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Search Results for: the good muslim

The Good Muslim

August 10, 2011 by Elizabeth

When I read accounts of war, I do think about its devastating effect on people; lives lost and grieving families forever changed. But what I loved about The Good Muslim: A Novel was that it looked at how the experience of war changes forever even those who emerge relatively unscathed.

The book opens with Maya preparing to return to the home she had fled 9 years previously. She has been working as a doctor in a small traditional village, delivering babies and trying to educate the community. They turn against her after a woman delivers a Downs Syndrome child, and her husband assumes his wife has had an affair with a Chinese man. The wife is beaten to the point of requiring 3 months of hospitalization, and Maya, after receiving some very definite threats, decides to return home. Her arrival coincides with the funeral of her sister-in-law.

Maya and her brother fought in Bangladesh’s brutal war of independence from Pakistan, both strong believers in their revolutionary cause and both returning with their idealism shattered. Maya became a doctor; her brother Sohail is unable to make peace with certain war events. He fall sin love with a young woman he rescues from sexual servitude in an army barracks. When she, unable to bear her own burdens, flees, Sohail flounders. His teenage crush from across the street, a rigidly devout Muslim, decides to marry him. Sohail moves further and further into a very extreme form of Islam, one that forbids books and even toothbrushes.

Maya’s return home is painful in many ways as she struggles with her memories and the lack of interest from her once-close brother. She is drawn to Zaid, her 5-year-old nephew, now cast adrift by the loss of his mother, but Sohail doesn’t allow her to truly mother him as she would like and he runs wild, a thieving and lying little charmer. When Zaid is sent to a madressa, where he is abused, Maya has to act to save him, but her actions will have ramifications far beyond what she imagines.

The Good Muslim is beautifully written, with layers and nuances that develop the characters. Although a typical American reader will spend most of the book very angry at Sohail and his cold, detached and even cruel religion, by the end the reader comes to understand at least in part what has motivated him. The story moves back and forth between the time immediately after the war and the “current” time of the early 80s.

It deals with a part of history that I know very little about. I knew the basics, of course; Bangladesh started as a part of Pakistan although 1000 miles of India separated the two halves, and in the 70s they fought to become their own country. But I knew nothing about the following Dictator and martial law, and almost nothing about the culture.

Although The Good Muslim is part of a trilogy, I didn’t even know this until I read the amazon page (after I’d finished the book), so it obviously stands on its own. I loved this book, and I was excited to find out there’s more. I can’t wait to read the first book, and I can’t wait till the 3rd book comes out. One reviewer said the first book was even better. Really? I seriously can’t wait.

The Good Muslim offers a thoughtful look at war and revolution and religion and Islamic fundamentalism in the lives of a few specific people, characters you’ll come to love. I highly recommend this book.

Elizabeth enjoys learning more about unfamiliar (to her) places around the world, but what she really loves are well-written novels. Learn more of her likes and dislikes at her blog Planet Nomad.

Filed Under: Elizabeth, Fiction, Literary

The Bones of Grace

August 7, 2016 by Elizabeth

bones of grace

5M4B disclosure

Bangladeshi writer Tahmima Anam has the ability to turn abstract ideas into flesh and blood. In her book The Good Muslim (linked to my review 4 years ago), she looked at the aftermath of war, and contrasted secularism vs religion in the lives of one family. The Bones of Grace contrasts poverty and wealth and the classism associated with those issues. Yet her gorgeous writing drenches these issues with humanity and compassion, giving us complex characters that stay with us long after we’ve turned the last page.

This novel is the 3rd in the Bengal Trilogy, but they are loosely-linked and it took me a while to figure out the connection, which is familial. The book is written as a letter from Zubaida Haque, a wealthy and well-educated Bangladeshi paleontologist, to Elijah Strong,  a man she meets in Cambridge, MA, shortly before she is to leave for a dig in a remote part of Pakistan. It’s a whirlwind affair in which they both fall in love, drawn to the opposite extremes they represent–he with a supportive family who don’t mind that he’s only sort of trying at getting a doctorate in philosophy, she carrying on her shoulders a weight of family responsibility and expectations, complicated by the fact that she’s adopted and knows nothing about her birth mother.

