false 440777 8 Since the late 1970s, India in all her infinite variety has been brought to life as a posse of Indian authors writing in English have exploded onto the scene: Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai, Rohinton Mistry, Vikram Seth, Bharati Mukherjee--the list is legion. But what of Pakistan--that Siamese twin, painfully separated in the partition of 1947? Though neither as numerous nor as well known as their Indian counterparts, Pakistani writers are beginning to make an impression on Western readers. Novelists from Rushdie to the Pakistani Bapsi Sidwha have written about the partition and the bloody civil war that followed; even stories set in modern-day Bombay or Lahore cannot escape the aftershocks of the division. On the surface, Mohsin Hamid's first novel, <I>Moth Smoke</I>, seems more domestic than political drama: narrated from several different perspectives, it tells the story of Daru Shezad's ill-fated affair with his best friend's wife, Mumtaz. But in a country like Pakistan, the personal and the political are difficult to separate, and as the story moves along, the divisions between gender, class, and opportunity provide a not-so-subtle commentary on the fissures that run through contemporary Pakistani society. The novel begins, tellingly, with a historical fragment about the internecine wars of succession that followed the rule of Emperor Shah Jahan (builder of the Taj Mahal): <blockquote> Imprisoned in his fort at Agra, staring at the Taj he had built, an aged Shah Jahan received as a gift from his youngest son the head of his eldest. Perhaps he doubted, then, the memory that his boys had once played together, far from his supervision and years ago, in Lahore. </blockquote> Jump ahead several hundred years to Lahore in the summer of 1998. Childhood playmates Daru and Ozi have just reunited again after Ozi's three-year stay in America. Glad as he is to see his old friend, Daru can't keep his eyes off of Ozi's wife, Mumtaz. "You know you're in trouble when you can't meet a woman's eye," he says. But woman trouble isn't his only problem; he's also addicted to hash, which leads to his dismissal from an upscale job as a banker. Soon Daru spirals out of control into a degraded existence on the fringes of society. Then a young boy is killed in a hit-and-run accident, and he is accused and jailed. Shah Jehan would probably recognize this age-old story of love and revenge playing out once more--this time against the backdrop of the Indian-Pakistani arms race. Hamid artfully weaves the subcontinent's tragic history into his characters' no-less-tragic present, rendering <I>Moth Smoke</I> a novel that resonates on many levels. <I>--Sheila Bright</I> 1514287 2000 Moth Smoke: A Novel total:541|5:138|4:194|3:150|2:44|1:15| 541 2019 807 88 4 1 false false Wed Feb 04 08:48:59 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 09:28:10 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 15:14:32 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 17:40:23 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jul 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Dec 10 16:03:31 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 10 16:15:27 -0800 2008 1 1/2 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Mar 23 21:47:03 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 25 16:08:16 -0700 2008
The protagonist, Daru, which means moonshine in English, although from a middle class backgrou...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 27 04:35:30 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 27 04:37:21 -0800 2007 Dara has lost his job, and all desire to pull out from the economi...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 13:34:21 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 13:35:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 04:56:44 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 05:23:25 -0700 2009
A book dealing with the one reality of our dear country with such truth and horror that I was left almost...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 11:46:51 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 12:49:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Apr 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 05 08:36:54 -0700 2008 Mon May 05 08:38:57 -0700 2008 5 1 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Mon Mar 26 12:01:48 -0700 2007 Tue Mar 31 18:27:08 -0700 2009 2 1 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon May 12 11:44:41 -0700 2008 Mon May 12 11:46:13 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Fri Nov 07 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Sep 27 12:23:49 -0700 2008 Sat Nov 08 13:59:00 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jul 12 07:04:11 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 30 01:37:14 -0700 2007 Once again I'm between the daily dusty streets of Lahore and the nightly exclusive elitarian parties...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jun 06 11:53:35 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 11 20:49:45 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 1999 Wed Oct 21 22:03:53 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 21 22:07:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 07:52:14 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 07:02:28 -0700 2009
I found this pretty gripping from about the second page on and actually stood outside my front door with my keys in one hand and ...more...]]> 1 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Mar 18 08:11:25 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 08:14:13 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 17 09:05:52 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 04 09:06:05 -0800 2008
The story of his decline and...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jan 27 06:23:08 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 06:25:00 -0800 2009 ]]> 1 0 false false Mon Jan 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 12:35:35 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 07:49:36 -0800 2009
Induces boredom. A love story? Boring.

Moreover, the protagonist is OBV. the author's self-aggrandizing ego speaking to itself. I can deal with vain narcomen but he's not a compelling character.]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=440777