In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
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In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
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3.72 of 5 stars
In the spirit of Joyce's Dubliners and Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches, Daniyal Mueenuddin's collection of linked stories illuminates a place and... read full description

reviews

May 02, 2011
Teresa rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Perhaps it's not the best idea to learn contemporary sociology from fictional short stories, but it's not a bad place to start if the stories are as good as these. Twentieth (and early-21st) century Pakistan is presented here through the eyes of the landowners and their peons. All levels of society (the 'middle' class is only glancingly represented by the landowners' 'managers') work the system, some in order to survive, others to get as much as they can. The rich aren't necessarily getting rich More...
11 comments like (8 people liked it)
Jun 16, 2010
Tatiana rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I know next to nothing about Pakistan, aside from the fact that this country seems to be overrun by terrorists, so reading this Pulitzer prize nominated collection of short stories gave me a new perspective on the country and people who live in it.

The eight loosely interconnected stories revolve around K.K. Harouni - a rich Pakistani landowner - and a network of his servants, employees, relatives and opportunists. In "Saleema" a young maid seeks patronage in Harouni's hous More...
3 comments like (4 people liked it)
Mar 12, 2009
Ruby rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Good Read. Clear, easy to follow, and very well written. Only one small problem - and maybe this is a problem that only applies to me - I felt like I was reading a book by Jhumpa Lahiri, or Anita Desai, or even Salman Rushdie. It seems, to me, that many authors from the far east are feeding off of each others literary techniques... What is it about brown authors using the same style of writing? The same extended metaphor that goes on for pages. The flowery language that's used to describe every More...
3 comments like (5 people liked it)
Dec 04, 2009
Abby rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Most of these stories are not stories. Stories have a beginning, middle, and end. They are propelled by characterization, suspense, plot, and insights. Some of the stories, most notably Our Lady of Paris, seem to be pastiches of thoughts strung together. These stories are supposed to be portentous but they just seem like hastily scribbled notes -- observations made by the author throughout his peripatetic life in Pakistan, Michigan, Dartmouth, and Yale Law School.

Yes, the author kno More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Sep 28, 2011
Becca rated it: 4 of 5 stars
this is a collection of loosely related short stories that i wouldn't say i highly recommend but at the same time it was really really good. it was a national book award finalist so that tells you quite a bit. i picked this book because i have to admit that i do judge books by their covers especially if they have a stamp of approval by an award association. and with a name like that how can it not pique your interest.

onto the collection itself: stories range from the poor of pakistan to rich a More...
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Apr 23, 2011
Jim rated it: 4 of 5 stars
It's possible to see here a scathing social critique of the death throes of an utterly corrupt system of patronage, but there is no overt political message in this book. Politics rarely raises its head, apart from local power plays. In interview the author says:

“I am not a political writer, therefore my purpose is to write the finest stories that I am able to write, given my abilities. I don’t enjoy reading political literature, fiction or poetry. I think political writing is a limitin More...
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Mar 12, 2011
Greg rated it: 5 of 5 stars
You've never read anything like this slim volume of eight interconnected short stories about life in modern Pakistan. I can almost guarantee it. Rescued from obscurity by its 2009 National Book Award nomination, Daniyal Mueenuddin's In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is a blend of portraits of Pakistani people, both rich and poor. The effect is a holistic image of everyday life in a country stuck in an seemingly endless loop of feudalism and class struggle.

Mueenuddin, who was born to a Paki More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Feb 06, 2011
Nesa rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Set in Punjab, the eight linked stories in this excellent book follow the lives of the rich and power­ful Harouni family and its employees: man­agers, drivers, gardeners, cooks, servants.

The patriarch, KK Harouni, of the feudal landowning class, owns a farm in Dunya­pur and a mansion in Lahore. In the title story, we meet him in the final years of his life, living mostly in Lahore, apart from his estranged wife, having surrendered the management of his farm to the corrupt Chaudrey Jagl More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jan 21, 2011
Anthony rated it: 4 of 5 stars
The book is a collection of 8 loosely-interconnected stories that take place in Pakistan in the present day. I've read three of the eight stories and reviewed them here in previous years (in fact, this was my third reading of the opening story, "Nawabdin Electrician"). The stories, all together, paint a picture of a society in which the Old way of doing things still hangs on and in which the younger generation struggles to fit, as well as a society in which status still matters great More...
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Oct 11, 2010
Ali rated it: 4 of 5 stars

This is a lovely collection of linked short stories. The people and places jump right off the page. From big cities to country farms, from simple servants quarters to the luxuary of a parisian hotel - these stories take the reader on a wonderful journey through the lives of some very different - and very real people who are all connected - some very loosely- with landowner KK Harouni. The stories are fully fleshed out, satisfying reads - with memorable characters. In Other rooms, other More...
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Aug 22, 2010
Allyson rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This was given and recommended to me by my friend Rachael who loved it. The writing is beautiful and the author creates his world and characters perfectly; I felt I was there beside all of these people, but their stories made me want to curl up in a ball in my bed and not think about them anymore.
All of the stories were too sad for me, brutally so and I could not get beyond that fact, feeling manipulated to feel badly.
It reminded me J. Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies but despite More...
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Feb 12, 2010
Jennifer (JC-S) rated it: 4 of 5 stars
‘Three things for which we kill – land,women and gold.’