When the dig ends abruptly, due to warring factions and politics in Pakistan, Zubaida (Zee) returns to Bangladesh and her family. Struggling with depression and a sense of helplessness, she marries her childhood sweetheart and close family friend, and moves with him into his family home. However she’s frustrated with the resultant societal expectations. Discontent, she seizes the opportunity to help make a documentary on the shipbreakers, men who eke out a living doing the dangerous work of stripping ships of everything of value, including scrap metal. Living in barebones housing, paid a pittance, doing dangerous work with various levels of noncompliance to safety regulations (where they even exist), the men represent their compatriots around the world. One of them, Anwar, holds the key to Zee’s past.

I really appreciated Anam’s writing in her portrayals of both Zee and Anwar. Neither of them are entirely sympathetic characters, although Zee’s capitulation to society’s wishes and her vacillations are certainly understandable. Anwar, with his misogynist view of women, came across as realistic for a man of his circumstances and upbringing, and I appreciated that he wasn’t whitewashed into something palatable for Western tastes. I actually think Anam is an incredible writer, who opens up new worlds to us.

The Bones of Grace is extremely well done, managing to help us relate to those with whom we thought we had nothing in common. It’s also well-plotted, a character-driven novel with unforgettable people. Highly recommended.

Filed Under: 5 Star Reads, Elizabeth, Fiction, Literary

Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Tim Keller

December 8, 2014 by Elizabeth

5M4B disclosure

prayer TKThe apostle Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians commands Christians to “pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17).What does this mean and how is it even possible? After all, the medieval monks had 7 fixed times of daily prayer, and that was eventually proven to be physically insupportable even for men who had devoted their lives to prayer and didn’t have to be at an office or dealing with the demands of a family who produce an insane amount of laundry. (info taken from p 241; laundry example is from my own life) I have a lot of Muslim friends and sometimes they’ll ask me how many times a day I pray, usually after pointing with pride to their 5 times of prescribed prayer. “We’re supposed to pray without ever stopping,” I tell them, and they’re amazed because they think of prayer as being very ritualistic, with certain motions done and words recited.

I don’t know about you, but prayer is something I want to do more of, feel that I should be doing more of, and yet somehow usually fail to do more of. I’m a big fan of Tim Keller, so I was pretty excited when I saw he had written a book on prayer.

Well-known pastor and author Tim Keller writes in the forward that he realized several years ago that he didn’t have one book that summed up all aspects of theology, experience and methodology, written in modern language and idiom, that he could give to give those wanting to understand Christian prayer. He has put together a work that manages to be both scholarly and approachable, theological and practical with everyday applications.

Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God looks at various kinds of prayer, most notably whether or not we should strive for contemplative prayer which muses on the majesty of God or active supplication which appeals to his power and love for help in various situations of life, and finds that one is not better than the other but that both are necessary in the life of an active, growing Christian. The subtitle of the work, “experiencing awe and intimacy with God,” points to this. We can know and experience God through prayer, and this will change us.

Keller paraphrases methods of combining Bible study with meditation and prayer. “We pray in response to God himself,” he says, in a section titled “Conversing with God.” (p.60) His book emphasizes the importance of being grounded in the Word of God in order to be able to properly appreciate just who it is we’re praying to. He doesn’t shy away from mysticism and emotion, but points to the necessity of first establishing a foundation of contemplation of the word and the gospel of grace.

I love how practical this book is. It’s divided into 5 sections; Desiring Prayer, Understanding Prayer, Learning Prayer, Deepening Prayer, and Doing Prayer. Each section is further broken down; for example the final section includes the sub-sections Awe, Intimacy, Struggle and Practice. The third section, Learning Prayer, includes a deep meditation on the “prayer of prayers,” The Lord’s Prayer, which through familiarity has become banal to many, but which contains many riches.

Whenever I read or listen to Tim Keller, I’m always impressed at how well-read he is and this book is no exception. I feel he quotes nearly everyone who’s written on prayer, from various “greats” through the ages like St. Augustine, Martin Luther, Thomas Cranmer, John Calvin and others, to everyone from medieval mystics to Anne LaMott and Flannery O’Connor. The book is also saturated in Scripture, and will cause you to look at even familiar passages with fresh eyes.

Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God is the sort of book to be savored. The many ideas and experiences put forth within offer ways to transform your life, to bring you into deeper knowledge and intimacy with God. Of course this isn’t a get-spiritual-quick scheme, and ups and downs are inevitable while we continue as broken people in a broken world. But I came away from this book with a fresh excitement for spending time in prayer, and with some practical tips to help me move forward.

Please check out my column at 5 Minutes for Mom, 2 Good Resources on Prayer, where I compare this with another of my favorite books on prayer.

Filed Under: Christian, Elizabeth, Non-Fiction

The Sisterhood

May 31, 2013 by Elizabeth

sisterhoodWhat do 16th-century Spanish nuns have in common with a young American college student in the 2000s? Menina Walker is about to find out. Her own story is interesting–found orphaned in an unnamed South American country after a hurricane, miraculously alive in a boat with a medallion shaped like a swallow around her neck, she is taken in by a convent and then adopted  by an American couple. Her life is all planned out–she is finishing up her dissertation on art history, planning a trip to Spain to research a little-known artist who’s only known works are at the Prada, and planning her wedding.

All her plans come crashing to a halt when her engagement is broken off. She flies off to Spain with a broken heart, lands with a hangover, and decides to take a local bus instead of waiting for the next plane. When it leaves her stranded in a remote mountain village with no phone service or safe place to stay for a week, she finds refuge in a convent with the same sign of a swallow.

The Sisterhood is told in two parts. One part is the modern story of Menina, the other is a tale of the 16th-century Spain during the Inquisition, and a plucky, hardy group of nuns who rescues 5 girls from its clutches and spirits them to safety in the New World. The stories are fascinating and the girls come from a variety of backgrounds–one a Jew, one escaping the clutches of a powerful man, one from a Muslim background, one a mistreated dwarf with a talent for needlework that saves her life. Just as interesting is their fate in the New World, where they must again use their wits to survive and thrive.

The Sisterhood is almost a great book. The plot is gripping but realistic, the characters are moving, and it’s just a good, fun read–kinda perfect for summer, actually. My only complaint is that it has this subplot, a la Da Vinci Code, that Christianity is founded on a lie and only this obscure little convent guards the truth from men who would do anything to stop this dastardly idea from spreading. Yawn. It detracted from what was otherwise a fun and original story.

Filed Under: Elizabeth, Fiction

The Bracelet

February 28, 2013 by Elizabeth

Nurse Abby Monroe finds herself at a loose end. Her long-term boyfriend just dumped her, and on top of that she  lost her job at a Boston hospital. Almost on a whim, she signs up for an immunization program with the UN at a clinic in Peshawar, Pakistan, near the Afghan border. On her way there, she spends some time getting briefed in Geneva. Out for a run one morning, she sees a man and a woman struggling on a balcony. The woman falls to her death. Abby is riveted by the sight, and by the brightly-flashing bracelet on the woman’s wrist. But a few minutes later, she’s fleeing herself, from the man who is looking for her. She sees the man remove the bracelet and his eyeglasses from the dead woman’s grasp. Abby runs back to her hotel, but when she returns with the police, there is no body to be found.

Once she arrives in Pakistan, she continues to be haunted by nightmares where she sees the woman fall again and again. She lives alone in the UN house, with a daily housekeeper named Hana, who’s surly and unfriendly, and a driver, Mohamed, who shows up occasionally. Her colleague Najeela is warm and gushingly friendly, and wants to prattle on about her secret boyfriend, a Swiss man highly placed within the UN, and take Abby shopping at expensive boutiques. When a Pulitzer-prize-winning reporter shows up to interview Abby, the two of them get off to a rocky start, but she soon realizes he has larger stories to pursue than simply an interview with an aid worker.

The Bracelet follows Abby’s journey from naive American (aside: sometimes her naivety is a bit unbelievable. Surely the UN would have briefed her?) to  a woman who bravely take risks to protect others. Her time in the refugee camp opens her eyes to the horrors of human trafficking, and the novel does a good job of presenting the issue. Abby begins to learn whom she can and cannot trust. The most compelling parts of the novel are her times at a rescue house with women who are willing to share their stories–the stories are horrible, gut-wrenching, compelling, disturbing, and ring sadly true, especially if you’re at all familiar with real-life counterparts.

