There is no story. I spent the whole time patiently waiting for a pattern to emerge but was left high and dry in the end. The only attraction for me was the intimate details of the various scenes. The plot is the same old Pakistani/American collaboration exploiting the downtrodden Pushtun minority on the Afghan border. Trouble is that the lifestyle portrayed seems to resemble nothing of the strict and clannish Pushtun families I know of. I cannot imagine any young girl or women loitering around in the company of young men like the protagonists in the novel. I also struggle to imagine the city of Mirali as depicted by Fatima Bhutto as it resembled more of a small city in Punjab rather than the ultra conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Some of Fatima’s observations left me pretty incredulous as well, like Taliban respect for absolute justice and the rebellious university students fighting for just cause of liberation against the state of Pakistan. I am afraid the novel does not represent Pushtun area depicted at all. Rather I got a sense of a number of rebellions all merged into one story like a Bollywood movie script. The university rebellion was taken from the Baluch rebellious movement, doctors getting killed taken from larger cities of Pakistan, and lady doctor raped was taken from SUI in Balochistan, making this novel highly imaginative and romantic. Its a poor representation of the people Fatima has tried to highlight I am afraid.
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