A liberated marionette

Amrita at Indiequill has tagged me to list “desi” authors that I have read or would like to read. If by desi, she means mera desh, then the list might not be awfully long. But for now I will stick with the Pakistanis, or the hyphenated Pakistanis!

This list may also be a list in progress, and is not in any order, alphabetical or otherwise. And the titles that are in italics, are ones I have not gotten to as yet. This is not intended to be a formal (or informal) book review per se. I think I will begin with the ever charming. . .

Bapsi Sidhwa - Cracking India

The original title of this book was Ice-Candy Man, which they changed I suppose because of the connotation behind it, even though ice-candy wallah used to sell something similar to a Polka chocolate bar. But the new title works rather well. Set during Partition, the tension and mayhem that builds up to it is seen through the eyes of a child, Lenny. This book is great for illustrating the community of women, and their role during this turbulent time. Deepa Mehta’s Earth 1947 is based on this novel, but my former students and I are in agreement — it does not do justice to the book.

Bapsi Sidhwa - An American Brat

One of the things I like about Sidhwa’s writing, is when she writes about Lahore, the Lahore I remember. Feroza Ginwalla is a teenager just as I was during the late seventies, the beginning of the Islamicization in a Pakistan in which certain folk were becoming increasingly intolerant. Feroza’s journey to America, and her trials and triumphs are familiar to some of us. This is also the book where I had to gasp at the well-to-do Ginwallas shopping at Landa Bazaar! Even if one did shop there, it was taboo in some circles to admit that! I had said London all those years for no reason.

Tahira Naqvi - Attar of Roses 

These are wonderfully crafted short stories about life in Pakistan. Somewhat reminiscent of Jane Austen, Naqvi illustrates an event during martial law, how Pakistanis react to a cricket team returning home after a humiliating loss, the betrayal of a Muslim man married to a Christian woman, in short these stories are comments on various issues in Pakistani society.

Mohsin Hamid - Moth Smoke

It has been a while since I read this, but Moth Smoke depicts life in the 1990’s for a young Pakistani man, whose life changes dramatically when reunited with an old friend. I liked it for the characters, and there are some who say that he has depicted Lahori society during that time rather well.

Mohsin Hamid - The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Looking forward to reading this book which I have put on hold at the library. Again, it takes place in Lahore!!!

Sara Suleri - Meatless Days 

I list this as unread rather than read because I never finished reading this book for my class and it is still on my bookshelf, but of what I read, Suleri writes beautifully of her personal life interwoven with the politics and history of the time she was growing up.

Hanif Kureishi - Everything he has ever written

The list is too long. I want all his books, I have read some of his plays and screenplays, and loved My Beautiful Laundrette, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and Venus. Yeah so they’re not novels, tau phir kya?

Abdullah Hussein - The Weary Generations

Published in 1963 as Udaas NaslaiN, this book has impressively never gone out of print. It is the one Urdu novel besides Qurratalain Hyder’s River of Fire, that I have wanted to read for years - in translation. One of theeese days. . .

Ashfaq Ahmad - Aik Mohabbat Sau Afsanay 

I do not know if there is yet a translation to this wonderful collection of stories by the recently departed Ashfaq Ahmad, stories of love and loss, but if I should ever manage to translate more than one, I will let you know!

Benazir Bhutto - Daughter of Destiny

Now that I know that Madame Prime Minister has (or had) a vast Mills & Boon collection, I wonder if that influenced her writing in any way. I know, that was not very kind or generous. I will not be as brutal as Rushdie was with this book, also known in some parts as Daughter of the East, just to say that this is a book worth reading. I wonder whatever happened to “destiny”.

Faiz Ahmad Faiz- The True Subject, The Rebel’s Silhouette (Naqsh-e-Faryaadi)

How could I leave Faiz out of this list. One of my continual laments is that I do not know Urdu well enough to read Faiz in the language he wrote. His poetry is beautiful, poignant, inspiring, critical. The two collections that I have listed, the first translated by Naomi Lazard, the second by the wonderful Agha Shahid Ali, contain some of his most famous poems as well as some not so famous. I prefer Shahid’s translations to Lazard’s, but perhaps they should be called transcreations rather than translations (to borrow from a poet who may have borrowed from someone else) What Lazard does at times is to give a whole different sense of a Faiz ghazal without necessarily destroying the thought behind it while Shahid is closer to the original. And while the complexity and beauty of Urdu is lost in translation, I would recommend that everyone who can should read Faiz at least once in their lifetime. They may not want to stop once they begin.

Rukhsana Ahmed (trans) - We Sinful Women 

Amazing feminist poems written by Kishwar Naheed, Fahmida Riaz, Sara Shagufta, Zehra Nigah, Ishrat Aafreen, Saeeda Gazdar and Neelma Sarwar. Whether it is Saeeda Gazdar writing about a protest where the police attacked women, or Kishwar Naheed’s description of us sinful women (yes, the title is based on one of her poems), these verses speak to what these poets believe it means to be a woman in Pakistan.

( this post is still under construction. . . like most of Portland is!)