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Our Lady of Alice Bhatti
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Review
`his vivid prose has tremendous Immediacy' --Daily Mail
...The prose attains the heights of poetry...Our Lady of Alice Bhatti is profoundly humane, and humanist. --The Guardian
Rambunctious, vulgar, funny and moving, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti wields enormous emotional punch --Time Magazine
This very finely put-together novel sparkles and glitters but never shows off. --The Guardian
`Hanif's storytelling is frequently impressive... touching and unusual' --Literary Review, Faith Brinkley
'Our Lady of Alice Bhatti is a tragicomedy of Shakespearean proportions' --Time Out, Rachel Platt
'I am so gripped by what the book is trying to tell me that I cannot put it down' --Spectator, Melissa Kite
'The wry narrative refreshingly resists all manner of stereotypes and flowery sentimentality' --The Independent, Iman Qureshi
'The writing is superbly witty and assured' --The Times, Kate Saunders
...The prose attains the heights of poetry...Our Lady of Alice Bhatti is profoundly humane, and humanist. --The Guardian
Rambunctious, vulgar, funny and moving, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti wields enormous emotional punch --Time Magazine
This very finely put-together novel sparkles and glitters but never shows off. --The Guardian
`Hanif's storytelling is frequently impressive... touching and unusual' --Literary Review, Faith Brinkley
'Our Lady of Alice Bhatti is a tragicomedy of Shakespearean proportions' --Time Out, Rachel Platt
'I am so gripped by what the book is trying to tell me that I cannot put it down' --Spectator, Melissa Kite
'The wry narrative refreshingly resists all manner of stereotypes and flowery sentimentality' --The Independent, Iman Qureshi
'The writing is superbly witty and assured' --The Times, Kate Saunders
Book Description
The glorious new novel from the author of the internationally acclaimed, bestselling A Case of Exploding Mangoes
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Alice Bhatti, recently of borstal, has somehow talked her way into a nursing job at the Sacred Heart Hospital (possibly due to being the only applicant), where she finds herself the unexpected object of devotion for young bodybuilding police ruffian Teddy Butt, more at home with a gun than with poetry. Alice's father Joseph has the mystical ability to cure stomach ulcers; but Alice has the less welcome `gift' of seeing death in the faces of those she meets.
At first I found the narrative quite entertaining as we joined Alice on the day of interview for her nursing job, and simultaneously, Teddy massacres his own thumb so that the police can `justifiably' arrest someone for a previous crime. I wasn't quite sure I agreed with the logic, but was willing to go with it. The author tells his tale with a wry sense of humour which was initially easy to engage with, but even in the first couple of chapters it sometimes felt incongruous.
The lighter episodes really did not sit well for me, alongside Hanif's depiction of the harsh realities of corrupt Karachi life, where the treatment of women in general is, quite frankly, disturbing. I didn't want to laugh about it. I'm hoping that - given the ending - this was actually Hanif's point. I was expecting a slightly quirky romance between not-quite-trustworthy characters and the subject matter caught me unawares. It was not a story that was easy to warm to when juxtaposed with the seamy side of life in which the characters lived, regardless of their claimed religion. Very few of the characters are as they initially appear, and you will probably be surprised by some of the side characters, before the story ends.
I am really torn on my opinion of this book. It made me feel distinctly uncomfortable, but in retrospect, I think that that was the author's intention. I am also fairly certain that there are further (political? religious?) sub-texts which have gone over my head. It is quite a dark story (the ending, to me, is just as bleak as that which precedes it - perhaps more so), which is not at all what I was led to believe from the cover synopsis. The superficial humour appears to be a device used deliberately to misdirect the reader which is actually quite a clever concept. Possibly if I was aware of the story's darker undertones when I began reading, I would not have been so irked by the turn the story took. Would I have liked it more? I really don't know. I think I would recommend people to read this book, but not if they are looking for a light read. Approach with caution, and do not expect an easy ride!
At first I found the narrative quite entertaining as we joined Alice on the day of interview for her nursing job, and simultaneously, Teddy massacres his own thumb so that the police can `justifiably' arrest someone for a previous crime. I wasn't quite sure I agreed with the logic, but was willing to go with it. The author tells his tale with a wry sense of humour which was initially easy to engage with, but even in the first couple of chapters it sometimes felt incongruous.
