Tag: children

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Review: Crooked House

Rating: 4 Stars

There was a crooked man and he went a crooked mile.

He found a crooked sixpence beside a crooked stile.

He had a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

Agatha Christie herself admitted to being partial to Crooked House and called it one of her favourite books. When you read this book, it is evident that the writer had as much fun writing it as the reader has reading it. I have always enjoyed Agatha Christie’s style of old-fashioned romance with more emphasis on the actual story and less on holding hands and calling each other “darling”! This one is right up there with The Man in The Brown Suit in my list of favourite Christies.

Charles Hayward is in love with Sophia Leonides and intends to marry her as soon as circumstances permit. However, when he returns to England, he discovers that Sophia’s much beloved grandfather has passed away. The police suspect foul play, and every clue points to the dead man’s second wife who is fifty years younger than him. When Sophia decides that she cannot get married until the case is solved and the murderer punished, it falls to Charles to find out the truth.

The Leonides household is full of people who hold grudges against each other, as well as the victim, Aristide Leonides. The nature of the crime is such that anyone could have had the opportunity to do it without the others being any wiser. It is in everyone’s interest to let the young second wife take the blame, yet none of them actually believe it to be the truth.

With everyone trying to hide something, and newer, more incriminating facts coming to light every day, Charles finds himself willing to go along with the solution that makes the most sense. The way this book was going, I started to feel really bad for poor Charles. The unexpected turns that come out of nowhere in true Agatha Christie fashion, seem quite misleading, yet lead to a finale few would predict correctly.

The end is not really my favourite, but it makes a strange kind of sense and confirms my belief that Agatha Christie was a romantic at heart.

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Review: Born A Crime

Rating: 4.5 stars

I was very sceptical back when The Today Show replaced Jon Stewart with Trevor Noah, a comedian from South Africa, who very few had even heard of. He’s still nowhere near Jon Stewart, but over time I have come to appreciate Trevor Noah for his own unique brand of humor and wit.

For the past few years, I have not been a short story person, even less, a biography person. So a biography written in the form of short stories was something I had to think really about reading. As it happened, once I started, I flew through the pages. The memoir turned out to be a lesson in South African history that is hard to find in any history books.

“In America you had the forced removal of the native onto reservations coupled with slavery followed by segregation. Imagine all three of those things happening to the same group of people at the same time. That was apartheid.”

Born to a white father and a black mother, Trevor was illegal even before he was born. Forced to hide from public sight for the first few years of his life, he grew up alienated from other kids, hardly ever making any friends. That he chose to look back upon his life with humour and not bitterness, just shows how successful his mother was in bringing up a well-balanced human being under such adverse circumstances.

All through the book, the one thing that comes across loud and clear is Trevor’s love for his mother, and his acknowledgement of the sacrifices she made not only to have him, but to keep him as well. It is the story of a mother and a son, and their struggle to overcome all difficulties.

Despite all this, the book is not gloomy or depressing. It is in turns, funny, poignant, and heartbreaking, but not bleak. It makes you think, and it gives insight into the lives of a nation that is thought to be doing alright since the dark period of the apartheid ended. What everyone closes their eyes to, is the destruction apartheid left in its wake.

“People love to say, “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” What they don’t say is, ” And it would be nice if you gave him a fishing rod.”

It boggles the mind how a handful of people, outnumbered by the natives five to one, managed to rule over the country, simply by dividing them and making them fight each other. This is the history that I want to know about. There is a lot in this book that resonates with me as a Pakistani too. After all, we may not have had it as bad as South Africa, but our country is also a product of colonial rule. Oh, and our parents also believed in not sparing the rod!

There’s a very funny story about Trevor’s friend Hitler, and it’s also a lesson in perspective. My son read the blurb and asked about it, and as I told him, I realized how valuable a lesson it is for him to learn! The book is full of such instances where you stop and think . About racism, about division, about language barriers, and about opportunities.

What I really want to do now, is to get an audio book, because I have a feeling it will be better in Trevor’s own voice.

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Review: Need To Know

Rating: 3.75 Stars

This book really took me by surprise! I don’t know why I bought it, maybe because there wasn’t much choice at the time, but I’m so glad that I did. This is one book that all fans of suspense, thrills and espionage should read. That it is written by a former CIA analyst, is a big bonus.

