- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; UK First Edition; 1st printing. edition (6 April 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747597138
- ISBN-13: 978-0747597131
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 140,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Under Daniyal Mueenuddin's gaze, Pakistan is lit up as though by a lightning flash, clear, sharp-edged. This is a debut as auspicious as Jhumpa Lahiri's. From the outset there is something arresting, beautiful, or wise (as opposed to clever) on every single page. I can hardly believe this book exists - it's so remarkable, I admire it so deeply.' --Nadeem Aslam
`An astonishing collection of short stories by the new star of South Asian fiction'
--William Dalrymple
`An astonishing collection of short stories by the new star of South Asian fiction'
--William Dalrymple
Review
'A stunning achievement a writer of enormous ambition, and he has the prodigious talent to match.' Mohsin Hamid 'An astonishing collection of tales' William Dalrymple 'This is a debut as auspicious as Jhumpa Lahiri's. From the outset there is something arresting, beautiful, or wise on every single page. I can hardly believe this book exists - it's so remarkable, I admire it so deeply' Nadeem Aslam 'His stories unfold with the authenticity and resolute momentum of timeless classics' Manil Suri
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Wow! - this is an extraordinary collection of short stories. Even more extraordinary, since I've now looked him up and find that this is Daniyal Mueenuddin's debut as an author.
After reading the first story in this collection, which are all linked somehow to Mr K K Harouini or his houses or retinue, I was pleased that I had started reading. By the end I was simply astonished at the achievement.
Mueenudin's device allows him to explore different classes and types within Pakistan; from the old and new Punjabi farmers to the industrialists, from the upper class educated at Yale or Oxford and used to spending time in London and New York, to the servants and hangers on depending on patronage and the giving and receiving of favours in a society that's moved from the feudal to a new mobility in a staggeringly short period.
Corruption is everywhere. Those who are not calculating are cheated - Sohail, the nephew of MR K K Hourani, who has been shielded from much, is described as `a lamb fattened for the slaughter' by his own doting mother to his American girlfriend.
There is love but it is helpless against the stronger forces of family, money and status. As Sohail himself quotes `but the dull need to make some kind of house/ out of the life lived and the love spent'.
Women get a raw deal in this collection; the working class trade sex for advancement, food and clothes but it's transitory. The better born and moneyed are still dependent and bored by their restrictions or their revolt from those restrictions.
The language alters to suit the subjects of each story. It is simple, straightforward and earthy in the narrative of Nawabdin Electrician (who incidentally seems to have the only happy marriage in this book), and has resonances to match the voices of the more westernised and sophisticated dialogue in the stories Lily and Our Lady of Paris.
This collection reminded me of by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's The Thing Around Your Neck, in that they give such a rich evocation of one country and its past (here Pakistan, in the other collection, Nigeria) and then juxtaposes that with the modern day and an American, rather than British colonial view.
I've been reading other Pakistani authors recently; Kamila Sahmsie and Nadeem Aslam. Mueenuddin is in the same league.
If this book were a novel rather than a collection of short stories I am sure it would be up for the big prizes. It deserves them.
After reading the first story in this collection, which are all linked somehow to Mr K K Harouini or his houses or retinue, I was pleased that I had started reading. By the end I was simply astonished at the achievement.
Mueenudin's device allows him to explore different classes and types within Pakistan; from the old and new Punjabi farmers to the industrialists, from the upper class educated at Yale or Oxford and used to spending time in London and New York, to the servants and hangers on depending on patronage and the giving and receiving of favours in a society that's moved from the feudal to a new mobility in a staggeringly short period.
Corruption is everywhere. Those who are not calculating are cheated - Sohail, the nephew of MR K K Hourani, who has been shielded from much, is described as `a lamb fattened for the slaughter' by his own doting mother to his American girlfriend.
There is love but it is helpless against the stronger forces of family, money and status. As Sohail himself quotes `but the dull need to make some kind of house/ out of the life lived and the love spent'.
Women get a raw deal in this collection; the working class trade sex for advancement, food and clothes but it's transitory. The better born and moneyed are still dependent and bored by their restrictions or their revolt from those restrictions.
The language alters to suit the subjects of each story. It is simple, straightforward and earthy in the narrative of Nawabdin Electrician (who incidentally seems to have the only happy marriage in this book), and has resonances to match the voices of the more westernised and sophisticated dialogue in the stories Lily and Our Lady of Paris.
This collection reminded me of by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's The Thing Around Your Neck, in that they give such a rich evocation of one country and its past (here Pakistan, in the other collection, Nigeria) and then juxtaposes that with the modern day and an American, rather than British colonial view.
I've been reading other Pakistani authors recently; Kamila Sahmsie and Nadeem Aslam. Mueenuddin is in the same league.
