Deja Vu

So... I'm reading along in Brick Lane and just *know* I've read this before. But, I know I haven't read Brick Lane yet. What the?

Then I get an image of me reading this on a train. I think harder and place the memory on the train ride from Norwich back the Manchester.

Think harder.

I was reading Granta. The only issue I've ever really read is the best of young British Novelists 2003. Hmmmm...

Go to the book shelf. Yep. Monica Ali. Chapter 1 has been edited and passed off as a short story. I *have* read this before, but just that bit.

Which makes me feel like this is cheating. Brick Lane had already come out and the point was to write a new short story. They talk about how hard it is for novelists to write short stories. Obviously, Ali failed. It taints it somehow.

I'm still really enjoying Brick Lane though. I just feel the author has lost a little street cred.