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jainandsdiary 's review for:
On the Other Side
by Rahman Abbas
Originally published as Khuda Ke Saye Mein Aankh Micholi in 2011 in Urdu, the book that awarded Rahman Abbas with the Maharashtra State Urdu Sahitya Akadami Award for the year, which he returned in 2015 against the wave of intolerance, is now translated by Riyaz Latif in English.
This novel showcases the life of Abdus-Salam, a novelist whose ambition is to publish his Dastan-e-Ishq, a seven-volume 'Saga of Passion' through the lens of another unnamed novelist who is set to write out a novel about Salam, which essentially makes it a novel tracing a novelist by another novelist through the formers novel. Looks a little complicated? Well, it's just a reflection of the complexity of this story, the characters and the themes this book taps into in an attempt to uncomplicate religion, politics, traditions, history, the position of women and Urdu in contemporary society, love and so on.
Abbas made an interesting and smart choice by making the narrator a novelist, which gave him the space, voice and medium to come one-on-one and have a chat with the readers and express his opinions and views. At one point, the narrator starts wondering about the artistic approach and position of a novelist, and it blurs the line between the narrator and Abbas, literally!
The character of Abdus-Salam is a contradiction with his actions from his thoughts at multiple junctions in this novel. On one hand, he is an atheist and questions the authority and existence of God throughout the novel, but at the same time, he talks with 'Him' continuously where 'He' exists and with the frequency that sometimes even the believer of 'Him' would try to learn from him. But it looks like a part and parcel of his existence, which even the 'narrator' novelist feels and mentions - "I am thinking, how shall I compose in the classical form of a novel the story of a man whose life there was nothing but disintegration."
The author made various remarks through Abbas and the narrator on the Urdu literature and its position in the current scenario. He also dived deeper into the lives of Muslims and their faith and how it's navigation in today's world. And not to forget, there's a lot of conversation around love, through Saga of Passion and the circumstances leading to it - something that consciously or subconsciously shows a tint of male gaze.
Overall, it was a great book for me to enter into Urdu literature and I would love to explore more of it.
This novel showcases the life of Abdus-Salam, a novelist whose ambition is to publish his Dastan-e-Ishq, a seven-volume 'Saga of Passion' through the lens of another unnamed novelist who is set to write out a novel about Salam, which essentially makes it a novel tracing a novelist by another novelist through the formers novel. Looks a little complicated? Well, it's just a reflection of the complexity of this story, the characters and the themes this book taps into in an attempt to uncomplicate religion, politics, traditions, history, the position of women and Urdu in contemporary society, love and so on.
Abbas made an interesting and smart choice by making the narrator a novelist, which gave him the space, voice and medium to come one-on-one and have a chat with the readers and express his opinions and views. At one point, the narrator starts wondering about the artistic approach and position of a novelist, and it blurs the line between the narrator and Abbas, literally!
The character of Abdus-Salam is a contradiction with his actions from his thoughts at multiple junctions in this novel. On one hand, he is an atheist and questions the authority and existence of God throughout the novel, but at the same time, he talks with 'Him' continuously where 'He' exists and with the frequency that sometimes even the believer of 'Him' would try to learn from him. But it looks like a part and parcel of his existence, which even the 'narrator' novelist feels and mentions - "I am thinking, how shall I compose in the classical form of a novel the story of a man whose life there was nothing but disintegration."
The author made various remarks through Abbas and the narrator on the Urdu literature and its position in the current scenario. He also dived deeper into the lives of Muslims and their faith and how it's navigation in today's world. And not to forget, there's a lot of conversation around love, through Saga of Passion and the circumstances leading to it - something that consciously or subconsciously shows a tint of male gaze.
Overall, it was a great book for me to enter into Urdu literature and I would love to explore more of it.