Book Review: The Blind Man’s Garden by Nadeem Aslam

Title: The Blind Man’s Garden
Author: Nadeem Aslam
Publisher: Random House India
ISBN: 978-81-8400-109-9
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 416
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

When you read a Nadeem Aslam novel, you mull over it. You take in his words and breathe what he has to say. You are aware of the political undertones in his books. At times, you also may not like what you read. You might also detest some parts. You will yell in happiness when something good happens to one of his characters. You want to keep the book aside and you will not be able to, because that is the power of his books. You will ignore everything else and read on, because Aslam has a story to tell and his characters will talk to you. They will make you believe and sometimes make you cry and live as well.

“The Blind Man’s Garden” according to me is one of the best books that Aslam has written. I have read all his books and while all his books have the much needed political angle; this one to me is most emotional and heart-wrenching in a lot of places. I interviewed Nadeem Aslam at the Jaipur Literature Festival this year (which will be a different post) and he was so passionate about the book and the way he spoke with me. The book almost came alive through him. All his characters and the situations he put them through almost seemed surreal and believable. For me that is the craft of a great storyteller. “The Blind Man’s Garden” makes you feel and think about humans and what does war do to them. He gets into the heart of his characters and makes them speak for themselves. He makes them tell their stories, their lives spread across the canvas of his landscape, of time unknown and sometimes time is of great essence. This is precisely why I cannot help myself but mark almost every other line on every other page of an Aslam novel.

Jeo and his foster-brother Mikal leave their home in a small Pakistani city not to fight with the Taliban but to help care for the wounded victims. The Western Armies have invaded Afghanistan and the brothers only want to help the wounded, whether Afghani or the Americans. They only want to help and yet they get embroiled deep into the war as its unwilling soldiers. At the same time left behind is Jeo’s wife and her superstitious mother, and their father Rohan, who is slowly but surely turning blind. The war is seen through from all perspectives and that is the crux of the story.

For me everything worked in the book. The writing is sharp and hits in places that you would not expect it to. The past and the present situations merge beautifully throughout the entire narrative. In fact, what I loved the most about the book was the way the structure was built and at the same time the prose seemed very fluid, as though it was waiting to flow through the reader’s mind and heart. The heart of the book is about everything surrounding the war – lost children, grieving parents, hopeful wives and children who are left behind wondering when their fathers will return. Despite all this, what strings the book together is hope, which is unending and everlasting.

There are a lot of sub-elements and plots to the book (which I will not spoil for you) that add to the beauty of this wonderfully written novel. There is beauty and at the same time there is this sharp ache and a prayer that all should go well for the characters that you have come to known while reading the book. As a reader, I found myself hoping that all went well. Such is the power of this magnificent read. It is for sure one of the best I will read this year.

Here are some quotes from the book:

“History is a third parent.”

“The logic is that there are no innocent people in a guilty nation.”

“No,” he said, “but before they lose, they harm the good people. That is what I am afraid of.”

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Book Review: Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi by Steve Inskeep

Title: Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi
Author: Steve Inskeep
Publisher: Penguin Viking
ISBN: 9780670086078
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 284
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

Instant City chronicles the life of Karachi – of a city in Pakistan that seems to be the only metropolis and yet the dichotomy lies in it being so backward at times, that even its people fail to recognize it. Karachi has been transformed a lot since the India-Pakistan partition and in many ways that most people fail to see. Steve Inskeep brilliantly writes and captures the essence of the city with its fallacies and successes (whatever little it might have had) and doesn’t become judgmental at any time while doing so.

The book is divided into four parts – Jinnah Road, Landmarks, New Karachi and Renewed Karachi. What surprised me about the book was that Steve Inskeep has not left any stone unturned. Karachi is no easy city to write about. It is as good as writing about Bombay or Delhi or Calcutta for that matter – a city just as developing and constantly changing. At the same time, it is questioning itself in many aspects – from the religious standpoint to the new ideas formed by the newer generation. From the brand conscious elite that surrounds the city to the systems and functioning of the government. Steve Inskeep as managed to capture the essence of the modern and the traditional aspects of the city at the same time, which is no easy feat.

For a first book, Steve Inskeep sure did make me turn the pages. I was engrossed in the lives of everyday people set against the tumultuous city and its history, present and what the future might bring with it. The writing is structured, though there are parts that could have been dealt with differently, however they do require the detailing. Instant City is a book that also cannot be read in one sitting. It needs thought and breaks with those thoughts. I recommend the book for its writing and its clarity. I also recommend it for the capacity of the writer to go beyond the obvious.

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Short Story 1: The Return by Saadat Hasan Manto

Saadat Hasan Manto stories belong to disturbing times and are but obviously set in those times. Partition of India and Pakistan is the setting for most of his stories and they aren’t pretty. I used to read Manto a long time ago and then I stopped reading his works. They made the hair on my back stand up and only to think that human beings are capable of the worst behaviour, made me sometimes lose all faith in the human race.

I come from a family that experienced partition. My grandmother still recollects stories of those times and how the entire family had to flee Pakistan and come to India. How her home wasn’t her home anymore and the neighbours and friends she knew, would never be hers again. I think somewhere deep down in her heart she still yearns to go back to Karachi and she cannot.