The lighter episodes really did not sit well for me, alongside Hanif's depiction of the harsh realities of corrupt Karachi life, where the treatment of women in general is, quite frankly, disturbing. I didn't want to laugh about it. I'm hoping that - given the ending - this was actually Hanif's point. I was expecting a slightly quirky romance between not-quite-trustworthy characters and the subject matter caught me unawares. It was not a story that was easy to warm to when juxtaposed with the seamy side of life in which the characters lived, regardless of their claimed religion. Very few of the characters are as they initially appear, and you will probably be surprised by some of the side characters, before the story ends.
I am really torn on my opinion of this book. It made me feel distinctly uncomfortable, but in retrospect, I think that that was the author's intention. I am also fairly certain that there are further (political? religious?) sub-texts which have gone over my head. It is quite a dark story (the ending, to me, is just as bleak as that which precedes it - perhaps more so), which is not at all what I was led to believe from the cover synopsis. The superficial humour appears to be a device used deliberately to misdirect the reader which is actually quite a clever concept. Possibly if I was aware of the story's darker undertones when I began reading, I would not have been so irked by the turn the story took. Would I have liked it more? I really don't know. I think I would recommend people to read this book, but not if they are looking for a light read. Approach with caution, and do not expect an easy ride!
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
I bought this book as I spent a number of years in Pakistan and visited Karachi very frequently. The book was very good at giving the reader an understanding of the very different cultures existing in Pakistan between Muslams and Christians. However I sometimes fealt that the style of writing was a bit disjointed.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
contmporary pakistan gets the noir treatment
8 Jan 2012
it's a shame the previous reviewer gave this book one star. there is fair bit of violence here, and sex too, which may not appeal to the exact stratum of society that especially needs to read it. while the vast majority of south asian literature tends to vacillate between depicting pakistan as a nostalgic space of diaspora or a geopolitical hotbed of fundamentalism, this novel does neither. it offers a portrait of contemporary urban pakistan that is complex, layered and entirely unsentimental. at times it is brutal, but the dark brutality rests on a kind of insight that should not be dismissed. a lot of pundits continue to ask why pakistan remains a country at crossroads sixty five years on. "our lady of alice bhatti" is a not book which specifically sets out to answer that question, but it does get at a certain kind of truth about it.
like mohsin hamid's "moth smoke," "our lady" unfolds as a modern crime noir. it's a tragedy about a woman who is punished not for what she has done but for who she is. her story emerges as an indictment against a society that remains handicapped not by it's polarization against the west as the nightly news would have us believe, but rather because of an internal class based system of misogyny that is condoned by a corrupt church-state system. the house itself is not in order, and the external pressures of the so called new great game have spun it out of control.
despite all this it would still be dismissive to categorize this novel as a timely political thriller, because i think it gets at something even deeper than the current state of affairs in pakistan. at it's heart it's a feminist novel. it's about how the bodies of women are being trampled, displaced and discarded in lieu of rational discourse. this war is not being waged by outlaw forces in turbans but by fathers, husbands and brothers who have acquiesced to a society of inequity. and it's happening because a country has turned in on itself. the daily human suffering that has come out of this cannibalization is what "our lady" is really about. combined with hanif's previous "a case of exploding mangoes," it's a must read.
like mohsin hamid's "moth smoke," "our lady" unfolds as a modern crime noir. it's a tragedy about a woman who is punished not for what she has done but for who she is. her story emerges as an indictment against a society that remains handicapped not by it's polarization against the west as the nightly news would have us believe, but rather because of an internal class based system of misogyny that is condoned by a corrupt church-state system. the house itself is not in order, and the external pressures of the so called new great game have spun it out of control.
despite all this it would still be dismissive to categorize this novel as a timely political thriller, because i think it gets at something even deeper than the current state of affairs in pakistan. at it's heart it's a feminist novel. it's about how the bodies of women are being trampled, displaced and discarded in lieu of rational discourse. this war is not being waged by outlaw forces in turbans but by fathers, husbands and brothers who have acquiesced to a society of inequity. and it's happening because a country has turned in on itself. the daily human suffering that has come out of this cannibalization is what "our lady" is really about. combined with hanif's previous "a case of exploding mangoes," it's a must read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
The Pakistani Version of Nurse Jackie
17 April 2012
Format:Kindle Edition
This is the latest novel from Mr Haniff, writer of the brilliantly clever and satirical 'A Case of Exploding Mangoes'. This novel was set around the plane crash that killed Pakistani President General Zia in 1988, along with a number of other dignitaries. Long listed for the 2008 Man Booker Prize, this is a many faceted, ingenious, very tightly plotted and held together novel. Such a great read I couldn't wait to start this latest novel from Mr Haniff. Not quite in the same class I am afraid.
