Brick Lane: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

Chanu has decided that it is time for the family to see the London sights. Since he will soon be going home to Bangladesh, it is time to become a tourist, and he buys a guide book and a pair of shorts festooned with pockets for the purpose. They begin on a double decker bus and then head for Buckingham Palace. Nazneen is impressed by the building’s size but not its façade. Shahana isn’t impressed by anything. Chanu fiddles with his new disposable camera.

Nazneen is determined that Chanu not be disappointed in this day, so she peppers him with questions and laughs and eats so many treats she is nearly sick. Then she takes a photo of Chanu and the girls. The photo will eventually sit in their kitchen near the oven, gathering grease. Then Chanu asks an American tourist, glowing with goodwill, to take a photo of all of them. The man obliges happily, saying he’s always wanted to see India. Later, when they have the film developed, they see that the one of them all together shows only their feet.

In St. James park, Nazneen spreads out a picnic she has prepared. It is an elaborate feast, but Shahana only nibbles at the store-bought sweets. Chanu eats everything and falls asleep. The girls go for a walk and, even though she wishes she could join them, Nazneen stays with her husband. She thinks of her new love affair with Karim. Her desire for him fills her with a mixture of shame and elation. She knows that every time they make love they commit a crime, but she cannot stop herself. And she loves playing house with him afterward. She grows more patient with her children, Chanu, and her work.

The Bengal Tigers seem to have lost their bite. It’s all because the Lion Hearts have stopped publishing leaflets of their own, so the Tigers have nothing to respond to. Karim thinks that they have gone underground and that there will be hell to pay. He has begun taking spiritual instruction from the imam in woman’s sandals, and he’s started growing a beard. He often tells Nazneen what he has learned about Islam while she changes the sheets.

Nazneen forces herself back into the moment in St. James Park with her family. The girls have returned from their walk. Chanu wakes up from his nap. He goes in search of ice cream for everyone. When he’s gone, Shahana asks if Nazneen is in love with him. Nazneen misunderstands at first, but soon realizes Shahana is talking about Chanu. Nazneen says that Chanu is a good husband and that she was lucky in marriage. Shahana says she only says that because Chanu does not beat her. Nazneen wonders who is wiser, the mother or the daughter.

Mrs. Islam comes for her money the following Monday. Nazneen gives her the fifty pounds she and Chanu agreed upon as a monthly payment. Mrs. Islam is not satisfied with that amount, though. She has heard that Nazneen and Chanu are planning to go home to Bangladesh. She knows that there is money somewhere in the apartment. Nazneen tells her she has no more money, so Mrs. Islam begins to tell her about her husband, a worthless man, and her sons, who only have half a brain each. Everything she has accomplished, Mrs. Islam says, she has had to do on her own. Her speech wears Nazneen down. She goes to the cupboard and pulls twenty pounds from her secret stash and puts it in Mrs. Islam’s bag. Mrs. Islam is satisfied. She says she will throw Nazneen and her family a going away party when it’s time.

Nazneen and Razia are out shopping. Razia is looking for cloth for Shefali, who just finished her exams and is planning to go to university. Nazneen asks after Tariq, wondering if she should mention her suspicions to Razia (she thinks he might be using heroin). Razia says he goes out all the time now, and she hardly sees him. Nazneen remembers a conversation she had with Karim about the many young users living in the estates. He blames the heroin problem on a rise in the standard of living. It’s like in the U.S., he says, where the government supplied black people with drugs to bring them down. Nazneen is confused. Karim says that in England, the government is more scared of Islam than of heroin.

In the store with Razia, Nazneen finds herself wanting to tell her friend all her secrets. She tells her only about the fact that she and Chanu borrowed money from Mrs. Islam. Razia is horrified. She says they’ll be paying off the loan for years. Mrs. Islam will always find a way to charge her more. Then she tells Nazneen to keep the money she and Chanu have saved for the trip to Dhaka. Razia will think of something to get Mrs. Islam off their backs. She selects her fabric and pulls out her purse to pay, but it’s empty. The white sales girl is contemptuous and dismissive. Nazneen offers to pay for the cloth, but Razia refuses. On the way home, Nazneen mentions that Dr. Azad is worried about local kids using heroin. Razia says she’s just glad God has spared her household that problem.

That night, Chanu is reading a book about the Bengali textile industry at the time of British imperial rule. He mentions to Nazneen that the English often made a habit of chopping off the fingers of Bengali weavers. He is trying out a new gadget he bought for his cab—a beaded seat cover that is supposed to be good for the back. Nazneen thinks about all the money he has spent on gadgets and fines since becoming a taxi driver and wonders when or if they will ever break even. He continues to talk of textiles and tariffs. She wishes the girls would take more interest in their father’s studies. Shahana is absorbed in the TV. Chanu turns it off and asks her to come sit with him. To Nazneen’s surprise, she does.

Chanu tells his daughter that when he looks back on his life he is shocked by how little he has accomplished. Shahana tells him not to worry. He goes on, using the local newspaper merchant as an example of a man who could have been royalty back home but who here, in England, slaves away at thankless work. Shahana makes the point that the newspaper merchant just sold his flat for 167,000 pounds and that Chanu should have invested as he had, but Chanu doesn’t hear her. He is trying to explain why he and Nazneen plan to move home to Dhaka. He sends Shahana to bed, thinking that his daughter now understands him perfectly.

Nazneen can’t sleep, so she gets up to wash the girls’ clothes in the sink. She finishes quickly, but a horror rushes on her suddenly—a realization of what she has done and how God will judge her. She vomits on the newly clean clothes and then Rupban appears in the corner, wailing and blowing her nose on her sari. She tells Nazneen that God tests everyone. Sometimes that test comes in the form of riches. Sometimes it is in the form of a man or a husband. Whatever the test is, Rupban says, her mouth and teeth growing with each word like a monster in a horror movie, there is an easy way to pass it. All one has to do is endure.