The Return (Khol Do) is a story of a lost daughter when a train going to Lahore from Amritsar is stopped mid-way and attacked by the rioters. The story is of shame and the descend of human character and how sometimes the very saviours can turn out to be the perperators. The father is searching for his daughter and finally finds her. His only relief comes from the fact that she is alive. Nothing else seems to matter. That was the irony of the situation then, I guess.

The Return had a deep impact on me. The questions that arose: Can one human being ever trust another? Where is the line drawn between one who saves and that same person then does not? Who decides the integrity of people? Is there any left at all?

Saadat Hasan Manto’s writing is never sugar-coated. He always wrote the way he saw and what he experienced. By now you would have realized that I would definitely recommend his writing to everyone who reads. He is the master of Urdu literature and I am only too glad that his writing has been available to all since decades.

The translations by Khalid Hasan and Aatish Taseer are worth reading.

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Book Review: Welcome to Americastan by Jabeen Akhtar

Title: Welcome to Americastan
Author: Jabeen Akhtar
Publisher: Penguin India
ISBN: 9780670085316
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 280
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

Welcome to Americastan was a great read for me and the reason I mention it at the onset, is for you to know how good read it was. While it talks about serious issues at hand, it also does that in a manner so funny that you can’t help but laugh out aloud. Welcome to Americastan talks about identity and what it means to be a Pakistani in America in a candid and tongue-in-cheek manner and yet skillfully done.

Samira, a Pakistani-American, returns home to her parent’s house in North California after being taken by a ride and dumped by her boyfriend of eight years. But that’s not where her troubles begin. There are more but of course. Samira tried running over her ex, so now she is on the FBI terror watch list, and of course she has been fired from her job (that I found a little predictable, however will let it pass) for landing in jail. Her life is full of problems and she is home where things can only get worst.

Her father is all for the Pakistani American council (the arguments he offers are hilarious), her mother spikes the punch with rum, her cousins are living double lives and amidst all this Samira is trying to make sense of her existence and mend her broken heart.

The Pakistani community of America is vividly described in this book. From traditional to the modern – almost every aspect is touched upon. The way news spread about families to what is being cooked in whose house – the trivial details make this book what it is – a funny read. At times while reading the book, I could feel the drama playing out in my book – that’s the tone of the book – real and stark.

As a reader I was and to a certain extent still am under the impression that this book is semi-autobiographical in some ways – may be because Jabeen just like the narrator is a Pakistani American; however I am assuming that that is where the similarity ends. The dichotomy of a Muslim community in America is brilliantly portrayed throughout the book. Like I mentioned, the want to stick to a culture whose significance in another nation is not completely understood to the need to adapt to a culture that is not fully known to your family.

Welcome to Americastan is a fast read and yet it touches on issues of stereotypical Muslim-Americans and their lives led sometimes with doubt and sometimes with great confidence. The wit is biting and refreshing. The plot never fails to edge you further into the book and the characters literally speak to you. At one point, I also compared the book to The Buddha of Suburbia because of the writing. I cannot recommend it enough.

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Book Review: In the Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda

Title: In the Sea there are Crocodiles
Author: Fabio Geda
Publisher: Harvill Secker, Random House UK
Genre: Non-Fiction
ISBN: 978-1846554766
PP: 224 pages
Price: £10.99
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

The first thing I thought of when I completed this book was how easy most kids have it in our part of the world. That’s not a bad thing, but perhaps it would be good for our pampered children to see how the real world is, and how an alternate reality is the case for most of the children worldwide.

The novel starts out explaining that it’s fictionalized, as the experiences told were based on true recollections that had to be verified. For the most part, though, it’s true as to what he remembers of his childhood. That makes sense, because it starts with a ten-year-old boy, and how clearly can their recollections be from their youthful perspective?

Akbari’s mother takes him across the border and out of his village and leave him there. She leaves him to a life of the unknown, hoping it is better than what is in store for him with the Taliban in power. We often hear the word and shrink of its visage, get angry with its connotation, or conjure of an image of a turbaned warrior with dusty skin and a Soviet automatic weapon. In reality- the Taliban play a very small role in this book- they are offered up as a reason for escape, but nothing more.

Akbari makes his way across the middle east and into Europe, eventually settling in Italy. Over the course of his journey he relates a sea crossing, getting deported multiple times, run ins with the police, and finding friends, kindness, and hope along the way. The story is stark- details are not really fleshed out with the insistence that they don’t matter- he is trying to tell a story, trying to capture the essence of his journey and has no time for the subtle nuances we come to expect in situations like this. Not deeply philosophical, this might be a turn-off for some.

Along the way there are false friends, painful losses, and some agonizing choices. It’s hard to imagine this is just a kid. What he has to go through is too much for an adult, much less a child.

In the narrative, there are pauses when the storyteller and the Italian author who writes it converse. These sort of bring you to present day. It’s an interesting presentation. They sort of help you digest what you just read. There’s very much a sense of “once upon a time” to this.

Some facts that astonished me was that the Taliban is made up of members that are of many ethnic groups, not just Afghanistans. I knew they were bad but their oppression is senseless. Also, I was amazed at his resilience. The way he kept going despite being abandoned.

A really good read, and I think it would be valuable for some spoiled kids to read and get a clue how well they have it. I know I’m making one of my kids read it, just for the reality check. There is violence but nothing outrageous.

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