Once again, he takes a whole raft of issues that seem to characterise the complete inability of Pakistan to get its act together. Unlike India just next door. Primarily this is a novel about the lowly status of women in Pakistani society, but also takes up religion - Christianity vs Islam; corruption; the state of the hospital system; untouchables; the power of the police; crowd hysteria and riots - a huge variety of issues. Alice Bhatti is at the centre of the novel. Alice is a nurse, Catholic, she has a certain healing gift, and has just started a new job at the Sacred Heart Hospital for All Ailments in a poor part of Karachi. She has to navigate her life around the usual list of misfits that are part of hospitals - corrupt doctors, injured criminals, officious supervisors, rich and poor dying mothers and their sons - and all the time really trying to do the right thing. She reminded me so much of the very human TV character Nurse Jackie.
She rather suddenly and unexpectedly falls in love with a most unlikely husband in anyone's book - Teddy Butt, about as unlike Nurse Jackie's husband as you could possibly get! Teddy is, I am afraid to say, thick. Not a brain in that skull of his. He is an apprentice to the Gentlemen's Squad of the Karachi police, in other words tidies up and disposes of the human messes that the Karachi police make in their daily line of work. I just did not understand this love affair, not at all. Its reason for being, the courtship, why she ever married him, the fact that the marriage takes place on a submarine!! It is just so fantastic as to be ridiculous.
Being considerably smarter than her husband, Alice cottons on rather quickly that her husband is not as ideal as she led herself to believe he would be and the storyl finishes fairly soon after that.
And that I afraid to say is all that goes on in this novel. Alice's daily life is used as a backdrop for the author's commentary on how Pakistan is doing in the 21st century, and it is not doing very well at all. It is not so much what he is trying to say, however, that is disappointing; it is that compared to 'Mangoes' it isn't said very well. This book really goes nowhere, I thought all the characters unrealistic and not well drawn, it felt very disjointed and jumpy to read, and parts of the plot were just plain silly - the submarine, the miracles that take place. All in all a most disappointing read.
Once again, he takes a whole raft of issues that seem to characterise the complete inability of Pakistan to get its act together. Unlike India just next door. Primarily this is a novel about the lowly status of women in Pakistani society, but also takes up religion - Christianity vs Islam; corruption; the state of the hospital system; untouchables; the power of the police; crowd hysteria and riots - a huge variety of issues. Alice Bhatti is at the centre of the novel. Alice is a nurse, Catholic, she has a certain healing gift, and has just started a new job at the Sacred Heart Hospital for All Ailments in a poor part of Karachi. She has to navigate her life around the usual list of misfits that are part of hospitals - corrupt doctors, injured criminals, officious supervisors, rich and poor dying mothers and their sons - and all the time really trying to do the right thing. She reminded me so much of the very human TV character Nurse Jackie.
She rather suddenly and unexpectedly falls in love with a most unlikely husband in anyone's book - Teddy Butt, about as unlike Nurse Jackie's husband as you could possibly get! Teddy is, I am afraid to say, thick. Not a brain in that skull of his. He is an apprentice to the Gentlemen's Squad of the Karachi police, in other words tidies up and disposes of the human messes that the Karachi police make in their daily line of work. I just did not understand this love affair, not at all. Its reason for being, the courtship, why she ever married him, the fact that the marriage takes place on a submarine!! It is just so fantastic as to be ridiculous.
Being considerably smarter than her husband, Alice cottons on rather quickly that her husband is not as ideal as she led herself to believe he would be and the storyl finishes fairly soon after that.
And that I afraid to say is all that goes on in this novel. Alice's daily life is used as a backdrop for the author's commentary on how Pakistan is doing in the 21st century, and it is not doing very well at all. It is not so much what he is trying to say, however, that is disappointing; it is that compared to 'Mangoes' it isn't said very well. This book really goes nowhere, I thought all the characters unrealistic and not well drawn, it felt very disjointed and jumpy to read, and parts of the plot were just plain silly - the submarine, the miracles that take place. All in all a most disappointing read.
3 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Awful!
28 Nov 2011
Format:Paperback
After 'A Case of Exploding Mangoes', I had high expectations from Hanif, but I barely managed to get through the first chapter of 'Our Lady of Alice Bhatti'. It was distastefully gory and had me cringing right through. I flicked through the rest of the book and it seemed to be overflowing with jarring descriptions of blood and sex. I refuse to subject myself to Hanif's icky imagination and am sorry I wasted 499 rupees on this book.
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