Abby gains more confidence, both in her work at the clinic and in her life in Peshawar. Her relationship with journalist Nick Sinclair grows from a mutual distrust to a real harmony, as together they work to break open a smuggling ring and rescue young women from bondage. Meanwhile, Najeela introduces her to her family, including her creepy uncle Imtiaz, grower of poppies, and her father, who is hoping to be the next president of Afghanistan. Najeela seems sweet and harmless, but after a while Abby isn’t so sure.

Through it all runs the theme of the bracelet that Abby saw on the dead woman’s wrist in Geneva, the one that constantly recurs in her dreams and eventually makes a reappearance in her story.

Author Roberta Gately has worked as a nurse in Afghanistan and other war zones, and her personal experience with life in that part of the world comes through and adds colour and detail to her writing. The Bracelet is a gripping story, one that’s hard to put down and that deals with real-life issues. Highly enjoyable.

 

Elizabeth enjoys books set in the Arab world. She lived in Muslim countries for nearly 10 years, and misses many of her friends and aspects of her life there. Learn more at her blog Planet Nomad.

Filed Under: Elizabeth, Fiction

Christmas Entertaining: Easy Roasting and Cocktails

December 18, 2012 by Elizabeth

Christmas, of course, means entertaining. If you’re like me, you love having people over, and enjoy trying new recipes and new twists on old classics. Your heart is filled with joy at the sight of empty plates, and when your son says, “Mom, you’re the BEST cook!” it makes you happy.You love seeing your home filled with friends having a good time.

There are some gorgeous new cookbooks out this year, combining mouth-watering recipes with beautiful photographs. Today I’m going to tell you about two.


Easy Roasting: Simply Delicious Recipes for Your Perfect Roast
I am so excited about this cookbook! I don’t actually cook roasts all that often, although we really enjoy them. But paging through this book had my mind spinning with ideas. I think for Christmas I’m going to do honey-roasted spiced lamb (p 87) with potato gratin (p.177) and baby squash stuffed with lemon, currants and herbs (p. 206). At Thanksgiving, I made the Brussels sprout recipe (slow-cooked Brussels sprouts with pancetta and chestnuts, p. 213, only I used turkey bacon (Muslim friends) and skipped the chestnuts). Everyone (well, all the adults) loved them.

The book is crammed full of delicious-sounding recipes. From traditional roasts such as beef, lamb, chicken and turkey, to salmon, monkfish, sea bass, rabbit and guinea fowl, this recipe has something for everyone. Even the more common roasts are given new treatments–roast pork fillets with creamy Thai-spiced sauce, or Sonoran spiced orange chicken, for example.

This beautiful cookbook is immensely practical as well. So many ideas! A perfect gift for the cook on your list.

Gatsby Cocktails: Classic Cocktails from the Jazz Age

This is another beautiful little book, perfect for a 20s-themed party or just an evening with friends. This collection of cocktail recipes from the roaring 20s reflect a time when cocktails really came into their own. In the US, Prohibition was at its height, so the only alcohol available was from bootleggers at speak-easys or private parties such as the lavish ones thrown by Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic book The Great Gatsby. According to the introduction, cocktails grew in popularity because the uneven quality of home-made booze produced strong flavors that sometimes needed masking with fruits and sugars.

This book reproduces classic recipes from the 20s: Gin Gimlets, Martinis, Daiquiris, Gin Fizzes, Mint Juleps, Manhattans, Sidecars, and more. Additionally, it includes variations and recipes that have been lost to time: The Silk Stocking, the Elderflower Collins, Raspberry Rickey, the Silver Bronx, or the Dirty Martini  (a round of which were served to Stalin and Churchill by FDR himself!).

There are gorgeous photos of the cocktails themselves, and fun period pictures (although I am wondering how the girl on the cover got her leg to do that). Sprinkled throughout the book, you’ll find trivia on the drinks, their names and histories, and quotes from The Great Gatsby.

Both books would make great presents, either for yourself or for someone else.

Elizabeth loves food and drink, and it shows in her waist size! She loves to spend an evening with good friends and good food. Learn more at her blog Planet Nomad.

