Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan
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This elegantly written memoir traces [Eteraz's] relationship with the religion of his birth, fromhis childhood in Pakistan, where he feared beatings at the madrassa, to adulthood in the U.S. . . . Thoughtful and wry, he offers glimpses of a changing Pakistan and a U.S. immigrant's journey, too.--Booklist
Product Description
"Children of Dust" is a penetrating memoir by a fresh Pakistani voice. Ali Eteraz reveals the inside story of Muslim fundamentalism in rural Pakistan, the culture shock of moving to the American Bible Belt, and a young man's journey of reconciliation with his Islamic identity. At last we have a compelling male Muslim voice telling his coming-of-age story, capturing not merely pain, but also the love, laughter, and pathos of Muslim life. Beginning in the rural areas of Pakistan, "Children of Dust" chronicles a boy's childhood in a fundamentalist world. It sets forth an intimate portrait of life at the lowest levels of Pakistani society in the turbulent eighties, exploring the place of women and children, and describing life and friendship in the severe environment of a madrassa. After immigrating with his family to the United States, Eteraz struggles to be a normal American teenager under the rules of a strict Muslim household. In 1999, he returns to Pakistan to find a pious Muslim wife. Instead of the country of his fond childhood memories, he finds the villages of his youth now dominated by the ideology of the Taliban, filled with young men spouting militant rhetoric, and his extended family caught up in a fight for survival. He becomes the target of a mysterious plot to abduct and hold him ransom for being a purported CIA agent, and eventually has to escape under military escort. Back in the United States, Eteraz eventually finds a middle way within American Islam. "Children of Dust" is a rollicking and sometimes subversive look at the religion of Islam in the global world by someone who has lived it to its fullest.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have not been moved by a book in a long time, but I was touched by this book. It portrays Muslims as humans, who have the same problems as everyone else - money, education, employment, struggle of an immigrant, and then they have additional struggle of finding a balance between their religious identity and the culture of their adoptive country. It provides insight into that struggle, and how it would be so easy to loose that battle. The book touches some raw nerves in the Muslim Diasporas, it airs some dirty laundry, which no doubt will irk a lot of Muslims especially the one inclined towards fundamentalist ideology, and it highlights the conflict that Muslim youth face.
The book is amazing because it makes no apologies, and there is no negativity. Ali Eteraz does not demonize the religion or his personal conditions. He makes us all realise that even when things are bad, there is beauty and normalcy. The book is beautifully written. It is not about black and white, it is the story of various shades of grey. It is a sad book, but it is also joyous book. The book does service to Muslims in America that many scholars and fist thumping Muslims have been unable to do. Children of Dust, is a story of humanity, and it makes Muslims human, again.
The book is amazing because it makes no apologies, and there is no negativity. Ali Eteraz does not demonize the religion or his personal conditions. He makes us all realise that even when things are bad, there is beauty and normalcy. The book is beautifully written. It is not about black and white, it is the story of various shades of grey. It is a sad book, but it is also joyous book. The book does service to Muslims in America that many scholars and fist thumping Muslims have been unable to do. Children of Dust, is a story of humanity, and it makes Muslims human, again.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I just finished reading it. It was thoroughly enjoyable. I found it was very well written and brutally honest. I was either gasping in disbelief, or crying with laughter the whole way through. I even have a favourite chapter which I had to read 3 times over before I eventually came out of my laughing fit. Being able to make use of the term `khajjal' in a book deserves a standing ovation in itself! A grand masterpiece from a truly gifted writer.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
25 reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
About Far More than Pakistan
29 Nov 2009
Format:Hardcover
I think it's a pity that this book is being marketed as a memoir of Pakistan. That's far too limiting. Yes, it gives an inside glimpse (and sniff) you won't find anywhere else of life in a desert town in Baluchistan before and after the region began to be terrorized by militant fundamentalists. But you must realize that when he was sent to a harsh madrassa in that desert hometown of his relatives by uprooted parents seeking the anchor of piety, Ali Eteraz had already lived in Saudi Arabia as an infant and in the Dominican Republic, where his father attended medical school, as a small child. This is really a memoir of the postmodern condition of displacement, the quest for a home and a self through multiple identities, the diametrically opposed temptations of absolutism and absolute freedom. It is as much about America, an America seen through the looking glass of Islam -- a stew of opportunity and spiritual danger, from Wallah Wallah to Allah-bama -- as it is about Pakistan or about Saudi Arabia, where Eteraz's life's trajectory is conceived at the beginning and movingly consummated, in a way he himself did not expect, at the end.
While this book will give you a very particular, unsparing, sometimes very funny inside look at Islam, it also takes on universal issues: the antagonism between religion and sex; the secret collusion between zeal and ego; the profound difference between a top-down intellectual synthesis and an upwelling spiritual unity. What may be most unusual about this book is that rather than mainly satirize the follies of others, Eteraz flays himself first, mercilessly anatomizing the mixed motives that powered his precocious achievements as a scholar, lawyer, activist, writer, and reformer. He never utters Baudelaire's words -- "Hypocrite lecteur,--mon semblable,--mon frère!" -- but his honesty unmasks the insecure vanity, and the tenderness and longing, that we all share.
