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June 26, 2005
In brief
Ferozsons, 60 Shahrah-i-Quaid-i-Azam, Lahore
By Zafar Ali Qureshi
(042) 630 1196-8-277 Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi
Tel: (051) 556 3503. Mehran Heights, Main Clifton Road, Karachi
Tel: 021-5830467
UAN 111-62-62-62
ISBN 969-0-01871 X
175pp. Rs250
Dr Zafar Ali Qureshi’s Prophet Muhammad’s Wives and Orientalists starts with a discussion of “western hostility towards Islam and the Prophet,” to show that “it was primarily fear, hostility and prejudice, sown by the memories of the Crusades, that coloured the western view of Islam and conditioned its attitude” from generation to generation.
He holds up the mirror to the critics. He discusses the philosophy of polygamy in general and marriage practices in Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism in particular and compares them with Islam. While discussing polygamy in Hinduism, he could have added the three wives of Ram’s father, King Dasratha. He could even have referred to Draupadi being the common wife of five Pandava brothers. Also a word needs to be said about the Hindu practice of Niyoga. The author has quoted the law of Manu (manusmirti) as rendered in Satyartha Prakash (p46), which was written by the Arya Samajist Swami Dayanand. The author, to remove a stigma from the image of Hinduism made deliberate interpolation.
At another place (p.57) the author states, “There is a mention of Jesus Christ entering into multiple marriages on one occasion.” But there is no reference quoted. This is a sad lapse for one who has supported every statement with profuse references.
Two chapters discuss the life of the Prophet (PBUH) with special reference to its austerity. One chapter discusses the factors that had prompted each of his several marriages after Khadija’s demise and another discusses briefly the life of each of the “Mothers of Believers”.
To enhance the value of the book, there is a ready reference chart listing the Holy Prophet’s wives, their ages and the age of the Prophet at the time of their marriage with him. It also gives the calendar year of the event and the period each of them spent with him.
Each topic is supported by copious quotations. And almost always answers to the critics are presented from the writings of their own compatriots. This is perhaps the first time that the issue of the Prophet’s multiple marriages has been treated with such dexterity. — S.G. Jilanee
A Kiss from Maddalena
By Christopher Castellani
Orion. Available with Liberty Books (Pvt) Ltd,
3 Rafiq Plaza, M.R. Kayani Road, Saddar, Karachi
Tel: 021-5683026
Email: libooks@cyber.net.pk Website: www.libertybooks.com
ISBN 0-75286-413-0
338pp. Rs350
Ancient stories of war and tales of love from the days gone by somehow hardly ever seem trite or overdone. When the two are put together, it’s rare that the fable spun is not in some way endearing and familiar.
And so Christopher Castellani through sensitive perception and absorbing narrative, catches the novel reader’s attention in his first work of fiction, A Kiss from Maddalena.
Set during the Second World War among the olive groves of rustic Italy, this is essentially a sweet tale of love battling for a chance among the ravages of global violence. It is the story of the 19-year-old Vito Leone, a soft-hearted, thoughtful charmingly clumsy misfit and Maddalena, the most beautiful daughter of the most powerful family in the village of Santa Cecilia. While almost all the men are away at war, Vito convinces himself that even though he’s but a few months away from being drafted, he will somehow escape, the war will end, he will convince Maddalena’s parents that he is good enough for their daughter, and of course, win her heart as well. As unlikely as all this seems, Leone never doubts that it is anything less than his destiny. Luckily, Maddalena also softens towards Vito but the surrender of the Italians to the Allies and the invasion of this scenic village by the retreating German soldiers bring more hardship upon Vito who cannot escape the emptying village but must stay and care for his ill and bedridden mother. Yet Vito, with his undying spirit, braves the shelling and looting of the village and develops instead a plan to prove himself to Maddalena’s family when they return after the war.
This innocent, tragic story is infused with a vivid picture of provincial life a half-century ago, complete with a clear image of the simplicity of daily life, the social fabric of a small community and the duty of women to marriage. But it also goes beyond rural Italy and beyond the limitations of period, and portrays with sensitivity and perceptive insight, the subtleties of secret human thought processes, the less-seen scars of war and the lasting poignancy of love regardless of circumstances or traditional endings.
Castellani creates a convincing atmosphere in which to tell what is a simple, unexceptional story. But he does so effortlessly, with a narrative that flows and detail which is often quaintly memorable. A nice, light, quick summer read. — Naween A. Mangi
A Place to Live: Contemporary Tamil Short Fiction
Edited By Dilip Kumar
Translated by Vasantha Sarya
Penguin India. For more information log on to www.penguinbooksindia.com
ISBN 0-14-303159-7
276pp. Indian Rs250
The book under review is an anthology of 29 short stories by renowned Tamil writers. They have been written over a period of three decades, from the sixties to nineties, and are representative of content, style and links with a rich literary past.