This is a collection of eight linked short stories which describe the overlapping worlds of an extended Pakistani family of landowners. These are stories of the servants and dependants in the worlds of Mr K.K Harouni’s overflowing household in Lahore and the peasants on his estates, as well as the parallel worlds of his industrialist relations who have distanced themselves from their feudal past.
The characters in these sto More...
10 comments like
Jan 29, 2010
Will rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Mueenuddin has put together a collection of stories that offers a less than flattering portrait of Pakistan. But while the social structures that come under his gaze are less than ideal, his writing is top notch, his ability to create memorable and accessible characters is superb. The organizing methodology here is that each of the stories connects with K.K. Harouni, patriarch of a family in a declining landed class. He is almost an innocent, not noticing that his servants are taking extreme, a More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Dec 08, 2009
Jon rated it: 4 of 5 stars
These stories of men and women in Pakistan are interesting in several dimensions. Starting off with the dimension of socio-economic grandeur, the stories range from village life with a jamindar or landowner (familiar territory to me) to the other extreme of jet set wealth and sophistication (not so familiar to me), all in a Pakistani context. The scenes of a decadent wealthy elite, doing drugs and hobnobbing in Paris, are as surprising to me as they would be to any villager. I have seen the e More...
2 comments like (1 person liked it)
Oct 23, 2009
Nancy rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This collection of linked short stories is both very well-written, and an eye-opener for readers not familiar with social life in Pakistan. So much depends on social status and wealth, and likewise gender. Women married to wealthy men may or may not have any freedoms: they can be divorced, put aside while the husband brings in another wife, or other women; they may or may not be allowed an education, and if they have an occupation prior to marriage, they do not continue it.

Men who ha More...
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May 22, 2011
Raghu rated it: 2 of 5 stars
I picked up this book as it has had good reviews from writers I respect - like William Dalrymple and Salman Rushdie. It has been a long time since I read a book by a Pakistani writer. Even this author, is a Pakistani-American rather than a native Pakistani. It is collection of loosely-connected short stories, the connection being a rich landowner/industrialist in Punjab called K.K.Harouni. Two stories are set amongst the upper class members of the Harouni family and the rest are about lowly-paid More...
1 comment like (2 people liked it)
Dec 06, 2010
Valentina rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Comprising a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories, all revolving, in one way or another, around a prominent, land-owning Pakistani dynasty, this novel sheds some light on the extremely complex and painfully feudal Pakistani society.

Ranging from tales of a corrupt elite's extravagant lifestyle, of extreme wealth, foreign travels and unrestricted alcohol consumption, to the equally corrupt but far more meager dealings of an entire class of illiterate servants trying as More...
0 comments like
Jul 27, 2010
Lauren rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Ah... After a couple of miserable days where I attempted to read "All The Pretty Horses" and concluded that I was a complete loser, I finally put that down and picked up Daniyal Mueenuddin's "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders." Three of the short stories in this book ran in The New Yorker -- always a good indication to me that I will like a book. And I absolutely loved the book... Well, "love" isn't the right word, perhaps. I was riveted. This was yet another book More...
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May 06, 2010
Charlotte rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This is a fabulous collection of interlinked short stories, mainly set in Pakistan. It's an amazing view of a country still feudal but modernizing with both very rich and very very poor classes. I felt like every story was beautifully written--crafted, but not too crafted. It was also incredibly depressing--it really IS harder to write happy stories than unhappy ones. I have no complaint about the way any of the stories ended--they were all perfectly in line with the characters' motivations, and More...
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Mar 16, 2010
Bibliophile rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I love William Dalrymple's books about India and his New York Review of Books articles about the Subcontinent, but I'm starting to think that he and I have very different literary tastes! Daniyal Mueenuddin's In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is the second book I've picked up because of Dalrymple's enthusiastic review and found to be somewhat wanting (the other was Jason Elliot's An Unexpected Light)!

