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elyseng's review against another edition
3.0
J'ai aimé l'idée à la base de tout, mais c'était difficile de suivre le fil et rester accrocher aux histoires qui s'entremêlaient. aussi, technicalité, j'ai trouvé embêtant de toujours devoir consulter le glossaire à la fin pour les mots en Ourdou ( vs une note en bas de page)
iqazi's review
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
crazygoangirl's review against another edition
2.0
Hmmm...apparently Maps for Lost Lovers from the same author was all the rage...but this his debut novel, while showing promise was a rather disjointed experience for me. The prose is eloquently descriptive as Aslam skilfully narrates the routine in a small village in Pakistan, but where I was disappointed was in what I perceived as a lack of depth in exploring the characters that peopled said village. So even as events proceeded to their rather obvious conclusions (perhaps obvious to me because events in an Indian village would be no different), I felt the familiarly fleeting sense of foreboding, frustration and helplessness accompanied by a lack of empathy. Perhaps the lack of empathy stemmed from the fact that I wasn't invested enough in the characters - they all seemed so hazy as if through the dusty lens of an old camera.
The characters to me were also very stereotypical...the wealthy, unprincipled landowners; the corrupt, self-serving policemen; the usual mix of well-meaning, hypocritical villagers and the requisite men of religion who wield power but no control over their flock. Nothing in the story itself is original, and that's where I was expecting the story-telling to lift it above average. I was disappointed. The blurb makes it sound like a bag of long misplaced letters are the crux of the issue - the proverbial pebble that disturbs the pond. But I didn't think that at all! The most horrifying in the book had nothing to do with the letters at all. In fact they are hardly mentioned and when they are, they are certainly not made out to be of any particular importance. Also, the author inserts chapters in italics that I assume are flashbacks but I had trouble keeping track of who they referred to and their purpose in the book.
This book had promise and Aslam does have, dare I say, a poetic edge to his writing, sensitive to nuance and mood. But for me, I prefer some flesh on my skeletons! It feels to me like the author compiled his best writing and made a story of it. I wish instead that he had published a book of short stories where each character would have got his just due! I think they deserved it. In all honesty, I did buy this book more than anything for the beauty of it's cover! Lesson learnt ;)
The characters to me were also very stereotypical...the wealthy, unprincipled landowners; the corrupt, self-serving policemen; the usual mix of well-meaning, hypocritical villagers and the requisite men of religion who wield power but no control over their flock. Nothing in the story itself is original, and that's where I was expecting the story-telling to lift it above average. I was disappointed. The blurb makes it sound like a bag of long misplaced letters are the crux of the issue - the proverbial pebble that disturbs the pond. But I didn't think that at all! The most horrifying in the book had nothing to do with the letters at all. In fact they are hardly mentioned and when they are, they are certainly not made out to be of any particular importance. Also, the author inserts chapters in italics that I assume are flashbacks but I had trouble keeping track of who they referred to and their purpose in the book.
This book had promise and Aslam does have, dare I say, a poetic edge to his writing, sensitive to nuance and mood. But for me, I prefer some flesh on my skeletons! It feels to me like the author compiled his best writing and made a story of it. I wish instead that he had published a book of short stories where each character would have got his just due! I think they deserved it. In all honesty, I did buy this book more than anything for the beauty of it's cover! Lesson learnt ;)
elyseng's review against another edition
3.0
J'ai aimé l'idée à la base de tout, mais c'était difficile de suivre le fil et rester accrocher aux histoires qui s'entremêlaient. aussi, technicalité, j'ai trouvé embêtant de toujours devoir consulter le glossaire à la fin pour les mots en Ourdou ( vs une note en bas de page)
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