I have always been a big fan of Alias and 24, Sidney Bristow being my ideal woman since I was a teenager. Need To Know has a similar vibe of intrigue and suspense, with lots of twists thrown in for good measure. Most of the time you don’t know what to believe and what to suspect.

Here, I have to say that I found the character of Vivian a bit naive and gullible, but that’s how most normal people are. I might be suspicious of the characters in a book, but I’m sure given such a situation, I will probably react in the same way. It’s just not a good feeling to see a woman go through all this on paper, even if we will all do whatever we can to save our family too.

Writing a long review might lead to spoilers, and that is something that I don’t want to do at all. The things I loved about this book is the fast pace (I finished it in half a day!) and the constant feeling of being on the edge of your seat. However, there were some things I didn’t like at all.

I felt that in making the story so interesting, the author forgot to make the characters interesting too. Somehow the characters didn’t feel very real. It was as if they were all going through the motions but their heart really wasn’t in it. I found it hard to sympathize with Vivian even while my heart was pounding at what she was about to do! Similarly, the negative character did not frighten me, even though their actions made me sick and frightened.

Another problem was that I wasn’t surprised by the twist at the end at all. It was a good one though, but I had worked it out for myself. Maybe I just have a suspicious nature when it comes to books!

I can see this book turned into a movie or a TV series, it’s got all the potential. I wouldn’t even be surprised if there is a sequel to that movie, given the last twist. A thrilling, fun read for me.

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Review: Lying In Wait

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Warning: Spoilers

Lying In Wait, by Liz Nugent, introduces us to Lydia Fitzsimons, a woman with the perfect life. She lives in a beautiful mansion with her husband and son, both of whom love her unconditionally. Yet Lydia is not satisfied. She wants something more, and her husband will do anything to get it for her, even commit murder. However, it is the consequences of that murder that make it difficult to get up every morning and look in the mirror. Not so for Lydia though. She will go to any length to rise above the unfortunate event.

There are very few characters that inspire the hatred that Lydia does. Her character is one of the most twisted and cold characters that you will ever come across. You don’t want to kill her, you want to run far away from her. She is a dangerous and manipulative woman, incapable of comprehending anything beyond her own wishes and desires. Reading her parts of the story always left me with a chill running through my spine, not wanting to read more, yet compelled to do so.

Laurence, the overweight son of Lydia and Andrew, who is over protected and smothered with motherly love, is the second narrator of this tale. It is difficult to decide whether to give him sympathy or a slap across his face. Clearly, he is a normal person with a guilty conscience at war with his love for his mother. Yet, we also see traces of meanness and cruelty that make him his mother’s son. Throughout the book, he was one person I really did feel sorry for, even with his moronic obedience and love for his crazy mother.

The third narrator, Karen, is the person I liked the least in this book. Her character was as dull as Lydia’s is evil. I would have given this book a higher rating if it hadn’t been for Karen. Other than being beautiful, there isn’t much to recommend her to the reader. Her choices and decisions are so contradictory that you become as confused about her character as she herself is in her life. Somehow, I found it very hard to sympathize with Karen.

The book becomes a bit boring and repetitive halfway through, with things seemingly going round and round in circles. The side characters are somewhat stereotypical, especially Bridget and her family who are shown to be lackluster just to contrast with Karen’s beauty. Yet, Karen is the one who comes out as the bad guy in this whole scenario. It wouldn’t have hurt to make Bridget a bit better looking, and not make her do what she did in the end because it all went against her character. It was unnecessary to turn Bridget into a vindictive bitch just to absolve Andrew and Karen from their selfishness.

The end is chilling and satisfying, though I saw it coming. Lydia’s character stays true to form till the end, and Andrew remains as clueless as ever. Karen’s character remains confused like always. She was so irritating for me that I really thought she got what she deserved.

Overall, a satisfying book for lovers of creepy stories.

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Review: A Place For Us

Rating: 4 Stars

All individuals are a unique sum of their life experiences, so much so that reading the same book at different stages in your life sometimes results in completely different reactions. The place where I am right this moment in my life made A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza resonate with me very deeply.

