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.