|
|
|
November 7, 2004
REVIEWS: Lost loves, lost lives
Sehba Sarwar’s first novel, titled Black Wings, is about a mother and daughter, Laila and Yasmeen. When Laila goes to visit her daughter, a 36-year-old divorcee Pakistani immigrant living in Houston with her two children, Saira and Sameer, both mother and daughter have to make an effort to meet across generations, cultures and past secrets.
Sehba Sarwar draws on her memories of growing up in Karachi where she received her schooling and her later education at Mount Holyoke College and the University of Texas to write this novel. She now lives in Houston and is the co-founder and co-director of Voices Breaking Boundaries and is married to a Latin American educationist.
Internationally acclaimed novelist Bapsi Sidhwa praises Black Wings for its sensory detail and the ambience of Pakistan it deftly evokes as well as the portrayal of the life of a migrant family in America.
The book is suspenseful and difficult to put down as the drama of the lives of the central characters as well as those around them unfurls. Layer by layer the wraps from their past lives are drawn away. The metamorphosis of the angry and bitter younger woman achieved after her experience of almost losing her own child in Hawagali — the mountain resort where the family has a summerhouse — is well captured. But so is the story of her dead twin brother, Yasir, whose memories haunt her.
“Long after Yasir is gone, the film is finally developed. All the black and white shots that Yasmeen clicks that morning are out of focus, except one, which is only slightly blurry. In this photo, Yasir’s laugh makes his uneven teeth glisten and his face even more charming. His eyes are crinkled and strands of his hair cast pencil shadows on his high forehead. His long gangly body is curled into a ball and his knees are lifted almost to his chin Encased in his long fingers is a cigarette that he holds close to his mouth; he is not puffing because he can’t stop laughing at his twin who’s trying to adjust her new gadget, manouevre the lens, fix the light and click, all at the right time Yasir’s laughter is a gurgle that remains locked in Yasmeen’s mind, long after Yasir is no more.
“Later, when Yasmeen studies the photo, she notices a black speck floating over his head. It appears to be an ink smudge but when she studies it under a microscope she thinks it might be a large crow. She also knows the speck could be something else”
This ‘something else’ is what gives the book its name — Black Wings — attributed to childhood memories of some horrid, evil, vampire-like beings that lurked in the alpine forests of Hawagali where the children were not allowed to venture after dark. The oft-repeated mention in the story of cobra plants and kaneezes envelop one’s imagination completely. Sehba has the talent and the trappings, and her use of a metaphysical allegory is forceful and thought-evoking.
Black Wings is a welcome addition to the expanding list of English fiction from Pakistan. The tale of haunting family secrets embedded in the mountains in Pakistan and in Yasmeen’s mind is told skillfully. She juggles her work-life, home-life and love-life in America, tackling truths and half-truths when she meets her mother after a long sojourn and travelling back to Karachi and to Hawagali, to unravel the mystery of her childhood and youth in Pakistan.
Besides being a family saga of lost loves and lives, there are brief interludes of social and political comments in the novel, such as when Laila confides to her daughter about her past:
“That afternoon, I agreed to leave Pakistan with him. I walked back to Heera’s house and for once I threw off my chaddar’s restrictive cover so I could feel the sun on my arms and see the daisies without the shadow of a heavy covering. I couldn’t live that double life anymore. I dreamt about the future when he and I could be outside together — in another country — but together, without hiding. I also wanted to create opportunity for you and Yasir. I wanted Yasir to study music and poetry like he’d always wanted and you could combine your painting — all without the pressure of either business or marriage from your father. I wanted freedom for myself, but I also wanted freedom for you, Yasmeen. I didn’t want for you to remain in a country where there were no elections, where guns overruled the law and women held only half the legal rights that men did. I never wanted you to have to face the pressure of marriage that I had at your age.”
Black Wings
By Sehba Sarwar
Alhamra Publishing, Saudi Pak Tower, Jinnah Avenue, Islamabad
Tel: 051-2800248, 2800253 Email: contact@alhamra.com Website: www.alhamra.com
ISBN 969-516-147-2
280pp. Rs295
|
|
|
|