 

Filed Under: Elizabeth, Food and Drink, Gift Ideas

Immigration and Adaptation: How Immigrant Families Excel in North America

August 3, 2012 by Elizabeth

 

I have a friend, an Iraqi refugee who now lives in Portland, who’s pregnant with a little girl. She and her husband are afraid. How can they raise this girl in America without having her turn out like those girls they see on TV–immoral, immodest, sassy, talking back? They are very interested to meet my daughter Ilsa, 15, and see that I expect her to listen and that she is respectful of me, while at the same time being very capable of expressing herself. Another friend tells me of her own experiences in Baghdad. She wanted to be a doctor and gained entrance to a medical school in another city, but her mother wouldn’t let her go because they didn’t have any family in that town. Would I let Ilsa go to another city to study? Yes, I tell her, and she beams. This is the life she has dreamed of.

Immigrants and refugees face enormous challenges in adjusting to a new place, culture, and lifestyle. I work with Iraqi refugees here in the US and I also lived overseas as an expatriate for nearly 10 years. In other words, I know from personal experience and observation how difficult adaptation to a new culture can be, and how important it is as well. Although Immigration and Adaptation is different than the sort of book we usually review here, I think many people would benefit from learning a bit more about the topic. Given that we live in a time of unprecedented global movements of people, chances are high that you know at least one family in your neighbourhood, that your child has at least one friend at school, who was born in a different country and grew up in a different place, who goes home to eat things like briyani or fufu or baklava  instead of spaghetti,  pizza or chocolate chip cookies. Or perhaps you yourself are in this situation, perhaps dealing well with some issues and not so well with others.

Haskell G. Edwards is an immigrant himself, and he tells his readers stories of his own experience. This book grew out of a series of workshops and lectures he gives around the country. He’s fond of saying, “Immigrants are transplants from motherland to adoptedland. They adapt, blossom, and flourish or else they stunt, wilt, stultify and are deluged–misfits–comfortable neither there nor here. Adaptation is a must.”(11, 29, etc)

Edwards’ book is geared towards those moving to North America, specifically the US or Canada. He gives practical advice on how to deal with a variety of issues, from how parenting will change, to challenges between children adapting faster (or differently) than their parents, and more. He recognizes that for many families, the woman has gained status and the man has lost it, and he looks honestly at the confusion and pain that can result. Immigration and Adaptation is a highly readable combination of personal memoir and practical help, advice and guidance.

Chapters include:

  • The Challenge of Parenting in a New Culture
  • Building Spousal Relationships in a New Culture
  • Resolving Family Conflicts without Hostility
  • Creative Economics for Immigrant Families
  • Stability and the Drive to Excellence

Edwards has a doctor of ministry degree, and he uses Scripture and biblical principles in areas such as dealing with conflict and the importance of learning to express one’s feelings. However, I do feel this book is appropriate for anyone from any background, and I’m looking forward to introducing it to some of my Muslim friends. Not only is it full of practical advice, but there are useful tools in it as well, such as a family wellness test, charts to help recognize communication patterns, tips on making a monthly budget and sticking to it, and more. Edwards recognizes the importance of grief as well; how, in order to move forward, it is necessary to recognize the good and the bad of what we’re leaving behind.

Immigration and Adaptation is a practical book that could be a help to a variety of readers. I know I’ll be using it and recommending it to many people.

This post is part of the book tour for Immigration and Adaptation: How Immigrant Families Excel in North America. Visit the official blog tour site to read other reviews, or check out the author’s page here.

Elizabeth lived in Europe and Northwest Africa for nearly 10 years, and now she assists Iraqi refugees in adapting to their new homeland, which she loves doing. She’s made many new friends, and consistently eats far too much and stays up way too late. Learn more at her blog Planet Nomad.

 

 

Filed Under: Biography, Elizabeth, Home, Marriage, Men's Interest, Non-Fiction, Parenting

The Leftovers

September 5, 2011 by Nancy

Tom Perrotta is known for his suburban satire and his newest novel, The Leftovers, doesn’t disappoint. One warm, sunny day in October, thousands of people disappear in an event known to some as the Rapture, and to the less religious as the Sudden Disappearance. The story revolves around the Garvey family as they deal with this strange and inexplicable occurrence in very different fashions.

