'Each of the stories opens a door onto a life...shines a light for a while and quietly closes the door again', November 12, 2014This review is from: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (Paperback)Eight powerful short stories, linked by the fact that all the protagonists are somehow part of the circle of wealthy landowner Mr Harouni - whether his poor servants or wealthy and westernized family members.Women, used and cast aside...a dishonest man who condemns the dying robber who tried to steal from him....a beautiful, promiscuous socialite finally marries....the son of a wealthy family spends Christmas in Paris with his American girlfriend...This is a very different Pakistan from the one we think we know. Beautiful written and very sad. Daniyal's debut novel is a collection of stories, loosely set around an industrialist family of Harounis of Punjab. These stories explore various people in and around the social circles of the rich and poor. In one story we meet a woman who worked as a servant in the family, in another we saw a mistress, in another a branch family of the Harounis and similarly linked but distinct roles in other stories.Masterfully written, the stories explore the lives that are interconnected by culture, history and politics at more than one level. They are also liberally explored from sexual perspective, often targeting women that are at the receiving end of mostly sad endings. The stories also explore various timelines. Some of them seem to be of 70s and 80s while others more recent. As the stories have little in common except Harounis, they seemed to have been written at different intervals by the author but well woven with the realities of culture and history.The stories sketch lives of the rich and poor mingling with their social class, each vying for power and prestige through various ways including lust. Liberal references to the use of alcohol shows the ease with which higher social classes pleasure themselves with banned substances in Pakistan and frequent use of lust and sex to gain power and benefits. Only two stories stand out from the rest of the lot, Nawabdin Electrician and Our Lady of Paris.
Do You like book In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (2009)?
Very good collection of stories on Pakistani life
—peaches72391
