of that around issues of race and assimilation. Yasmin's father is very impatient of his son who tries to draw to his attention issues of Islamophobia and prejudice. The father, having come from a very poor background in India in Kolkata, and having made his way to become a GP in London, feels very angry with his son for focusing on what he sees as petty and trivial issues The son will tell him how just his surname alone makes him less likely to be called for an interview over a white candidate, but his father is very dismissive of this. He will tell his son that this is just an excuse, and that he is being lazy The other half of the story belongs to Yasmin's fiancé, Joe, and his mother. They are very privileged in that they are white and well-off In some ways, they have very similar, liberal ideas. Harriet, perhaps because she is older, feels more than necessary to show her liberal views It is almost integration by steamroller with Harriet as she seems to be falling over herself in order to welcome the Ghoramis, in a way that becomes almost suffocating to Yasmin

What do you think draws people to read about the complicated an transparent relationships that you depict in your novels?

I think the complexity is part of the appeal. I always write from character, that is always my starting point for every book, and as I said I don't believe there is such thing as a solid self. I think that character is formed in relationship to others. It is a temporal and dynamic process, and as the characters act within their set of circumstances and relationships, then you can start to peel back the layers, and see who these people are, in their full complexity That is what appeals to me in writing, the grappling of these complexities. I think humour is also very important, as there are some difficult things that happen in my books as in life, but I think that a sense of humour and the absurd is essential in getting through life and maybe that is part of the appeal as well I like to treat serious subjects with a comic touch

How would you say that maturing as an author over time has impacted your most recent novel?

It is hard for me to be the judge of that, but one thing I could say about my most recent novel is that it may have been affected by some work that I did over the years in screenwriting. I decided that I would like to write for TV drama, which of course, is very difficult to get into I was able to work with several production companies and I had scripts commissioned which was all great fun. Nothing made it onto the screen, although I am now adapting Love Marriage with the BBC. But I do wonder if that process has fed into Love Marriage. It's a very visual book with little narrative summary throughout It is written scene by scene and has a propulsive quality and some of those things may have been fed in by that experience of trying to write for the screen

What would be your advice for an aspiring, female writer?

I mean the essential thing that I said previously is to read a lot and read deeply because that will teach you so much by a process of almost osmosis The second thing is to be curious. Writing comes for me from a deep sense of curiosity about what is going on in the world and with other people You definitely have to dig deep internally I would also say that when you find the writing has become difficult because it is uncomfortable and is causing you feelings of shame or worry, that is when you know you're onto something and that's when you really need to dig in.

What do you think your next project will be about?

Alongside adapting Love Marriage, I also have a desire to write a play. I have an idea for one at the moment, but that is very much at the embryonic stage right now I like doing things so I can keep learning, but writing a play is currently on the agenda.