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A review by sofia_reading
Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid
5.0
Just finished reading this book and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I read Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and although I liked it in the end, it took some perseverance on my part to push through long enough to warm to it. However I had heard his first book, Moth Smoke was really good and indeed I did think it was much better. He switches the perspective from which you read and intricately weaves a story that is not only interesting in its plot but exposes the double standards, corruptions and follies of Pakistan and its elite. He writes beautifully in this book. I felt he could have written about paint drying and made that beautiful too. Though this wasn't a talent that came through in the reluctant fundamentalist.
Some people have complained about the chapter on ACs. Funny I had said to my husband earlier in the day, if he doesn't read the book then just read that one chapter, because I found it amazing how Hamid could take a mundane household item and utilise it to illustrate the huge social disparity in Pakistan. One could present the social structures of Pakistan in the most elaborate and complex of manners, thus dazzling the reader into confused awe, but what does that achieve? In his use of the humble AC he perfectly illustrated the bizarre arrangement that is the social hierarchy of Pakistan.
His characters are all so well developed and despite feelings of revulsion towards them at times, I still felt pitiful remorse for the main protagonists. The story is tragic but his delivery is almost poetic.
Some people have complained about the chapter on ACs. Funny I had said to my husband earlier in the day, if he doesn't read the book then just read that one chapter, because I found it amazing how Hamid could take a mundane household item and utilise it to illustrate the huge social disparity in Pakistan. One could present the social structures of Pakistan in the most elaborate and complex of manners, thus dazzling the reader into confused awe, but what does that achieve? In his use of the humble AC he perfectly illustrated the bizarre arrangement that is the social hierarchy of Pakistan.
His characters are all so well developed and despite feelings of revulsion towards them at times, I still felt pitiful remorse for the main protagonists. The story is tragic but his delivery is almost poetic.