Scott Single. Seattle, WA, USA

I enjoyed Ali's first novel, Brick Lane, and picked this one up as it appeared to be in a similar genre. The setting may be the same (London), and some of the subjects may be similar, (immigrants on the edge of society), but the depth of Brick Lane just isn't there.

The protagonist, Gabe, is an up & coming chef who's proving himself by working as a head chef in a hotel while convincing investors to help him open his own restaurant.

The novel follows Gabe dealing with his kitchen staff, with his dying father, with a suspicious death in his kitchen, with his girlfriend, all the while thinking back on his relationship with his father and how things used to be.

The novel does pick up in the last third, but the characters remain one dimensional (I never could keep the five or six kitchen staff separate), Gabe isn't especially likable, and there seems very little coherent point to the novel, just page on page of slow moving, not especially beautiful prose.

Perhaps I was spoilt by a novel dealing with a very similar subject--Marina Lewycka's Two Caravans (Strawberry Fields in the US). Her characters were alive and very identifiable.