Tag: love

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Review: The Family Tree

Rating: 4.5 Stars

First and foremost, I want to thank Sairish Hussain for writing The Family Tree. It was so refreshing to read about people that I could relate to; people like me, my friends, and my family. There have been very few books about people of Pakistani origin that portray them as normal, everyday humans, with average families and average lives, without the specter of religion haunting the whole story, sometimes even overshadowing it!

The story spans a period of some 24 years, from 1993 to 2017, and is the tale of a family living in Yorkshire. The mother dies in childbirth and leaves behind a new-born girl and a ten year old boy. This situation is bewildering and upsetting for the poor father. He fights his way through depression and brings up his children to the best of his ability. There is nothing stereotypical about this man, or any other man in this book. These characters are all as real as any living person.

Amjad is a British-born man. His parents migrated to Britain from Pakistan before his birth. He works at a warehouse and lives in a modest house, but dreams of giving his children a better life. Dreaming the same dream with him is Harun, Amjad’s best friend. Amjad’s son Saahil and Harun’s son Ehsan are also inseparable and do everything together. When his wife Neelam dies while giving birth to their daughter Zarah, it shatters Amjad. He is determined to do his best by his children and give them everything that he is capable of providing.

With Harun and his wife’s support, and with Saahil helping him along, Amjad manages to give his kids a loving home, not remarrying despite his Ammi’s constant nagging. Things start looking up when Zahra turns ten, and Saahil and Ehsan are all set to graduate from engineering university. And then everything changes in just one night. The lives of all these people change after an act of senseless violence, and Amjad finds himself left alone to raise Zahra with only the aid of his ageing Ammi.

The three main characters are also the narrators of the story. There is a background of cultural and religious identities clashing with the politics of the times. The characters are so well fleshed out that it is easy to picture them all as if they were right in front of you.

While there are many instances where I might have shed a tear or two, this book is not heavy on the heart; you never feel hopeless. Every character is determined in their own way, trying to navigate life like everyone does in the real world. They have their strengths and weaknesses; their highs and lows; yet they remain hopeful. This sense of hope is why The Family Tree stands apart from other similar books.

All through the book we encounter things like racism, religious identity, inter racial friendships, sexism, and other relevant issues. Yet, not once do these issues take over the narrative and draw you away from the real story. It is like all these things are a part of life, not anyone’s whole life. And this is what makes this book amazing in my eyes.

Amjad is representative of all those fathers who live their lives for their children. His love for his family shines in his character above everything else. My heart ached so much for this man who has to raise 2 kids on his own, and yet does the best that he can to give them a better future. There are so many fathers like him in this world, who are willing to sacrifice everything for their children, and who work tirelessly towards this end.

Saahil is one of those young men whose dreams are cut short by tragic circumstances. He is forced to grow up much before his time. His actions and their consequences are so real and believable that you can’t help but feel sad for this boy. He thinks and reacts like a normal teenager and while his actions are questionable, he thankfully doesn’t succumb to the too-common fate of becoming radicalized!

Then there is Zahra.

…everyone is too busy telling us who we are. It’s time we spoke for ourselves.

My favourite character by far has to be Zahra. She is intelligent, smart, beautiful, and knows what she wants. Her identity does not confuse her, nor is she apologetic about her heritage. Zahra is a British Muslim with Pakistani roots, and the world has to accept her for who she is. It was sheer pleasure to encounter such a strong female character who doesn’t have to resort to props like a shalwar kameez or a hijab to make her a Muslim, nor does she need validation from the males around her to make her a good Pakistani girl. These are the kind of girls that I want to read about.

I would also like to add that I really love the cover of The Family Tree. It is beautiful, and so in sync with the book. Neelam’s shawl plays a major role in the story. It is the thread that binds this family together. If there is one thing that can represent this family, it is this piece of cloth. It truly does connect all three people in this family.

The Family Tree is one book that I would recommend everyone to read, whether you are a South Asian or not. I promise you will not regret it!