The book starts off with the wedding of Hadia, the eldest daughter of Rafiq and Layla. We are immediately made aware of the tensions within the family, as Amar, the youngest and only son, returns after 3 years of leaving his family, to do his duty by his sister. In all this, there is also Huda, the typical middle child, overlooked by not only by the family, but also by the author herself.

As we go back and forth in time, we are given a glimpse into the life of a Muslim couple who moves to the US from India, and try to bring up their three children according to Muslim and Indian traditions and culture. As is the case in most cases, the children all try to rebel in their own individual way.

Being a parent bringing up my kids in a foreign land, while I understand the worries of the parents and their fear of the children losing their religion, I don’t agree with trying to scare them into conforming. As this book shows, pulling the strings too tight causes them to break ultimately. When you have two children who are good at being obedient, it is natural to assume that the same mode of parenting will work on the third. Most of the time this is not so. We, as parents, know our children better than anyone else, and this is why sometimes we need to keep our egos aside and change our ways in order to avoid regrets later.

The book jumps from one time to another without any warning, and as the pattern starts becoming evident, you realize the importance of all the different instances from the eyes of three people, Hadia, Amar and Layla. We see how small betrayals and forgotten reactions all lead to the eventual breaking up of this loving family. We also see how people form opinions according their own understanding of the situation, instead of trying to find the real facts.

It is very sad that open communication is something that is lacking in most of our interactions, especially when it comes to families. In most families, the father is considered the one who lays down the laws, the disciplinarian, the person his own children are hesitant to approach. In such families, the mother assumes the role of the middleman, the one who is responsible for changing the father’s mind. No one realizes that some things are lost in translation when you have indirect communication. This can sometimes cause rifts in families that become almost impossible to breach over time.

As I read the book, there were a few instances where I felt that the writer did give in to stereotypes, and the constant strain of “The Ali Boy” was really getting on my nerves. So, I was completely ready to give this book 4 stars and move on. Then came the last part.

What was missing in the whole book was there in the last part. As I read about a man trying to do his best by his family, I couldn’t help but feel for that man. A person brought up to hide his feelings can never feel comfortable letting his emotions show. The way Mirza has written about Rafiq’s thoughts is moving and heart wrenching. The struggles of a father who is unable to voice his love for his children, are brought to life in the last part of the book. I couldn’t help but think of my own father, who while lying in bed, too sick to move, and in so much pain, was worried about how he had been unfair to his son! It all felt personal, and I want to admit that I cried while reading the last part of this beautiful book.

This is a book that is meant for everyone. I even found myself wanting my teenage son to read it even if only to understand how parents love their children in their own different ways. A beautiful book that will stay with me for a long time.

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Sunday Talks: …But What About The Classics?

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of the ability to read, must be made to read The Classics (with due apology to Jane Austen. Pride And Prejudice remains a favourite of mine).

Ever since I can remember, people have been telling me to read classics and learn to appreciate them. In school, these books were stuffed down our throats until we wanted to tear our hair out. Whenever I asked for suggestions about what to read, the answer would invariably be some classic or the other before even asking me if I was interested. That was only because it is considered unthinkable that you haven’t read at least some “Classic” authors.

Later on, it became a matter of pride to tell people how you have read the most difficult books and love them to no end. Unfortunately, I have never learned to appreciate the “Classics” bar a few which took my fancy at an early age.

Shakespeare has never been a favourite. It might have something to do with reading the abridged form of all his plays for school, but even after reading a few full plays, I have never been impressed. Same goes of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy. The only Dickens that I have ever liked is A Tale of Two Cities, and as for Hardy, I admit to having fallen asleep while reading Far From The Madding Crowd.

I can go on and on about books that everyone swears by and that have failed to move me. There have been a few books that have managed to touch me as well, but as a rule I have failed to find an author about whom I can say that I like all their work (unless they have only written one book, and I have liked that book).

It has taken me almost four decades to admit that I have lied about having read a book simply because I was afraid of being judged. Even when I was a kid, I never admitted to anyone how I didn’t find Black Beauty interesting at all, or how Heidi seemed to be a very boring little girl! I think I’m still a bit afraid to say it out loud.

