Of Aspergers and Family Matters: Roopa Farooki's 'The Way Things Look To Me' is a pleasant surprise

I think one of the major reasons I was so amazed that Roopa Farooki’s book was good was because no one ever discusses this author. Ever. I’ve been reading about and discussing and analysing Pakistani literature for a while now, and Farooki is so completely absent from the discourse that I expected this book to be a total bomb. Which is why when I began, and the words flowed together so smoothly, my first impression was that of shock, and my second one of happiness.

The plot and the characters and the narrative are all secondary. First and foremost is the fact that Farooki writes really well. And that’s a compliment only very few Pakistani authors can lay claim to. Her words are effortless; a façade that is so carefully constructed that it only crumbles in a few odd places. Overall, I notched this book one star higher just for the writing. 

Another star was given for the characters, who are complex enough to retain interest. Asif and Lila, older siblings to the autistic Yasmin, deal with their mother’s death and their loss of any parental guidance (father gone in an early death) in completely different ways. Asif, stepping in as the sole caretaker, both perfects and resents his role as Yasmin’s indulgent guardian. Lila, selfish and volatile, completely tears herself away from her family, destroying every other relationship in its wake, but unable to separate herself completely.

Unfortunately, while Asif and Lila, and even Yasmin, make for compelling characters with their own distinct narrative arcs, it is the plot that lets the book down. I did not much care for Yasmin’s documentary filming, about the life of a non-neurotypical, nor was I overly invested in Asif or Lila’s tumultuous love lives. Even though both the siblings have compelling, vastly different personalities, and hence completely different trajectories in how they meet, fall in love, and sustain their relationships, it doesn’t make for a strong enough story to keep me reading for long. Asif’s slow acceptance of his worth and his realization that the gorgeous woman at his work place might be interested in him might be an interesting character study, but it isn’t a great narrative arc. Same with Lila and her blind boyfriend, who gets ten points for representation and not much else.

And while we are talking about representation, we might as well discuss Yasmin, whose Asperger’s combined with her synaesthesia should have made her one of the most interesting characters in this book. Unfortunately her larger than life siblings hold most of the attention, reducing Yasmin’s chapters to a more boring side note. Even though Farooki has tried her hardest to make Yasmin three dimensional, I always become uncomfortable trying to figure out if the representation is actually true. Even though I know that no two non-NT people are the same and I’m all for disability representation, I always need to take a step back and wonder whether the book isn’t using the representation the way people are using feminism and social activism these days, just because it’s in the spotlight. Overall points for representation though.

Recommendation

This is the kind of book that I didn’t love but would understand if someone did. It’s the kind of book you can appreciate, with its comfortable phrases and character building and control over pacing. Definitely recommended.