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Review: Hijabistan

Rating: 4 Stars

Hijabistan by Sabyn Javeri is a collection of short stories about women, with a common thread of hijab running through all the stories. As a rule, I’m not one for short stories. They always leave me feeling like I missed the point. These short stories just sucked me in and left their mark. It is entirely possible that I might be biased towards this collection.

These stories speak to me personally because I have been through the struggle myself. This push and pull of wearing the hijab or taking it off has been a part of my life for most of last 15 years. Of course, it has never been as hard as it is for most of the protagonists in these stories, but I feel an affinity with most of them. There is no judgement about the garment itself here, just the people who use it as a weapon and those who let their views be coloured by it.

I liked almost all the stories in this collection, even those that might seem far-fetched to people who have no clue about how close to the truth they are. I will not talk about all the stories here, just my most favourite ones.

The Full Stop is about a young girl who gets her first period. It reads like a true story because it is the truth of millions of girls who are taught that menstruation is something to hide, something evil and disgusting. Girls are told that it is something to be ashamed of when they should be told that it is natural and something ordained by nature.

Only in London shows us a girl stuck between two cultures, not knowing which one to call hers. It is the dilemma faced by all immigrants, no matter where they come from. It is not easy to give up your old values and suddenly pick up new ones. When a person migrates to a new place, they inevitably become a mixture of the two, their country of origin, and their country of migration.

The Good Wife has to be my favourite story out of all. It is also the saddest. It tells us of a woman who covers herself because she wants to, who is not afraid of what others think of her, whose faith in her Creator is strong even if her husband’s is not. At the same time this woman loves her husband with everything in her and is not afraid to show her love as well. I was crying for that woman by the end of the story, and trying to make sense of our senseless world at the same time.

The last story, Coach Annie, is the sweetest and most upbeat story of the collection. I loved reading about Annie who has to wear the hijab at a tender age, yet she makes it her own, even when she is surrounded by men double her size. Annie makes me believe that women can do anything they put their minds to, regardless of how they choose to dress.

A great book about women and hijab that needs to be read with an open mind and a big heart.

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Review: Daisy Jones & The Six

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid may be a fictional account of a 70’s rock band, but the stories, the songs and the music sound so real that you can’t help but think about getting your hands on that awesome album that doesn’t really exist!

The book follows the rise of Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne and his band, The Six; and how it all came to an abrupt end after a sold out show at Chicago Stadium. No one knows why it all ended the way it did when everything seemed to be going so well for the band. Now, after more than 30 years, someone is making an effort to find out what actually happened.

The book is written as an oral history, recounted by several people. However, instead of going the usual route of everyone telling their stories one by one, this book gives a voice to everyone in one go. It feels like you have a number of people in your head talking about the same thing, yet looking at it from different perspectives.

I thought Jenkins Reid was a good writer when I had read her “Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” This book confirms my belief. The way she writes about her female protagonists, it’s impossible not to feel their pain. You may not agree with their life choices, or what they stand for, but you can understand their misery.

Throughout the book, what I wanted to do the most was to hear all these great songs being talked about. You know a writer is a winner when she pushes herself to write all the lyrics for all the songs mentioned in her book! I certainly hope someone can get a real life Daisy Jones and a real life Billy Dunne to sing these songs some day!

A powerful book with a great soundtrack to accompany it!

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Review: The Only Story

Rating: 4 Stars

I finally got around to reading The Only Story by Julian Barnes even though I had bought it soon after it was published last year. I thought it took me a long time to read The Sense of an Ending because I was travelling and didn’t get much time to read. After reading The Only Story, I realized that I was wrong.

Barnes’s writing is such that it needs to be read slowly, each sentence needing complete concentration. His books are not light reading by any stretch of imagination, they require your full attention. I don’t know what it is about his words, but I had to stop reading several times just to chew upon what I had read. Also, because some parts made my heart feel so heavy that I had no choice but to put the book down for a few hours.