I’m not saying I don’t like classics at all. Some have stayed close to my heart, and even now I don’t know why I like them. Alice In Wonderland, Pride And Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Rebecca to name a few.

The reason I thought about all this is that my kids refuse to read any “old” books that I tell them to. They want to read what they like, and they’re unapologetic about it. If my daughter doesn’t like Charlotte’s Web, and my son finds Pinocchio insufferable, they don’t hesitate to say it. Over the years, I have learned to stop nagging them about what they “should” read, and started paying more attention to what they “want” to read.

There was a time I used to fill the kids’ shelves with books that I had been given to read when I was their age, forgetting about how I myself felt about these books at that age. Then, when the kids didn’t read them, I got angry because I had spent so much money. I screamed and shouted, and swore never to get them another book again, yet not being able to stop buying more of the same.

My children have made me realize that there is no such thing as a classic. Any well-written book that holds their attention, is a classic for them. And that is how it should be. I shouldn’t expect a 10-year old to care about 19th Century England, when he lives in 21st Century Middle East. I shouldn’t expect a 9-year old to want to know about travelling in horse carts when she has never even experienced public buses. They will get there in due time…if they want to.

Reading books should be about your own likes and interests. It shouldn’t be about what others think you should read, nor should it be about showing off to the world how well-read you are. It is only when we let them enjoy the experience, that people will turn to reading and books. Read and let others read in peace.

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Review: Sometimes I Lie

Rating: 4.5 Stars

One of the most engaging and thrilling books that I have read in recent times, Sometimes I lie is the story of Amber Reynolds, who is in a coma, and who has a story to tell.

I started this book on a four-hour flight, thinking I will read for a while and then try to sleep, like I always do. I find it impossible to read on board a plane. It gives me headache and nausea. Well, this time around, as the plane was landing, I was on the last chapter of this book! It was impossible to put it down without knowing what happened and how twisted is the truth. To say that it is plenty twisted, is an understatement.

The book starts off with Amber Reynolds, brought into the hospital in critical condition, who has slipped into a coma. She is aware of what is happening around her, yet unable to wake up or move. At first, she cannot remember how she has gotten into this situation. The only thing she is sure of, is that her husband is not what he seems, and that he doesn’t love her anymore.

As she begins to piece her memories together while lying comatose on the hospital bed, we also begin to realize one thing about her. She likes to lie. She twists the truth to suit her narrative, but her lying in a coma also points towards the fact that something very sinister has happened to her.

From the beginning, we know that Amber has some anxiety problems, and soon enough it starts to emerge that she has some sort of OCD. The roots of her behaviour obviously lie in her past which, as we find out from some diary entries, was quite traumatic. But as we keep discovering all through the book, the truth is not so easily discernable from the lies, and one thing that Alice has already told us from the beginning, is that sometimes she lies.

I wish I could write somehting more without giving out any spoilers, but even the little that I have written is kind of a spoiler. This book kept me hooked right till the end. It is the kind of book that is deliciously creepy and addictive. I loved everything about this one!

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Sunday Musings: Changing The Fairy Tale

A few weeks ago, my daughter came up to me and said that someone told her that Moana is more courageous than Mulan, because she fought gods while Mulan only had to fight humans. The reason my daughter came to me, is that I have always told her that I don’t like any Disney princesses, except for Mulan, and since my daughter hadn’t watched the movie, she wanted to know my opinion about it. I told her to watch Mulan and decide for herself. It is not always easy to make children understand how everyone has different likes and dislikes.

As we were travelling to Europe the very next week, my daughter took advantage of the opportunity, and managed to catch Mulan on the airline entertainment system. She was impressed, even if it had old-fashioned animation. The reason I’m recounting all this is that while in Europe, we had plans to visit the land of Disney for the first time in our lives.

Visiting Disneyland was as much fun as anyone can imagine. The children wanted to go on every ride and see everything. Everything that is, except Fantasy Land. My husband, thinking that our 9-year-old daughter would want to see something of it, insisted that we all see it at least. To appease him, we even waited in a long line to go on the most boring ride of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. That was when I realized how different, yet similar my daughter and I are.

