Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful..., 2 Jul 2008
I had hoped to laugh heartily when reading this. Instead I read a book that was filled with subtle humour that when combined with everything in the book raised a smile. Yet this is not to detriment of the author. Instead it raises him from a mere comic author to a skilled writer which this century seems to be lacking.
Yet alongside is a story that is filled with sorrow. A slow developing relationship between two soldiers or as Hanif writes 'two scared boys' leaves you wondering whether Ali (the main protagonist) loves the other as a friend, a brother or a lover, and you never find out. It is this that provides the pathos to the novels quirkiness. The end made me, I'm not ashamed to say, weep and I still wish for that happy ending that never comes.
This was, however, everything it claimed to be. Much more than comedy, it was a damning portrayal of the leadership of Pakistan and the readiness of America to ally herself with anyone stemming the tide of the Red Menace, and a tragic story of an odd and enigmatic love.
It also tells the story of Pakistan, a country we forget about as we are tied up in Afghanistan and Iraq. It reminds us of the sad fates people that the media does not give attention to. In the wake of the treacherous killing of Bhutto it reminds of dictators that have yet to be toppled, especially as the General involved here is the very one that hanged Ali Bhutto and robbed the Pakistanis of a liberal democracy.
The cohesion of the plot appears to be flawed at first with chapters flitting between various characters suddenly and time moving between past and present without much warning. Yet kudos to Hanif who ties it up well and keeps the reader guessing until the very end.
A must-read but perhaps not the light-hearted summer read it appears to be. Nor does it have a happily ever after. Read this book with your mind and heart open, and be prepared- you may never trust a crow ever again.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A 'Midnight's Children' for postmodern times? Not quite..., 4 Jan 2009
I don't know whether it's because of Empire, but the Indian subcontinent shares a great deal with the British sense of humour, switching without warning from irony to farce to pathos to outright tragedy.
A Case of Exploding Mangoes sounds like it belongs to the tradition of 'Carry on Up the Khyber', and in some ways it does (it enjoys being both silly and naughty), but the story it tells (of the mysterious assassination of Pakistani President Zia, and the mystery that no-one really seemed that interested in finding out who did it) is deadly serious.
As someone who lived in Pakistan during Zia's 'reign', I don't fully recognise the level of opression and paranoia presented in the book, but I have no doubt that the author (like the book's main protagonist, an army officer recruit in those days) saw things from a very different perspective.
It is hard to tell a story when one knows the ending already, but this book does it very, very well. The book even has time to take a crafty side-swipe at US foreign policy in the region: a character called 'OBL' appears at a party organised by the American ambassador to Pakistan and is clearly both an embarrassment and a vital part of America's 'secret' war with Russia in Afghanistan. That he may have become very, very rich through his partnership with the CIA is something best not thought about...
But at the heart of the story is this remarkable relationship between two men (well, boys, really), which grounds all the joking at Zia's expense in something so disarmingly touching that one cannot help but be emotionally invested in the unknown outcomes for these characters.
I would love to have dinner with Mohammed Hanif: I can't imagine that he is anything but as urbane, intelligent, sassy and just plain funny as this book is. So does it describe the state of a nation the way Midnight's Children and Shame do? No. It's having too much fun for that...
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but not great, 28 Oct 2008
This book is wittily written and a fairly easy read. Every so often, the reader comes across a clever nugget that makes you chuckle or mentally note to quote later.
Whilst the book gets off to a promising start, it seems to lose momentum halfway through. The pace does pick up again in the final few chapters but on the whole, the sub-plots are a bit loose and some of the characters are fairly one-dimensional.
Entertaining, enjoyable and easy read - great if approached without any major expectations.
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