Fiction
Read it
I'm not exactly sure why this was an international bestseller. It has a very American flavor of obsession with terrorists. But I suppose that is just a matter of style.
The story opens with a Pakistani man sharing a meal with a very obviously white person. He shares his background and establishes a relationship, all the while reassuring his dining companion that he's paranoid that that no one is dangerous. Living in this part of the world, it's amusing to me that the author chose Pakistan as the home of his main character. I'm guessing it's because the author is Pakistani. I view Lahore as a normal city, the same as any other. Of course there may be problems with terrorism, just like anywhere else. Ahem. Moving on.
The author takes us through his life and his relationship struggles, none of which made it clear to me why that should result in terrorism. At the end, you never really get answers. He implies that people are chasing them and that it's nothing to worry about. So many questions, no answers. Are we simply supposed to connect the dots? This doesn't seem to look good for the author. Especially when I suspect his motivation for writing this wasn't to encourage people to see terrorism behind every corner.
This book left me puzzled on many accounts. It's a good time pass, it helps the audience relate the main character. Aside from that, I'm not sure how it relates to fundamentalism, terrorism, or what conclusions the author is asking the audience to draw.
Read it for a good time pass, but don't encourage the fetishism of terrorism that the west embraces.
~Becky~
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