Not having read Monica Ali's 'Brick Lane', I wondered to myself before opening 'In the Kitchen': what if I don't like it? Will I keep on delaying reading 'Brick Lane' for another two years? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is probably 'yes'.
'In the Kitchen' tells the story of a Gabriel Lightfoot (Gabe), the head chef at the Imperial Hotel in London. Gabe is essentially going through a mid-life crisis. He is having problems at work where he presides over a group of challenging employees. His relationship with his girlfriend, Charlie, is reaching the point where he is debating whether to ask her to marry him or not. His Father is suffering from an illness that requires him to leave behind London and go and be a source of comfort for his family in difficult times. In the long-term, Gabe wants to open up his own restaurant. In order to finance this he has gotten into bed with a soon to be ex-minister of the government and another financier.
The first criticism that I have of 'In the Kitchen' is the way that the story begins and ends. This is essentially with the death of Yuri, a Ukrainian porter at the Imperial Hotel. The death happens under curious circumstances and is therefore investigated by the police but aside from this, I am unsure what the death really adds to the story. A possible answer is that it brings Lena into Gabe's life. Lena is an eastern European girl living illegally in the UK who is connected in some way to the death of Yuri. Now in order for Gabe to get to the bottom of how Lena is connected with the death of Yuri, he apparently has to invite Lena to stay at his home. Not only that, he then embarks on a thoroughly inappropriate relationship with her whilst being deceptive towards her. Whilst at the time I had no idea where Ali was going with all this: should we judge Gabe immediately and have done with it or should we see how things continue to play out? I did opt for sticking with it and seeing it through to the end. I did hope this would prove to be worthwhile but mostly I just got what I expected and nothing more.
The foundations of a great novel are clearly visible if, like me, you are interested in contemporary novels in which the challenges faced by engaging characters are dissected along with the connected social issues involved. To be successful, though, the story and the message which is tries to get across must be well integrated. It is here where Ali, in my opinion, fails. There is no such integration; in fact, there are long sections of the novel where what the characters are saying are in fact a diatribe by the author. All the current pressing social and political issues are included in different parts. 'In the Kitchen' is a credit-crunch novel; there is the token career politician who is planning his next move after his term in Parliament ends; and of course there is a spectrum of views on immigration. It is also telling that, on all of these issues - and even after supposedly being in Gabe's head for over 400 pages - we still don't know what he thinks about each of them. There is simply no colour in him. I think the bland cover of the novel is quite telling of just how little 'well-roundedness' is on display in the novel. Especially when you compare it to the very memorable front cover of 'Brick Lane' and the colours in the title.
Despite all this, I still believe that it could be included in this year's Booker long-list. When I think of the sort of novel that could be there, I can picture an author like Ali and novel like 'In the Kitchen' being included. Being a deserving winner, however, is another matter. For that the author must surely have had to aim for perfection and in this case, I think that could reasonably be doubted.
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