Teenaged daughter Jill witnesses the disappearance of her friend Jen. Wife and mom Laurie is best friends with Jill’s mom, and follows her into a cult-like group known as the Guilty Remnant. Members of the GR wear all white, take a vow of silence and smoke cigarettes. Laurie’s abandonment of her family has the expected effect on Jill as she spirals into some destructive behavior. Oldest son Tom, away at college when the Sudden Disappearance occurs, follows his mom’s path and joins up with Holy Wayne, a man who claims he can hug away your pain. Husband and father Kevin handles his wife’s abandonment, son’s disappearance and daughter’s problems with aplomb, also while running for and winning the mayoral election in their small town, hoping to help people accept what’s happened and move on. He becomes involved with Nora Durst, a woman whose husband and 2 children disappeared and is struggling with her own feelings of guilt and sadness.

The Leftovers is very much a character-driven novel. If you’re looking for a big plot surrounding this event, it doesn’t happen. There’s no explanation of where the people went or why certain ones were taken but not others (Jews, Atheists and Muslims disappear along with Christians). And yet the characters are compelling enough that you’ll still want to know what’s going to happen. A minor plot is introduced surrounding the deaths of members of the Global Remnant, but the deaths are quickly explained and the mystery fizzles out.

The ending of The Leftovers is a bit open-ended, there’s no nice neat bow that ties it all together. But the ending works. It feels almost like you’re peeking in on a slice of life in this town, learning a little bit about some of the people that live there, and then moving on, just as they are also moving on.

Notes on the audiobook: Unintentionally, this is the second book in a row that I listened to that was narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris. Although he has a long list of TV credits and has narrated a couple of dozen audio books, I’m not really familiar with his work, which is probably a good thing. He has a wonderful voice for audio books, easy to listen to without losing my attention.

Nancy would be more than a bit freaked out if people started disappearing. She writes about her 2 boys, books and life in Colorado at Life With My Boys and Books.

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Fiction, Nancy

Partitions

July 22, 2011 by Elizabeth

I’m sitting at a barbecue with a group of people, and I discover that one grew up in Pakistan. “I’m reading a book right now about the partition of India and Pakistan, and the violence of that time,” I mention.

“Whose side is it written from?” he asks me.

“The author is really presenting both sides, but the narrator is a dead Brahmin Hindu,” I say, and get no further. The entire table wants to talk about the dead narrator.

So I will begin by telling you that the narrator is dead. However, this works out fine in the book. It really doesn’t read much differently than the normal all-seeing 3rd person narrator, except the parts where he wants desperately to get involved and can’t, as pure ephemeral spirit, move anything physical.

It’s 1947. India and Pakistan are being divided and apparently everyone is furious about it. This is what I do not understand. I understand it historically, and I understand the rationale behind it a bit. But I do not understand the violence, from all sides against all sides. Why on earth would people hunt down others who are trying to leave and brutalize them? I do not understand this world.

Partitions follows 4 characters in detail. First of all are Hindu twins Shankar and Keshav, the 6 year old sons of the (dead) narrator. We watch as they are separated from their mother at the train station, and follow them in their wanderings through the city, in search of their mother and someone to watch over them. We also follow Simran Kaur, a Sikh girl who escapes out the window from her father, who is planning to dull her with morphine and then shoot her. He does this to protect her, knowing the mobs of Muslim men outside their house will soon arrive to first rape and then either brutally murder or enslave her, her sisters and her mother. Simran is the only one to escape, and we follow her journey with bated breath, as she must battle overwhelming odds to survive. Last of all is Ibrahim Masud, a Muslim doctor in Punjab. Angry Hindu mobs destroy his clinic and he limps towards Pakistan, himself at risk, stopping to care for every wounded person he meets. When he does at last reach the refugee camp on the Pakistan side of the border, he doesn’t stay to join the British doctors and nurses who are caring for a never-ending stream of arrivals. These are the ones who have survived, he realizes, and goes back out to the dangerous fields to care for those who won’t otherwise make it. In a beautiful and satisfying stream of events, he meets and cares for both the twins and Simran.

In spite of the violence, I really enjoyed this book, which surprised me. I usually hate books where men with swords wait on train platforms for trains to stop, then wade in and kill everyone on board. Perhaps it is because the book did not go into excessively gory detail, so it did not feel gratuitous. Perhaps it is because the book somehow presents hope, that all people are not relentlessly evil, that some resist and see humanity in all regardless of the way one’s turban is tied or whether or not one eats meat. Certainly, it is because Partitions is very well written, with characters that manage to be nuanced even in the middle of extreme circumstances. If you are someone who enjoys novels that relate historic times and events, or if you are interested in India or Pakistan, I highly recommend this book. It’s poetic sweep shows us good and evil alike, like the world that exists around us, a mix of both extremes that still manages to contain beauty.

