A poetically written account of life under the Taliban extremists of Kabul Afghanistan. It’s written by an Algerian, not an Afghani, with a self-described vendetta against extremist Muslims. The story wrings true enough compared to news reports, but is utterly depressing. All four main characters, two men, two women, go crazy and die horrible deaths at the hands of the Taliban. November, 2004.
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The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
A novel about tuning pianos in 1856 British Army in Burma. I found it painfully slow and predictable. A remake of the Heart of Darkness. I didn’t finish it. My mother and sister-in-law enjoyed it a lot, however.
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Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam **** of 4
Islamic Pakistani immigrants struggle with isolation from their homeland and one another. Aslam’s writing is so replete with metaphor and cultural insight that every page is like peeling an orange. Beneath the skin there is the filmy white pith, a thin membrane about each section, and as the sections are removed, and juice is squeezed from within, he reveals not just the seeds, but individual cells. Aslam’s masterpiece is a highly detailed tapestry of emigrant Pakistani culture caught between the old and new. Like all intricate weavings it takes time to construct, but as the plot slowly develops, so does each character’s relationship to Islam. Thus, this is the best book I’ve read on how Islam is practiced by real people, albeit fictional ones. See also, Guests of the Sheik, The Shia Revival, Persepolis, Reading Lolita in Tehran, December 2006.
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The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni * (of 4)
There must be a reason it’s on so many reading club lists. I tried this book and after fifty pages thought this is too depressing to read and I’ve read better books on Islam. April 2007.
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Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri **** (of 4)
Remarkable short stories. Each one feels like a complete novel of Indian immigrants making their way in the new world.
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n Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin ** (of 4)
Eight short stories of contemporary life in Pakistan. Most of the short stories cover decades or lifetimes: way too much material to summarize in just a couple dozen pages. In each, men and women fall in love and inevitably hearts are broken. All the women in the stories suffer economic, psychological, and sometimes physical pain. Ewww. The most overrated book of the year. October 2009.
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The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh *** (of 4)
An American-born ecologist of Indian immigrants travels to the Sunderbans to study the Irriwaddy Dolphin. She joins three additional main characters — a translator, an unlettered fisherman of the tide country, and nature. As a scientist she is so painfully American I must believe that Ghosh’s accounts of the others in the book are equally accurate. It’s a fine story full of area legends, sights, history, and aromas of islands that submerge to their treetops at every tide, enhanced by the outstanding narration on Recorded Books by Firdous Bamji. August 2009.
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A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry **** (of 4)
The title refers to the fine balance between hope and despair for four Indians surviving emergency rule, poverty, and the caste system in India ruthless crackdown on disorder by Indira Ghandi during during the 1970s . The chaos of the street appears mostly offstage while the action occurs like a play in the tiny house of Dinabai, a widow trying to live independently after her eyes fail. She takes on a boarding student and two tailors to generate revenue. Mistry’s writing took my heart from my body and placed it in the toiling hands of the four protagonists struggling against unfathomable odds. Both sweeping in scope and microcosmic in its examination of daily life this is writing that in my opinion is destined for a Nobel Prize in literature. November, 2005.