Most of us have only one story to tell. I don’t mean that only one thing happens to us in our lives: there are countless events, which we turn into countless stories. But there’s only one that matters, only one finally worth telling.

Paul was nineteen when he fell in love for the very first time. This first love was what defined the rest of his life, and what was the only story he found worth telling. It might have been a regular love story, had Paul not fallen in love with a woman in her mid-forties, old enough to be his mother.

Paul was happy being the village scandal at that age, and thought, with the immaturity of youth, that love was enough for a couple. That they could live with their love for the rest of their lives without needing anyone or anything else. What followed, was something that Paul could never have imagined.

There are so many issues underlying what is essentially a love story, that it seems inevitable that things will spiral out of control. From domestic abuse to alcoholism, PTSD to depression, every character is flawed. And every character is all the more human because of these flaws.

What we are given is not actually an accurate account of the events or the characters, for it is coloured by Paul’s own prejudices and the diluting effect time has had on his memories. We are shown the story through his eyes as he looks back at his life after decades, and that makes you wary of believing what he says. After all, every man wants to be the hero in his own story.

In the end, it is easy to feel some sort of sympathy for the young boy and understanding for the young man, who had to make some tough decisions in life when all he wanted was to love unconditionally and not care about convention.

It may not be as powerful as Sense of an Ending, but this book comes quite close to it in my opinion.

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Review: Where The Crawdads Sing

Rating: 4.25 Stars

I had been hearing so many good things about this book, that I was sure it was going to disappoint me. For one, the story seemed like something I could never get excited about, being set in the U.S of fifties and sixties, and for another, everyone kept harping on about how emotional it is. Fortunately, Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens lived up to all the hype surrounding it.

I cannot call this story of Kya Clark, popularly known as the Marsh Girl, a roller coaster of emotions because there were only high emotions all through the book. Catherine “Kya” Clark is barely 7 when she sees her mother walk away from home, never to return. The youngest of 5 siblings, she is left alone when all her much older siblings also leave their abusive father. What follows is a tale of heartache, hardship, the resilience of human spirit in face of adversity, and the need for love and belonging in a person’s life.

Kya’s family lives in a marsh, on the outskirts of Barkley Cove, a very small town on the coast. They are known as the town trash, just one step up from the “coloreds” in North Carolina of the 1950s. When her family disappears, hardly anyone in the town is bothered. It is with the help of a black couple and an old friend of her brother, that Kya manages to survive on her own, all alone, surrounded by hundred of acres of marsh land.

While we learn of Kya’s past, there is an alternate story about the suspected murder of Barkley Cove’s golden boy, Chase Andrews. His influential parents, and many others in the town, believe that the Marsh Girl is responsible for the murder. Now Kya has to face a murder trial in a town already prejudiced against her, with the possibility of being given the death penalty.

As I read the book, I was struck by the fact that real and true love doesn’t mean making things easy for the other person. Real love is when you work towards making that person independent and able to stand on their own feet. Reading about a little girl left all alone to fend for herself was not easy. To imagine her going through life without anyone to cuddle her or take care of her, just broke my heart. At the same time, her will to survive, and her determination to win despite all the odds against her, made me cheer her on.

The book is also full of lessons on the wildlife found on the North Carolina coastal areas. All types of birds and insects make an appearance and it was hard not to stop reading and look up the creature being talked about. There are zoology lessons along with some stirring poetry that makes this book a unique experience for the reader. Many reviews talk about the murder mystery in the book. However, I was so invested in Kya and what was happening to her that I couldn’t care less about the mystery of who killed Chase, or whether it was a murder or an accident after all.

A sweet, poignant book about a girl’s journey through life, this book is recommended for those who like drama, emotions, romance and love, as well as those who like reading about wild life.

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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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Review: Homegoing

Rating: 5 Stars

“Evil begets evil. It grows. It transmutes, so that sometimes you cannot see that the evil in the world began as the evil in your own home.”

