On Our Bookshelves – Ayesha at Last

***

NOVEL: Ayesha at Last

AUTHOR: Uzma Jalaluddin

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2018

***

This is a terrific book—Uzma Jalaluddin, a high school teacher and newspaper columnist, has knocked it out of the park with her first novel. A love letter to Jane Austen and William Shakespeare, a sweet, touching, and very funny romance, and a clever bit of cultural ambassadorship—Ayesha at Last is a delightful and contemporary spin on the Pride and Prejudice story, set in a Muslim immigrant community in a Toronto suburb.

Ayesha is responsible, hard working, sincere, artistic, and outspoken, a loyal friend and a dutiful daughter, niece, granddaughter, and cousin. She’s deferred her dreams to help pay down her family’s debt to her wealthy uncle. She’s too independent to be interested in an arranged marriage, but she’s lonely.

Enter Khalid. He’s handsome and intelligent, to be sure, but he’s conservative and judgmental and extremely religious, and very much under the thumb of his controlling mother. As he observes to himself at the beginning of the story, “Because while it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single Muslim man must be in want of a wife, there’s an even greater truth: To his Indian mother, his own inclinations are of secondary importance.”

***

You can see where this is going. Most of the fun is seeing how they get there. Jalaluddin doesn’t track Pride and Prejudice completely (sadly, there is no Bingley character in this book), and adds some plot twists, including mistaken identity. I won’t tell you who the Lydia, Wickham, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh characters are: you’ll recognize them soon enough!

***

Khalid’s evolution is extremely well done; his faults lie not in his duty to his family or his faith, but in his rigidity of thought. As he learns from his mistakes, he sees his family, his friends, and himself much more clearly. Much like Elizabeth Bennett, Ayesha changes too, although a bit less dramatically so, becoming a better version of herself, better understanding her past, and looking forward to a brighter future.

***

While pulling off a lovely romantic story, Jaladuddin also does a fine job of portraying a community of immigrants and their challenges of assimilation and discrimination. This community isn’t a monolith: they have very different degrees of religious observance and traditional ways. Nor are they closed off—they have friends of different races and beliefs, and spend time at shopping malls and cafes and bars, as well as at the mosque. Unlike the English gentry in Austen’s novels, these characters have jobs, and need to reconcile their personal lives with their employment. It all makes for an engrossing tale, both familiar and highly original in its conception.

***

RATING (one to five whistles, with five being the best): 3 1/2 Whistles

***

HOW TO PURCHASE: Amazon

***

Laura LaVelle is an attorney and writer who lives in Connecticut, in a not quite 100-year-old house, along with her husband, two daughters, and a cockatiel.

Recent Culture Features