Q: What are you currently reading?

A: These days I am reading the English version of the Korean novel The Vegetarian, written by South Korean novelist Han Kang, [who teaches] creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. She has won the Yi Sangliterary prize for her work.

The Vegetarian is her first novel translated into English, by Debora Smith, and published by Portobello Books in 2015. Debora Smith recently founded Tilted Axis Press, a not-for-profit publishing house that focuses on translations from Asia and Africa.

This novel is a portrayal of the daily life of a very ordinary Korean couple. It reflects conflicts between an office worker husband and an ambitious wife who is seeking aplant-like existence. Just as a plant grows from a defenceless sapling to a tree with its roots firmly entrenched in the soil, this woman transforms from a simpleton to a strong, ambitious person who wants to dominate.

The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also about exposing shame, desire and our vacillating attempts to understand others. The Vegetarian also reveals the nature of relationships, linking power and food by giving innovative meanings to imprisonment, which is the basic theme of the novel.

Q: Are there any classic works you were not able to get through?

A: Yes, classical Chinese literature written between the 14th and 18th century – particularly its fiction, founded on four novels: Water Margin, Romance of the three Kingdoms, Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber. Chinese fiction of the late Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty was wide-ranging, self-conscious, and experimental. I think classic literature of China has a momentous role in the rise of Chinese nation.

Q: Are there any works or writers you find yourself returning to?

A: No, not as such. During the last 47 years of active writing I have developed my own style, consequently [I have] hardly returned to any particular work or writers. Even otherwise I have a temperament to be least predisposed by others.

Q: Are there any works or writers you feel are underrated?

A: To me there are so many writers who have not been noticed despite their great work, and Khalid Fateh Mohammad is one of those. Although he joined literature in the second half of his life, after his retirement from the armed forces, he has introduced new profundity to the dexterity of novel writing. Novels like Khaleej and Saanp se Ziada Sairaab have changed the craft of storytelling. His parallel travelling with the mindset of the reader has made him a novelist of the age who is not just repeating his contemporaries. His latest title Aey Ishiq-i-Bala Khez (2017) is another masterpiece. Similarly, the poet turned novelist Akhter Raza Saleemi is extending the art of novel writing into the 21st century with his own style.

Q: Is there a great Pakistani novel?

A: Raakh by Mustansar Hussain Tarrar is a great novel so far written in Pakistan. Likewise Ghulam Bagh written by Mirza Athar Baig can be placed at par with it.

The first two decades after partition denote the era of fiction influenced by miseries faced by migrants of both sides of newly lined border. But the creation of Pakistan is better judged in the backdrop of fiction or poetry surfaced in the early 70’s after the fall of Dhaka. After leaving behind questions about partition, now our writer or intellectual was under debt to answer questions related to survival of the country, which is still at the mercy of a nexus between corrupt politicians and conniving bureaucracy.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2017