Daniyal Mueenuddin

This collection of stories is insightful and by turns luminous and bleak. Mueenuddin takes the stories of a wide range of people, from poor servants to the landed rich, to form a cross section of Pakistani society, the common thread being their relationship to an old aristocratic land-owner and his family. It is full of poetic detail and Mueenuddin's characters are complex, fully realised and sympathetic, but the overall picture is of a divided society in which very few stories have happy endings. Considering the setting, the stories feel very secular, with very few overtly religious elements - it is much more about families, money, power and influence. I suspect that many of these stories would stand up well to multiple readings… (més)

Each of the stories opens a door onto a life...shines a light for a while and quietly closes the door again', 13 Nov. 2014
By
sally tarbox

This review is from: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (Paperback)
Eight powerful short stories, linked by the fact that all the protagonists are somehow part of the circle of wealthy landowner Mr Harouni - whether his poor servants or wealthy and westernized family members.
Women, used and cast aside...a dishonest man who condemns the dying robber who tried to steal from him....a beautiful, promiscuous socialite finally marries....the son of a wealthy family spends Christmas in Paris with his American girlfriend...

This is a very different Pakistan from the one we think we know. Beautiful written and very sad.… (més)

This is a haunting work, with emotional land mines sewn into a series of seemingly uncomplicated short stories. A young woman with no prospects seduces an elderly rich man to gain a few luxuries. A woman rejects her wild youth to settle down with a stable husband. An internationally-tense meet the parents scenario. While the bare bones of each plot is simple and unsurprising- this book challenges all preconceived notions of the power-struggles between men and women. And while everything is doomed and damned with unconquerable fatalism, the richness of the emotions captures the pure blind hope of being in love. While the characters fall into stereotype relationship disasters- the hidden mistress, the duty-bound husband, the class-conflicted, the age-inappropriate, the workplace romance--- all those typical situations that cause hum-bug moralists to tilt their heads and think "Should have know better..." Mueenuddin creates this magical intimacy that allows the readers to connect with that moment- that throw caution and reason to the wind moment- where someone lets temptation get the better of them. And the reader gets to feel that hope, while under no illusion that there will be any happily-ever after.
The other unique aspect of Mueenudin's work is "when" he allows his characters to fall in love. After intense manipulation- callous indifference- cold calculation- a decision to settle-- all unromantic scenarios--- he still lets these stained creatures find some measure of genuine feeling. And so, for however brief a flash- he makes all of these bedraggled tales- love stories. And that makes this work very poignant, and very sad.… (més)