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A review by kjcharles
I, Migrant by Sami Shah
Remarkable. An incredibly readable account of a stand up comedian's early life, forays into advertising, job in news media, etc, except he's living and working in Karachi around the time of Benazir Bhutto's assassination, when suicide bombings became a common occurrence and religious fundamentalism really took off. It's an extraordinary combination, not least because of the sense of people desperately trying to have a normal life or at least persuade themselves that things aren't horrifyingly out of control. The section about trying to do "what's up with that" stand up comedy about suicide bombing is...yeah.
It's primarily about life in Pakistan, with the last part about moving to rural small town Australia, which is something of a culture shock. I have never seen his stand up, though I now want to; I picked this up on the basis of his enjoyable djinn fantasy [b:Fire Boy|29234637|Fire Boy (Djinn-Son Duology, #1)|Sami Shah|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456033400s/29234637.jpg|49475893] because it looked vaguely interesting, and ended up consuming it in two sessions , and that was because I had to go out in between. Big recommend.
It's primarily about life in Pakistan, with the last part about moving to rural small town Australia, which is something of a culture shock. I have never seen his stand up, though I now want to; I picked this up on the basis of his enjoyable djinn fantasy [b:Fire Boy|29234637|Fire Boy (Djinn-Son Duology, #1)|Sami Shah|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456033400s/29234637.jpg|49475893] because it looked vaguely interesting, and ended up consuming it in two sessions , and that was because I had to go out in between. Big recommend.