While she wanted to try on all the tiaras and crowns in the souvenir shops, she was also the first one to want a picture with King Arthur’s sword! While she thinks that glitter solves all problems, she also thinks that princesses are lame! In that, my daughter is just like me.

Since my childhood, I have always been more fascinated with the villains than the heroines of fairy tales. If these fairy tales happened to be in the form of Disney animated movies, then I definitely wanted to be the villain! Take Snow White, for example. WHo would you rather be: a resourceful woman with her own opinions and a definite plan for life, or a confused girl who cooks and cleans for strange men, takes food from strangers, and waits for someone to come and save her from choking? I would rather be the former.

When I first read Cinderella, I thought she was stupid. I was too young, and had no idea what was wrong with her actions, yet I didn’t like her one bit. I did, however, have the most questions about the stepmother. All other tales like Beauty And The Beast, Snow White And Rose Red, The Frog Prince, and even Goldilocks were rejected by my younger self because they all sounded stupid!

This is not a rant about how fairy tale heroines need to save themselves, and not wait for a hero. I love heroes, and I love romances. I just love well-developed characters more. I want to see a well-rounded personality for the heroine rather than the one-dimensional one that we get to see. There is nothing wrong with waiting for a hero to save you, you just have to do something yourself in the meanwhile!

In recent years, Disney has tried to turn the traditional fairy tale around, but since they were the ones to make it so shallow in the first place, I would say it was their duty to change things!

I’m still more likely to gravitate towards the Wicked Queen, or Maleficient, or Scar, simply because they seem to have so many shades to their personality. We need heroes and heroines with more shades of grey, and less perfection, not because of anything else, but just to make fairy tales more interesting!

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Review: The Ocean At The End Of The Lane

Rating: 4 Stars

In The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, Neil Gaiman shows us the world as seen by a 7-year-old boy. The world that children live in is not the same as our adult world. Their realities are different from our realities, and it is a fact that as they grow older, they forget the perspective their childhood gave to their world.

An older man comes back to his hometown to attend a funeral and decides to take a walk down memory lane. Something seems to pull him towards the home where he lived for seven years, from age 5 till age 12. He knows that the house had been demolished a long time back, and that he has no fond memories with that place.

As he passes the house, he realizes that his destination is actually the farmhouse at the end of the lane, where he had become friends with a girl when he was 7 years old. Lettie Hempstock was 11, and the two had become best friends immediately. When he reaches the house he starts remembering things that he has forgotten a long time ago. He is met by Lettie’s mother (or grandmother, he’s not sure) who tells him that she remember him. He asks if he can sit by their pond and reminisce about the past.

As soon as he sits down by the pond, he remembers that Lettie used to call the pond an ocean, and this recollection opens the floodgates of memory long forgotten. Here begins the story of how a 7-year-old boy was saved by an 11-year-old girl, in more ways than one.

Gaiman’s stories are always fairy tales, with elements of magic and surreal settings, but at the same time everything can also be a metaphor for something real. This book is no different. Told from a child’s perspective, The Ocean At The End Of The Lane is mostly about magic and other-worldly creatures. But it is also about how children are always aware of what is going on around them, even if adults choose to think otherwise.

A child’s mind can imagine great things, and at the same time it is capable of accepting truths that adults might dismiss as being fanciful or imaginary. This book leaves the differentiation of real from imaginary on the reader, and takes you on a ride into the mind of a child as remembered by an old man. In the end, memory is fleeting and what we once thought was unforgettable becomes a figment of our imagination as we age.

Once again, I find myself lost in Neil Gaiman’s brilliant imagery, and cannot help but think of him as one of the best writers of our time.

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Review: Things She Could Never Have

Rating: 4.5 Stars

I have never been very enthusiastic about short stories in English. While I love reading Urdu short stories, somehow English short stories have never held any fascination for me. Furthermore, contemporary Pakistani writers have, with the exception of one or two, always left me disappointed. It was these two factors that made me wary of reading this collection of short stories. In addition to all this, the biggest stress factor was that the writer, Tehmina Khan, is a new friend, and I was afraid that I might not have anything good to say about her book! The truth is, if I hadn’t liked the stories, I would never have written anything about them. It would have been just one more book that I read and forgot. Thankfully, I didn’t have to avoid writing a review. As a matter of fact, the reason it took me so long to write it was because I actually read a few stories multiple times to make sure I don’t forget anything!

