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now_booking's review
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This book was highly recommended to me by several people whose literary fiction opinions I respect and I was promised I would like it and a year and a half ago, I started reading this and initially, I was intrigued. Female friendships, and faith are two things I’m particularly interested in and those are central to the plot of this book. However, I soon found these elements to drag a bit and for the self-perceived sense of stagnation in the three protagonists’ lives to be mirrored by a sense of stagnation in the plot for at least 75% of this book.
The premise is that three friends, Salma, Moni and Iman, brought together by their common faith, but having distinctly different backgrounds in the midst of great personal turmoils in their lives go on a road trip/pilgrimage to a small village in Scotland and there are able to explore their greatest torments and forge new realities away from the weighty expectations of their communities.
This to me felt like 2 separate books. The first 70% of so is a pastoral story of a friendship sort of imploding when the three women get on a road trip and are unbound by the strictures of their family and faith to explore their greatest desires seemingly with no repercussions. This could have been exciting but it was all very internalized. There were endless cyclical and repetitive depictions of Salma’s lust for a past life and a past lover through a text-based flirtationship, and Moni’s yearning to mother her son’s disability away to the exclusion of all else through her relationship with the young boy holidaying nearby, and Iman’s disdain for her femininity and pretty privilege which has been weaponised against her through her exploration of new identities through her costume play and removing her hijab. The issue is that the important conversations were never had. And nothing really happened. Because of the style of book, it was uncertain what was real and what wasn’t and there was not enough real dialogue or conversation to actually explore what the women were experiencing. This was clearly on purpose, but because it was all so unformed and the same depictions repeated over and over and dragged on for so long, it made this for me a less compelling read.
For me, the second part of the book, the final 30% where the author unapologetically catapaulted the story into the magical realism realm is where this really picked up and got some form and purpose. The final 30% used the stories the hoopoe had told Iman throughout the first part of the book to showcase consequences. It is unimportant whether the traumatic consequences faced by Salma, Iman, and Moni really happen or are merely dreams, because what is important is how these consequences teach them about themselves, about their flirtation with disaster and about their friendship. The author’s use of magical realism for this portion of the book I think provides a more creative exploration of consequence than using one that was based on religion. Using the hoopoe’s stories and parables makes the lessons more a commentary about humanity than they are specifically about being a Muslim woman although that is a huge part of the cultural identity in this book.
Overall, I liked this. Certainly, I enjoyed the last 30% more than the first 70%. I found it incredibly meaningful and I felt like it was doing something to further themes of friendship and identity more than the larger earlier section of the book. While the hoopoe makes appearances throughout the book, I wish the magical realism had been more incorporated throughout the story rather than the huge switch near the end, especially because it was executed so well. I was ambivalent about the whole premise of the pilgrimage to the “old Scottish lady who had been a Muslim”’s plot area. The author tried to tie it together in the end but to be honest, I didn’t really care much about that part of the story. I only cared about the protagonists and their relationships. Perhaps that was why I found a lot of this book very hard going. For one that had 3 protagonists, it was a very lonely sort of story. The women were alone in their thoughts a lot and there wasn’t a lot of doing or progression till near the end.
The premise is that three friends, Salma, Moni and Iman, brought together by their common faith, but having distinctly different backgrounds in the midst of great personal turmoils in their lives go on a road trip/pilgrimage to a small village in Scotland and there are able to explore their greatest torments and forge new realities away from the weighty expectations of their communities.
This to me felt like 2 separate books. The first 70% of so is a pastoral story of a friendship sort of imploding when the three women get on a road trip and are unbound by the strictures of their family and faith to explore their greatest desires seemingly with no repercussions. This could have been exciting but it was all very internalized. There were endless cyclical and repetitive depictions of Salma’s lust for a past life and a past lover through a text-based flirtationship, and Moni’s yearning to mother her son’s disability away to the exclusion of all else through her relationship with the young boy holidaying nearby, and Iman’s disdain for her femininity and pretty privilege which has been weaponised against her through her exploration of new identities through her costume play and removing her hijab. The issue is that the important conversations were never had. And nothing really happened. Because of the style of book, it was uncertain what was real and what wasn’t and there was not enough real dialogue or conversation to actually explore what the women were experiencing. This was clearly on purpose, but because it was all so unformed and the same depictions repeated over and over and dragged on for so long, it made this for me a less compelling read.
For me, the second part of the book, the final 30% where the author unapologetically catapaulted the story into the magical realism realm is where this really picked up and got some form and purpose. The final 30% used the stories the hoopoe had told Iman throughout the first part of the book to showcase consequences. It is unimportant whether the traumatic consequences faced by Salma, Iman, and Moni really happen or are merely dreams, because what is important is how these consequences teach them about themselves, about their flirtation with disaster and about their friendship. The author’s use of magical realism for this portion of the book I think provides a more creative exploration of consequence than using one that was based on religion. Using the hoopoe’s stories and parables makes the lessons more a commentary about humanity than they are specifically about being a Muslim woman although that is a huge part of the cultural identity in this book.
Overall, I liked this. Certainly, I enjoyed the last 30% more than the first 70%. I found it incredibly meaningful and I felt like it was doing something to further themes of friendship and identity more than the larger earlier section of the book. While the hoopoe makes appearances throughout the book, I wish the magical realism had been more incorporated throughout the story rather than the huge switch near the end, especially because it was executed so well. I was ambivalent about the whole premise of the pilgrimage to the “old Scottish lady who had been a Muslim”’s plot area. The author tried to tie it together in the end but to be honest, I didn’t really care much about that part of the story. I only cared about the protagonists and their relationships. Perhaps that was why I found a lot of this book very hard going. For one that had 3 protagonists, it was a very lonely sort of story. The women were alone in their thoughts a lot and there wasn’t a lot of doing or progression till near the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Islamophobia, Abandonment, Death, Infidelity, Ableism, Infertility, Toxic friendship, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Body shaming, Sexism, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting
Minor: Classism, Colonisation, and Bullying
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