The short stories in this collection are loosely linked around the personage of K.K. More...
1 comment like
Jan 26, 2010
Cynthia rated it: 3 of 5 stars
The book was similar in approach to Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout in that it was composed of a series of short stores about - in this case - people related to or dependent upon a rich land owner in rural Punjab and the city of Lahore. It gives a very insightful look into the lives of people in various walks of life in Pakistan - some more in control of their lives and some at the very bottom of the class system who have no real control. The lives of the principal characters are ultimately More...
0 comments like
Jan 26, 2011
Laysee rated it: 3 of 5 stars
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, comprising eight linked stories, is Daniyal Mueenuddin’s enthralling debut. Set in the Punjab district of Pakistan, it reads like an insightful commentary of Pakistani society borne of the author’s lived experience. The related tales revolve around the life of K. K. Harouni, an aging feudal landowner, his privileged children, and his retinue of servants, cooks, gardeners, business associates and cronies. Each story is a self-contained bitter-sweet morsel tasting of More...
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Dec 18, 2008
Mike rated it: 4 of 5 stars
While each of these stories can easily be appreciated on their own merits, what makes this such an impressive books is how these stories and the characters and their actions intertwine. The stories center around a wealthy Pakistani landowner, his family members, and people from all strata of society who associate with and work for him. Where this book excels is the emphasis on the humanity of all the characters and how each character has a story. In most books, bit characters come and go, usuall More...
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Jan 24, 2010
Peter rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Having grown up in Pakistan, I have always had a soft spot for fiction about the Indian subcontinent. But until this book, my favorite of these authors wrote, by and large, about India. This is hardly an impediment to the quantity or quality of that literature, as in recent times the scope of Indian fiction has grown as wide as the Indian diaspora; but it is rare to encounter a first-rate book of fiction about Pakistan. It is also noteworthy that Mueenuddin has made his mark with short stories, More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
May 16, 2011
Belinda rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Where's the half-star option when you need it? This (too) slim book of short stories is bumping up against the best books I've read this year, and it feels like an injustice to give it just four stars. Lovely, well-crafted stories that quietly introduce the reader to contemporary Pakistan, a country founded in fuedalism, further shaped by colonialism, and then struggling with modernity as its well-off young people go abroad for an education and perhaps spouses. Back at home, poverty and servitud More...
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Feb 25, 2011
Susan rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This was a National Book Award Finalist, book of eight short somewhat interwoven short stories which take place in feudal landowner/servants structure in Pakistan in the 1980-90 time period. The author and his family for years before him run a farm in the southern Punjab part of Pakistan. But he left Lahore when he was 13 and attended boarding school in the US, followed by college at Dartmouth. He returned to Pakistan for a few years after college and stayed long enough to understanding the r More...
2 comments like (1 person liked it)
Feb 20, 2010
THE rated it: 1 of 5 stars
Thwarted again...another highly praised volume of stories, named National Book Award finalist for 2009, defies my great expectations by crashing with the dullest of thuds. Daniyal Mueenuddin, a Pakistani American with the best of credentials, including a Yale Law degree, published works in the New Yorker and Granta, and extensive life experience among Midwestern Americans and rural Pakistanis, provides a compendium of stories loosely tied to the patriarchal figure of K. K. Harouni, a wealthy fi More...
2 comments like (1 person liked it)
Apr 15, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Mueenuddin brings to bear on his stories his personal experience: the son of a Pakistani father and an American mother, he was educated in the United States and lives in Pakistan. Drawing comparisons to Flaubert, Chekov, and Balzac is a smart way to kick off a writing career. When not searching for analogs from the annals of literature, critics found plenty of superlatives to praise Mueenuddin's work, which effectively depicts a place and people plagued by class and ancestral tension and caught

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Apr 07, 2009
Angela rated it: 3 of 5 stars
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is an easily flowing collection of short stories in which the characters are linked somehow to the estate of K. K. Harouni, a powerful landowner. Set in Islamabad and rural Pakistan, the collection endeavors to give a larger picture of the workings of Pakistani life, describing everyone from Harouni himself to his poorest servant. Mueenuddin does well at giving us a taste of the flavor and structure of Pakistani life. Surprisingly, the two stories I found most compe More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Sep 09, 2010
Susan rated it: 5 of 5 stars
These eight marvelous short stories give the reader an idea of Pakistan's society at all levels. A common thread is a wealthy landowner named K.K. Harouni, and each of the stories describes Pakistan's complicated feudal system from the perspective of the characters-- Harouni's friends and acquaintances, his subordinates, and his relatives. Sadly, women and the poor suffer in this tiered society regardless of their class, and many have a sense of resignation that their circumstance and tragedies More...
8 comments like (2 people liked it)