In Nadeem Aslam’s haunting new novel, beauty and pain are
intimately entwined. The novel starts in late 2001 and takes place largely
in Pakistan, though some
sections are again set in the newly invaded
Before the main characters are properly developed, a minor
figure is introduced who administers a dose of symbolism in the book. He is the
“bird pardoner” who sets up snares in the trees on Rohan’s garden and traps the
birds to set them free so he can get their prayers. Then there’s also a
mendicant who goes around wrapped in hundreds of chains. The idea is that each
link represents a prayer, and disappears as Allah grants it.
Unprotected by the gorgeousness of Aslam's language, the
story is potentially novelettish or TV movie-like: two foster brothers (Rohan's
son and a boy raised with him) in love with the same woman run away to war. The
adventures they face and their family waiting in anguish stretches the
storyline a bit. Rohan’s daughter Yasmin is also introduced later in the book
and fails to develop as a character in her own right. Perhaps Aslam did this deliberately, as
marginalization of females is demonstrated by "a framed family tree that
displays only the names of the males" and is a recurring theme in the
book.
Like Nabokov, Aslam, whose mother tongue is Urdu, came to
English as an immigrant. He learned it as a teenager, copying out the whole
of Moby-Dick and Blood Meridian to expand his
vocabulary. His prose are armed with allusions to history, literature,
religion, science, and nature; which made many chapters of the book a
delightful read.
By: Sana Ahmad
0 comments:
Post a Comment