Elizabeth enjoys reading well written books that leave her with hope. See what else she’s been up to at her blog Planet Nomad.

Filed Under: Elizabeth, Fiction, Literary

One Amazing Thing

January 27, 2010 by Jennifer

oneamazingthingOne Amazing Thing is the story of a group of strangers who are caught in an Indian Visa office in San Francisco when an earthquake traps them in a room. They are all there to get a Visa for upcoming trips to India, but while they all have a common reason for being there, their reasons are all quite diverse.

The group includes:

  • the Pritchetts, a middle-aged couple whose marriage is in trouble
  • a Chinese grandmother and her very American teen granddaughter (but the Chinese grandmother hails from Kolkutta Chinatown, which I didn’t even know existed)
  • Tariq, a young adult Indian Muslim teen
  • Cameron, an African American former solder, who takes the reins in their survival
  • Mathalthi and Mr. Mangalam, the Indian office workers
  • and Uma, an Indian-American graduate student, whose narration forms the thread throughout the story

Uma, “interested quite unnecessarily in the secrets of strangers” (ARC page 3), suggests that each person tell a story about “one amazing thing” from their life in order to help pass the time until they are rescued.

The writing is beautiful, and the human observation is just what I love about well-crafted character-driven novels: Describing a look on someone’s face, “fear, or maybe it was hope, the flip side of fear” (ARC page 4).

This is the first book I’ve read by Divakaruni, and I would like to read a more traditional novel by her. The stories from One Amazing Thing will definitely stick with me. Some of them were fantastic. If the in-between parts were more developed, or even if an ending had pulled it more together, it would have been not just good — but great.

If you do like short stories, I give this a high recommendation, but as a novel it felt a bit unresolved.

Jennifer Donovan wonders what the one amazing thing she would tell about her life would be. Maybe you’ll get a clue by reading her blog Snapshot.

Filed Under: Fiction, Jennifer

Funny in Farsi & Laughing Without an Accent

February 26, 2009 by Dawn

The way I see it, memoirs provide a unique reading opportunity- a hybrid of sorts between nonfiction and fiction. There on the pages are the facts (or at least the subjective memories) of a person’s life, but the presentation is so often that of little stories pieced together, chapter by chapter, to form a bigger picture of one individual’s experiences. I enjoy stepping into the memories of others, and I most often appreciate when the storytelling is engaging while the humor factor is high. So it is with Firoozeh Dumas’ two memoirs, Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American at Home and Abroad.

In Dumas’ first memoir, published in 2003, she introduces us to her childhood memories, from both Iran and the United States. While she made me laugh describing the idiosyncrasies of the English language for new learners (picture a seven year old accompanying her mother to the hardware store in search of a cleaner called ‘elbow grease’), the best moments of this memoir were her endearing, yet not overly sentimental, tales of the lessons her father imparted. Among my favorites, she describes her discovery at age six that the ham her father blissfully enjoys is actually forbidden in Islam, not previously knowing this in her secular Muslim family. When she confronts her father, he responds to her by emphasizing that what defines a good person is not as simple as one’s food choices, but what is in his heart. His generous and kind spirit sits side by side the author’s often wry sense of humor throughout this book.

Dumas picks the story back up in her second memoir, released in 2008, this time sharing stories of her college experience at UC Berkeley, meeting her French husband and the transition to motherhood while still living in a quite literal multicultural world. Again, her writing appeals to me for its inherent sense of humor that never disrespects even when gently poking fun at her family life. Her description of her first year of motherhood rose to the top of these stories for me– wryly funny and brutally honest, as usual.

If you’re in the mood for a quick read that engages your heart and your laughter, search no more. Firoozeh Dumas offers exactly that, with the voice of a good friend telling stories over a cup of hot tea.

Dawn needs to build more bookshelves. She can be found blogging to the sound of crickets chirping at my thoughts exactly.

Filed Under: Dawn, Memoir

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