For me, the problem with Pakistani fiction writers is that when they write about the underbelly or the lower strata of society, they sound quite condescending and judgemental; like someone who has never really experienced it but is seeing it through a window from the outside. This is okay when you’re reading about something you have no idea about, but when you are living in that society and have seen things with your own eyes, these writers start sounding fake and ignorant. I’m saying all this because I want to emphasize how big a surprise this book was.

There are a total of twelve stories, some interconnected by a common thread, while others just glimpses into the lives of different individuals. All of them are steeped in reality and a mirror to the society we live in. There wasn’t a single story where I felt like I didn’t know what the writer is talking about.

The first story, about a maid and her son sounds fictional, but unfortunately, it is very close to how we treat our maids, and how their children are ripe for manipulation and exploitation.

“To Allah We Pray,” tells the tale of how destiny works in strange ways to bring the most unlikely people towards their death as a young man, fresh off the plane from Canada, is convinced by his friend to offer prayers at a targeted mosque before proceeding to party with other friends.

In “A Stranger In My Own Home,” Khan tells the heart wrenching story of a trans woman who returns to her home after five years, to find that she still has no place there. Reading about the mother who tries to protect her “different” child, and who loves the child no matter what the sex, is like a true glimpse into the heart of a mother.

The titular “Things She Could Never Have” continues the story of the trans woman, Saleema, and her love for Kiran, and all things pretty. Tragedy, in the form of a suicide bombing at a mosque, takes away a life, leaving the other mourning the loss.

“This Is Our Secret” is the story of every house. It is the story of how an adult in a trusted position molests a little girl and asks her to keep it a secret. This story is also a documentary on our attitude towards these incidents in general. The girl keeps it a secret, until she tells it to her mother, who, while shocked and distressed, tells her not to tell it to the father. The real sad part of this story is what the little girl takes away from this whole experience. An eye opener for all mothers and sisters.

The thoughts and apprehensions of “The Engineer’s Bride” are familiar and very relatable to the majority of middle class girls who have gone through arranged marriages. Their looks play a big part in attracting suitors, and the main criteria of a “good” match is a man who is “well-settled” in life. The most important step in their lives is decided by others, and they are expected to immediately settle into whatever their fate has in store for them.

“The First” is a story that made me sad because, again, it is reflective of real life in college hostels. The young girls who come from all kinds of different backgrounds, form strong, unbreakable bonds and become each others’ secret keepers and protectors. How these girls become willing victims to men leading them on, and how they fool themselves into overlooking what is in front of their eyes, is what this story is all about.

Surprisingly, the story that really broke my heart and made me cry was the least tragic of all. “Flying In Andalusia” can easily be a true story of so many men and women I know in real life. In a society where parents have the final say in who their offspring gets married to, the result is often what is depicted in this story. It is most common to get a son married off to a “suitable” girl, even if he is interested in someone else. No thought is given to the said “suitable” girl, and she is expected to compromise and be satisfied with her lot. Oh, and she has to be happy about it too! This one made me feel really depressed and sad.

“Born On The First Of July” tells the tale of a family left shattered when their daughter leaves to join ISIS, and the callous way others treat the already bereaved family.

“Closed Doors” is, again, a heartbreaking story about a much-anticipated pregnancy gone wrong. There can never be enough words to describe what a woman goes through when she has a miscarriage.

Physical abuse of children is at the forefront of “Stealing Apples From Heaven”. A girl who is much-loved, is astonished to see her cousin being punished by her mother for a small transgression and her mind tries to come up with excuses for her aunt’s behaviour.

The last story, “Come Listen To Me” is different from all the rest of the stories. It is the reminiscences of an old woman about life after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. She relives all her experiences as she talks to her long-dead husband and tells him about her life since she left him to visit her parents. It is about the resilience of the human spirit even during the worst of times.

For such a slim volume (it is only 121 pages long), this book sure packs a punch. For everyone looking for good, realistic Pakistani fiction, this is one book you need to check out.

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