Book review: Love and self-discovery in Nicola Dinan’s Bellies

Bellies

By Nicola Dinan
Fiction/Doubleday/Paperback/320 pages/$34.61/Amazon (

amzn.to/44QGkmY

Nicola Dinan’s debut novel is a modern-day and intimate coming-of-age book spanning multiple cultures in true cosmopolitan style.

A funny, tender and heartbreaking love story about two individuals finding themselves, Bellies brims with pop culture references and a peppy sarcastic tone.

Two boys, London-born Tom and Malaysia-born Ming, meet at a drag party. Their meeting is a performance of gender and identity. In an almost stereotypical meet-cute, awkward Tom stumbles about in an ill-fitting borrowed dress and is enchanted and drawn by Ming’s confidence.

The narrative switches between their perspectives as they deal with various issues, including mental illness, conflicting cultural identity and the burgeoning pressures of adulthood.

Their relationship is tested with Ming’s intention to transition to female. Tom has to grapple with his identity as a gay man with a girlfriend, and Ming feels unwanted and unloved. 

The changing perspectives offer readers an in-depth understanding of both characters, effectively shifting sympathies during the various points of conflict. London-based author Dinan successively evokes empathy for both characters, even when they make mistakes.

The supporting characters, which include friends and families, are not always similarly developed. Some characters lack depth and can be categorised as archetypes – such as Lisa, a girl in their friend group who is an anxious playwright, or her girlfriend Sarah, who is a control freak. 

Nonetheless, all the characters are painted as fallible, equally capable of harm, hurt and love. Be it between friends or family, the relationships in the novel are as bruising as they are tender. The story shows that hurt can exist only through love and vulnerability. This makes the story relatable to any intimate relationship.

The backdrop spans Britain to Malaysia to the United States.

From simple scenes of making char kway teow in their London homes, to drawn-out contemplations of the frictions of trans identity and Malaysian culture, the characters seem to carry places with them as they go.

The food, culture and mannerisms of Ming’s Malaysian family are especially well described, drawing from Dinan’s own experience of growing up in Kuala Lumpur.

Bellies is a story about lovers, friends and family, how they can hurt and care for one another at the same time.

As the book comes to its devastating yet hopeful end, Ming sits among friends and silently reflects on how they love one another: “Maybe that’s what people are supposed to do, sponge out the bad, wring out the suffering as much as we can, even if it stains our hearts and hands.”

If you like this, read: Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, 2019, $17.30, Amazon, go to amzn.to/3rCllpK). It tells the love story of popular boy Connell and unpopular girl Marianne, and how their relationship changes each other through their growing-up years.