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is the kind of book that leaves its mark on the reader. It spans centuries and generations in only 300 pages. It reminded me so much of Alex Haley’s Roots, in that it takes your heart and shatters it into pieces. Of course, while Roots is like a full length movie, Homegoing is more like snapshots of a family’s journey through the centuries. It reads like fourteen short stories connected together by a familial thread.

I come from a country which used to be a British colony, and our history books are full of how the colonists came and exploited our resources and ruled us for centuries. Every kid knows of their atrocities and injustices. Yet, we can never even imagine the havoc they wreaked on Africa. The echoes of their evil are still heard all over the world, and the Africans are still paying for crimes committed centuries before they were even born.

Homegoing starts off as the story of two sisters, born from the same mother, who never meet in their lifetime, and whose destinies are as as different as night and day. One marries a white man, a slave trader, while the other becomes a slave. One stays in Africa, where her descendents struggle with their identity, while one is taken to America, where her descendents struggle to stay alive. As their stories play out, you are given a glimpse into American history itself.

The prose is beautiful, some lines so profound, that you have to come back and read them again and again.

“The need to call this thing ‘good’ and this thing ‘bad,’ this thing ‘white’ and this thing ‘black,’ was an impulse that Effia did not understand. In her village, everything was everything. Everything bore the weight of everything else.”

As one side of the family is challenged by the changes taking place in Africa, it is the other side, the slaves, who are going through trials that no human being should have to face. Yet, all characters are unique individuals, who fight their own battles and face their own challenges. You are shown many faces of bravery, many forms of resilience, and underneath it all, the strength of charcater and the will to change things for themselves and their children.

Even though the book ends on a hopeful note, it is heartbreaking to realize that things haven’t changed all that much over the centuries. The colour of your skin still makes a difference, and where you come from still matters. This book has left me with a heavy heart and a real sadness about how human race has failed to learn from the past.

I think this book is a must read for everyone.

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Review: The Hazel Wood

Rating: 4 Stars

Wow! What can I say about this book? Let me tell you right now that this book is not everyone’s cup of tea. Once in a while, a book comes along that you really like even when you can see the weaknesses in the story. This is one such book. I was transported into a world so dark and fantastic, a world of creepy fairy tales, that I didn’t really care about anything else but getting out of this world alive!

Alice is the grand-daughter of a once-famous author of sinister fairy tales, who she has never met. This is because for the seventeen years that she has been alive, she and her mother, Ella, have been running away from the bad luck that seems to be following them everywhere. When they get the news that her grandmother is dead, Alice and her mother draw a breath of relief and decide to restart their lives, believing the bad days behind them.

Then Ella is kidnapped and Alice decides to find her grandmother’s estate in order to free Ella. Her frustration mounts as she realizes that she has no knowledge of the fairy tales written by her grandmother about the fantastical Hinterland. With the help of a classmate, Ellery, who happens to be a fan of the Hinterland stories, Alice sets off to find her mother, and eventually, the truth about their lives.

As Alice and Ellery start their quest, you realize that nothing is as it seems, and the fairy tales are dark and full of horrors. The characters and the world they inhabit is chilling and deeply disturbing. There are no good guys in these stories, and Alice herself is a part of this world. It is a race against time, because time in Hinterland is not the same as that in our world. Years can pass in the blink of an eye, and days can seem to last forever. It is in this world that Alice has to fight her destiny and change her story before she is sucked back into it forever.

I always love a story that takes you into a dark world where you have to fight the demons inside you more than the ones on the outside. The Hazel Wood took me into this world, and all I can think about after finishing it is that I really want to read all these fairy tales. Someone, please find me a copy of Tales From The Hinterland!

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Review: The Keeper of Lost Things

Rating: 4 Stars

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan is a sweet book. It is a story of love and loss, and of lost things and people. As I write this, I realize that the simpler the story, the more difficult it is to write a review. Not because the story has nothing in it, but because it is a simple tale with no hidden meanings or life lessons.