Kafka said "A book should be an ax for the frozen sea within us." This book shattered my defenses and softened my heart. I laughed and cried.
While this book will give you a very particular, unsparing, sometimes very funny inside look at Islam, it also takes on universal issues: the antagonism between religion and sex; the secret collusion between zeal and ego; the profound difference between a top-down intellectual synthesis and an upwelling spiritual unity. What may be most unusual about this book is that rather than mainly satirize the follies of others, Eteraz flays himself first, mercilessly anatomizing the mixed motives that powered his precocious achievements as a scholar, lawyer, activist, writer, and reformer. He never utters Baudelaire's words -- "Hypocrite lecteur,--mon semblable,--mon frère!" -- but his honesty unmasks the insecure vanity, and the tenderness and longing, that we all share.
Kafka said "A book should be an ax for the frozen sea within us." This book shattered my defenses and softened my heart. I laughed and cried.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Review: Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz
18 Oct 2009
Format:Hardcover
Enchanting. Thought provoking. Sad and yet hopeful. Roller coaster.
Those words come to mind when I think of Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz. I enjoyed reading this book. From the first pages, to the last...I was not sure where Ali was taking me. And trust me it was a journey.
The enchanting part...the descriptions of his life in detail...the colors, the shabbiness of the old clothes, the scents surrounding his life...the language...took me into his world and I felt a part of his life. His child's eyes saw everything and with his eyes, I saw a life of poverty and yet full of love and joy at times. Ali's eyes also saw great sadness and horrors that we in the West cannot imagine and gratefully so.
Through Ali's eyes, I saw Islam. Ali saw both the Islam that is peaceful and an Islam that can be brutal. To read of a child learning Islam (the faith) was inspiring. To read of a child learning Islam (the religion) was saddening. I have to say some of the more violent parts were hard for me to read. In fact, I had to set the book aside and meditate. No one wants to read of abuse. However, read I did and I learned the difference between faith and religion.
Ali writes with a sense of humor and such an openness that it is hard to believe he has seen many acts of violence in his life. He gives everyday people another reason to believe ...to know they have a voice and have a right to live in peace.
During his metamorphoses, the book was hard to follow. It seemed Ali had lost his focus. Yet wouldn't you and I lose some focus while changing? We would. The one thing that remained was his love for Islam.
Those words come to mind when I think of Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz. I enjoyed reading this book. From the first pages, to the last...I was not sure where Ali was taking me. And trust me it was a journey.
The enchanting part...the descriptions of his life in detail...the colors, the shabbiness of the old clothes, the scents surrounding his life...the language...took me into his world and I felt a part of his life. His child's eyes saw everything and with his eyes, I saw a life of poverty and yet full of love and joy at times. Ali's eyes also saw great sadness and horrors that we in the West cannot imagine and gratefully so.
Through Ali's eyes, I saw Islam. Ali saw both the Islam that is peaceful and an Islam that can be brutal. To read of a child learning Islam (the faith) was inspiring. To read of a child learning Islam (the religion) was saddening. I have to say some of the more violent parts were hard for me to read. In fact, I had to set the book aside and meditate. No one wants to read of abuse. However, read I did and I learned the difference between faith and religion.
Ali writes with a sense of humor and such an openness that it is hard to believe he has seen many acts of violence in his life. He gives everyday people another reason to believe ...to know they have a voice and have a right to live in peace.
During his metamorphoses, the book was hard to follow. It seemed Ali had lost his focus. Yet wouldn't you and I lose some focus while changing? We would. The one thing that remained was his love for Islam.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
A darkly hilarious, poignant read
26 Oct 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ali Eteraz's Children of Dust is an enjoyable, interesting memoir. The book's beginning focuses on his childhood in Pakistan, which is some of the best writing I have read from this author. Eteraz deftly makes use of magic realism to bring the culture and myths of Pakistan alive. For those whose only exposure to Pakistan is headlines regarding Taliban and nuclear weapons, the perspective brought by this memoir will be an eye-opening experience.
Eteraz's dark humor is subtly woven into the text, and there were several places where I found myself laughing out loud. The honesty with which Eteraz explores his development and efforts to make sense of his relationship with Islam is striking. His willingness to be open about this struggle, combined with his signature lyrical and humorous writing, is truly what makes this memoir a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Eteraz's dark humor is subtly woven into the text, and there were several places where I found myself laughing out loud. The honesty with which Eteraz explores his development and efforts to make sense of his relationship with Islam is striking. His willingness to be open about this struggle, combined with his signature lyrical and humorous writing, is truly what makes this memoir a thoroughly enjoyable read.
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