An introduction by the editor highlights an outline of Tamil literature and helps the reader to understand its trends. We are told that the Tamil writers absorbed the genre through English translations of the Western and Bengali literature and linked it with their heritage. There is a note from the translator as well and she talks about the importance of a good translation and the need for readers to trust the translator’s abilities.
Though it is not possible to give an opinion on all the stories because of the limited space, I will limit myself to a few. “A place to live” which is also the title of the book, is the story of marginalized people who bear all kinds of humiliation and breathe with gigantic house lizards, rats, centipedes, cockroaches, mosquitoes and termites.
“The diary of the protagonist” begins from October 1980, when he marries and starts his life in a portion of a house. The narration continues year to year until 1984 when on Gandhiji’s birthday a national holiday, he decides, “to buy a lottery ticket at once a month from this month onwards.” The story is a satire on dreams that turned sour on the eve of Independence.
“Jasmine”, “Daktaramma’s room”, “Time out” and “The plastic god” are stories by women writers raising their voices against a society that is insensitive towards women.
Tamil writers also experiment in the Freudian psychoanalysis, existentialist philosophy and individual predicament. “Afternoon”, “The man in the Terylene shirt”, and ‘Beast’ are some of the stories in which the writers focus on the intricacies of the human mind and their strong sexual yearnings.
“The solution” is the story by Dilip Kumar, the editor of this volume. To quote his words, “My own story, ‘The solution’, set in the dilapidated environment around the temple, offers a peep into the life of the Gujarati community settled in Tamil Nadu. It is a comment on the younger generation’s inability to take decisions, while the old, though feeble of body, are strong of mind. However, whether a ‘logical’ mind, old or young, can accept the ‘solution’ is controversial.”
To sum up, disparities in rural, urban life, man-woman relationship, innocence of childhood and their deprivations, subjugated and marginalized people are some of the realities reflected in these short stories. They are an emblem of ethnic, regional and universal experiences. Readers of Urdu fiction may find a similarity of environment, theme and style in them. — Syeda Saleha
Istanbul: Memories of a City
By Orhan Pamuk
Faber & Faber
ISBN 0571218326
288pp. £16.99
The idea of merging a writer’s life with the city of his childhood seems both natural and exciting, particularly from an author who has come to symbolize the liberal face of Turkey, struggling to pull itself into shape for the EU.
Orhan Pamuk, an International IMPAC Award winner, inspires love and hostility in equal measure at home. Recently, the governor of Sutculer ordered that Pamuk’s books be collected from libraries and bookshops in his province and destroyed. Instant condemnation in the national press of this “barbarity” demonstrated an enlightened majority asserting itself. The governor must have been furious when no books by Pamuk were found, for sale or burning. Subsequently, the author’s sales have soared.
It is fascinating, therefore, to uncover the boyhood and obsessions of this quiet, self-absorbed 52-year-old. The book centres around a solemn toddler trapped in the pressure cooker of his family’s squabbles. Each wing of the secular clan occupies a floor of the Fifties Pamuk Apt block overlooking the glittering Bosporus. The household is ruled from the bed of his overweight grandmother, who mourns her sons’ squandering of the family fortune, his aunts’ and uncles’ quarrels, his parents’ teetering marriage and the devotions of their Muslim servants.
Like many writers split between inner and outer reality, Pamuk creates an alter ego to take him into his “second world”. The book is brilliantly constructed, delving into the phenomenological world of the young boy. The reader is drawn into the dark house, his “family museum”, crammed with uncomfortable formal furniture, unplayed pianos, cabinets displaying unused trinkets and ceremonial photographs. Such is its gloom that when he goes out into the street, the sunshine blinds him at first.
At intervals, single chapters introduce Turkish writers, the Divan poets with their homoerotic fantasies, or early western travellers. The German 18th century artist, Melling, became the architect of the Sultan’s sister and left a book of engravings of the wondrous city. He is fascinated by Gerard de Nerval, Gautier but especially Flaubert, whom he credits with inspiring the germ of his book, The White Castle.
The reader is led into decaying, unloved Istanbul between the sixties and eighties. Nineteenth-century wooden mansions are burned down to be replaced by concrete blocks; tankers collide in the night lighting fires on the Bosporus; murderers terrorize the city; contrived race riots escalate into massacres; Greek and Armenian shops in his own street are looted and wasted; packs of dogs roam freely; porters stagger under loads far taller than their height.
A master of elegant miniatures, Pamuk writes concisely, piling scene upon scene, and, at one stage, composing a dazzling single sentence a hypnotic two-and-half pages long. He is eloquent, too, in his empathy for his country’s dilemma: westernization and Europe or tradition and Islam.
“I have described Istanbul when describing myself and described myself when describing Istanbul,” Pamuk teases. Add to this the delight of photographs by Ara Guler and a seamless translation by Maureen Freely.
Orhan Pamuk has remained faithful to his opulent muse. This quietly instructive and enchanting elegy to a redeemed childhood and to Istanbul itself will bring the world to his feet. It should be read, and reread, simply for joy. — Nouritza Matossian (Dawn/ Observer News Service)
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