THE CHARACTER of Chanu isn't described prettily in Monica Ali's popular novel "Brick Lane," the story of Nazneen, a young Bangladeshi woman who comes to London for an arranged marriage. Chanu is her much older, much stouter husband. Describing the "rolls of fat that hung low" from Chanu's stomach, Nazneen thinks, "It would be possible to tuck all your hundred pens and pencils under those rolls and keep them safe and tight. You could stuff a book or two up there as well."