If this book were a novel rather than a collection of short stories I am sure it would be up for the big prizes. It deserves them.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a wonderful collection of eight short stories all loosely related to the household of a Pakistani land owner's estate. Each story is almost perfectly formed with a clear arc of a story and a poignant ending. We hear about the lives of the poorest servants as well as the land owners and their rich offspring. Everyone is trying to make the most out of what they have - trying to maintain their wealth, status, or power, all set against a fascinating change in society where the feudal system still hangs on - just. What is fascinating to the western reader is that there is no real middle class - and so the gaps in who has what are immense and largely unsurmountable.
This is a Pakistan that is seldom seen in the media. We see the status that a new motor cycle confers on a talented electrician, and the sexual shenanigans going on in all levels of society. For the servants, this is often used to gain security (usually with little success) while for the young, rich, it's often from boredom and as a kind of rebellion against the traditional expectations. I was surprised that religion plays almost no part in these stories, but then that probably illustrates the impact that the media has had on our views of Pakistani life.
Each story quickly gets you into the lives of these people who experience life in vastly different ways - which is no small achievement - and this beautifully demonstrates the complexity of the reality. The individual parts are each superb but the collected whole is so much better. If pushed to pick a favourite, then Our Lady of Paris is as perfect a short story as I think I have ever read.
Superb. Highly recommended and I look forward to more from this author for whom this is a staggeringly assured debut.
This is a Pakistan that is seldom seen in the media. We see the status that a new motor cycle confers on a talented electrician, and the sexual shenanigans going on in all levels of society. For the servants, this is often used to gain security (usually with little success) while for the young, rich, it's often from boredom and as a kind of rebellion against the traditional expectations. I was surprised that religion plays almost no part in these stories, but then that probably illustrates the impact that the media has had on our views of Pakistani life.
Each story quickly gets you into the lives of these people who experience life in vastly different ways - which is no small achievement - and this beautifully demonstrates the complexity of the reality. The individual parts are each superb but the collected whole is so much better. If pushed to pick a favourite, then Our Lady of Paris is as perfect a short story as I think I have ever read.
Superb. Highly recommended and I look forward to more from this author for whom this is a staggeringly assured debut.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having lived in Lahore and Chitral and ploughed my way through my share of "Pakistan for foreigners" novels of varying quality, I opened this book in a somewhat sceptical mindset. I was quickly converted. Muneeuddin has achieved a striking tour de force, managing to being to life characters drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds using the sparest of prose. Every word struck me as if chiselled out of solid granite. This book has been polished and repolished so that no single unnecessary word remains, dispensing with distractions, allowing us to focus on the essential humanity of every protagonist. While it is a decent introduction to Pakistan's peculiar institution of rural feudalism, it transcends its time and place. Like Isaac Bashevis Singer's short stories, it builds the universal out of an earthy ethnic substrate.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mostly Engaging
The uniqueness of fictional short stories are the way they are ended. A nicely engaging story abruptly ends leaving it for the reader to decide what happens next. Read more
Published 3 months ago by E. Jayaraman
Poetic and complex short story collection
It's hard to describe what this book is 'about', since what you feel at the beginning of each story is so very different from how you feel at the end. Read more
Published 9 months ago by LKR
Excellent
Excellent from A to Z. And why use at least 20 words, when 5 are enough? This is a waste of energy and scorns succinct language.
Published 9 months ago by Allan Hilton
Much to wonder about
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is a great collection of short stories. Each story stands alone but they are all linked as they are about the relatives and servants of wealthy... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Ms. Mary H. Smith
A book to read
Well it's not one of the best books I have read but it's ok- had quite bit of inappropriate bits in the book which I found quite annoying. Read more
Published 18 months ago by S. Darr
Wonderful
Usually with short stories I read one or two in between reading other things but with this I had to read them straight through - wonderful stories. Read more
Published 18 months ago by James Rogers
Depressing
I really liked the way the author linked all these short stoies by having them revolve around the family and staff of Mr K.K.Harouni, a wealthy Pakistani landowner. Read more
Published 19 months ago by DubaiReader
No Rooms - No wonders.....
Having had a somewhat long, intense and complicated exposure to pre- and post partition India and subsequently Pakistan (East & West) and then Bangladesh, I didn't expect what I... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Giritli
Book review
Absorbing, emotional and beautifully written. A series of short stories but the main characters are interlinked throughout.
A sumptuous treat of a book
A sumptuous treat of a book
Published on 18 May 2010 by Mrs. Taz Butler
`Three things for which we kill - land, women and gold.'
This is a collection of eight linked short stories which describe the overlapping worlds of an extended Pakistani family of landowners. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2010 by J. Cameron-Smith
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