Anthony Peardew collects lost things, not for himself, but in the hope that one day he can restore them to their real owners. So he goes about collecting objects he finds in different places; things like hair bobbles, jigsaw puzzle pieces, bracelets, and a biscuit tin containing some dead person’s ashes. All these things are kept safe in his study, duly labelled with the time and place of their discovery. But Anthony is growing old, and he needs to leave his collection with someone who will love it the same way he does, and who will work towards restoring the objects to their rightful owners.

Laura is Anthony’s assistant and as lost as one of Anthony’s things. When she finds out what Anthony has left her, she is overwhelmed by the task in front of her. With the help of a handsome gardener, a girl with Down Syndrome, a mangy dog, and a crazy ghost, Laura sets out to restore the lost things to their rightful owners, finding her own way in the process, and putting an end to the restlessness caused by a particular chain of events forty years ago.

The book is heartwarming and funny. It keeps going back and forth in time, with two different narratives that merge into one over a time period of forty years. Both stories are equally poignant with some laugh-out-loud and some heartbreaking moments. It took me a few days to read because I was on a break and busy with other things, but once I really got into it, I finished it in one night.

Read this book if you want a change of pace and some light hearted, sweet fun. This was a four star read for me.

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Sunday Musings: Celebrating International Women’s Day

It was International Women’s Day on Thursday, and all I saw on social media were posts about empowering women and girl power etc. I wanted to post something profound too, and racked my brain for a good idea. Alas, all I could hear in my brain was cheap Bollywood songs (which I had been listening to all day Wednesday) and how I needed to fortify myself before my son’s friends showed up for their play date in the evening! My brain becomes a useless organ when I need it to function the most. So I just gave up the idea of being deep and profound.

Then I thought maybe I could post something funny and witty (my brain refused to help me there either) but I had to drop that idea too because making fun will only lead to people being offended and telling me that I’m an evil woman who doesn’t care for the suffering of her sisters. It is after all “THE” thing to do – get offended by others’ opinions, while citing “Freedom of Speech” for your own. Le sigh.

So here I was with nothing to say about the most important day in a woman’s life. It’s women like me who bring down other women, not sharing their enthusiasm about such a landmark day! Just the thought of this had me scrambling to write an apology to my fellow sisters for being insensitive and unfeeling. Again, this useless brian of mine! Every word I wrote seemed like it would be offensive to someone, and I couldn’t take the pressure. Also, I thought, no one likes an apologist any way, so I’d better come up with some other idea.

With no ideas forthcoming, I thought I’d better get on with the cooking and cleaning. But it was my day, and I’ll be damned if I cooked or cleaned on my day! No way! My kids should be bringing me flowers, and my husband should be taking me out to dinner! I knew realistically it won’t be possible; said children have school from which they come back in the evening, and said husband was out of town for his office work. Still, cooking and cleaning were out of question for today.

As I was thinking about all this, my cleaning woman came to do her work. Oh, how I wish I had agreed to a man coming to clean the house, when given the option. Then I could have made him work without feeling guilty. I never plan for the future! So, I thought I’d give the maid a day off for Women’s Day, but she looked at me like I was crazy and said that she would rather work since she was being paid hourly. This Women’s Day was turning out to be a nightmare for me!

All was not lost though. I could still refuse to cook. That would show my kids. They need to remember these days, after all! So, I put away everything that I had taken out, and sat down with my book and went on to enjoy the day like I deserved after working so hard.

My ungrateful kids, though! They came home (with friends, I might add), and asked what we were having for dinner. I told them I hadn’t cooked anything because it was a special day for me. “But you didn’t cook anything yesterday either, or the day before. So what’s so special about that?” Pesky little so-and-so’s. “Mom, it’s Thursday. You never cook on Thursdays. We were just asking about what to order in!” Have I mentioned how I hate my kids?

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