![]() ![]() Rupban agrees, ".my child must not waste energy fighting against Fate. Banesa advises Rupban - the tearful, pious mother - not to take Nazneen to the hospital as she would have to sell her jewelry to pay the expense - and besides, the old midwife says, fate will decide the outcome anyway. The eldest daughter, Nazneen, is pronounced a stillborn by the village midwife, Banesa - a woman who claimed to be 120 years old and "was more desiccated than an old coconut." But Nazneen defies her pronouncement, emitting a yowl as she struggles to live. ![]() In her first novel, Brick Lane, Monica Ali paints a moving and humorous picture of gender dynamics in Bangladeshi culture, and deftly evades such criticism by presenting a well nuanced portrayal of the lives of two sisters from the rural village Gouripur in Eastern Pakistan. In addition to tangling with critics, an author can find that skewering the traditions of the motherland is often seen by natives as an act of cultural imperialism, a grasp at unwarranted license, or an act of betrayal ![]() ![]() Some critics complained that instead of setting her story in a specific African culture she offered up a generalized depiction of "African" village life. Take for instance Alice Walker's novel Possessing the Secret of Joy - her indictment of the practice of female circumcision. Denouncing gender inequities in another culture, even when the author has roots in that culture, can be fraught with perils. ![]()
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