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ltay007 's review for:
Best of Friends
by Kamila Shamsie
Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie
How many of us are still in contact with old school and childhood friends? I suspect a growing number given the power and each of social media. My own daughter, now 35, still regularly socialises and maintains close and lasting relationships with the women we both first knew as toddlers. But would we choose these same people to be our close friends should we meet them in later life? We may have shared childhood, school and family experiences but our lives may have taken us on very different paths and with consequent varied outlooks, ideologies, attitudes, opinions and political persuasions. Perhaps even in childhood our family backgrounds were so different that our friendships were more a product of circumstance than real affinity? That is perhaps the premise of this latest novel by award winning Pakistani born author Kamila Shamsie.
This book of two halves was for me most interesting when Maryam and Zahra, our 14 year old protagonists in the first half set in Karachi in the late 1980s with the demise of the dictatorship regime, were followed in their early 40s as successful, influential women in London some 30 years later. I found the first half, which read at times like a poor YA novel, over lengthy and it implied some assumption and prior knowledge of Pakistan politics, which I then went on to research. Presumably much of this was based on Shamsie’s own family experiences growing up Anglo-Pakistani in Karachi - references to cricket, the patriarchy, the oppression and relative powerlessness of women (Girl Fear), life under a dictatorship, corruption, bribery, military rule, female oppression, and new hope and possibilities with the democratic election of a female President, alongside the typical interests, sexual awakening and puberty of teenage girls the world over with their focus on pop music, films, fashion and boys. Undoubtedly both girls grew up in affluent, privileged, educated and relatively liberated households - perhaps a side of many Asian countries we seldom read about in contemporary fiction. This first half climaxes with a pivotal key traumatic incident on which the whole book depends although reading it this also seemed over lengthy rather than of significance at the time.Throughout however the trust, love and friendship of the two girls survives - they are bonded together and loyal to each other despite their differences in character, family background and beliefs.
For me thought the book really took off with Maryam and Zahra as successful, high profile career women living in London. Although we see Maryam as something of the privileged, spoilt, vengeful and ultimately ruthless “operator” and successful business woman she is the one with the successful home life, and family relationships as mother to Zola and in her love for Layla. Her ambition though, which leads her to join the influential right wing Top Table fundraising organisation and succeed in manipulating political decision making, shows just how ruthless and vengeful she ultimately has become - very much in the same mould as her grandfather. Zahra has been unsuccessful in her romantic relationships - a risk taking teenager who then sought out similar experiences as a university student, and now lives something of a celebrity lifestyle as CEO of a Civil Rights lobby group, with her defence of civil rights, personal freedoms, and her support of migrant cases. I read the book in the week of an inquest relating to the tragic suicide of a teenage girl who was subject to online bullying - one of many such recent horrific cases and the case featured in the story seemed even more pertinent and poignant.
I enjoyed the book’s relevance to several such current socio-political issues - conflict between tech and personal liberties, attacks on civil liberties, insidious intrusion of technology into our personal lives, debate over the introduction of ID cards, facial recognition technology, police intrusion, privacy laws, horrendous treatment of asylum seekers and detainees but none of these were explored in any real depth. I did find the continual use of cultural references at times annoying and wonder if these will date the book in time despite the author presumably using them to set the story in a definite time period, place and context. I didn't really warm to any of the protagonists - both women and their friends and families were so very privileged from the outset and continued to live in an elite world with which I could not identify or have much in common. I found the writing style at times clunky and very much a case of telling rather than showing particularly in the first half. I ended up having little sympathy for either Maryam or Zahra nor did I ultimately like either of them very much. I had hoped that the story might develop into an exploration of racism, attitudes towards and the role of women in a patriarchal society, and Muslim women in particular but maybe this wasn’t the book Shamsie wanted to write? Too much of a cliche?
However I did find the final climactic confrontational scene between the two friends riveting and powerful as it pulled together all the strands of the story. The revelations, personal attacks on each other’s behaviour and character were fascinating .This was the story of two educated, successful, privileged, middle class, affluent career women and their relationship and how perhaps ultimately questions of morality trump these historic emotional friendship ties. Did I care very much though…….?
With thanks to The Reading Agency, Reading Groups for Everyone and Bloomsbury Press for sending copies to myself and other Hythe Book Group members.
How many of us are still in contact with old school and childhood friends? I suspect a growing number given the power and each of social media. My own daughter, now 35, still regularly socialises and maintains close and lasting relationships with the women we both first knew as toddlers. But would we choose these same people to be our close friends should we meet them in later life? We may have shared childhood, school and family experiences but our lives may have taken us on very different paths and with consequent varied outlooks, ideologies, attitudes, opinions and political persuasions. Perhaps even in childhood our family backgrounds were so different that our friendships were more a product of circumstance than real affinity? That is perhaps the premise of this latest novel by award winning Pakistani born author Kamila Shamsie.
This book of two halves was for me most interesting when Maryam and Zahra, our 14 year old protagonists in the first half set in Karachi in the late 1980s with the demise of the dictatorship regime, were followed in their early 40s as successful, influential women in London some 30 years later. I found the first half, which read at times like a poor YA novel, over lengthy and it implied some assumption and prior knowledge of Pakistan politics, which I then went on to research. Presumably much of this was based on Shamsie’s own family experiences growing up Anglo-Pakistani in Karachi - references to cricket, the patriarchy, the oppression and relative powerlessness of women (Girl Fear), life under a dictatorship, corruption, bribery, military rule, female oppression, and new hope and possibilities with the democratic election of a female President, alongside the typical interests, sexual awakening and puberty of teenage girls the world over with their focus on pop music, films, fashion and boys. Undoubtedly both girls grew up in affluent, privileged, educated and relatively liberated households - perhaps a side of many Asian countries we seldom read about in contemporary fiction. This first half climaxes with a pivotal key traumatic incident on which the whole book depends although reading it this also seemed over lengthy rather than of significance at the time.Throughout however the trust, love and friendship of the two girls survives - they are bonded together and loyal to each other despite their differences in character, family background and beliefs.
For me thought the book really took off with Maryam and Zahra as successful, high profile career women living in London. Although we see Maryam as something of the privileged, spoilt, vengeful and ultimately ruthless “operator” and successful business woman she is the one with the successful home life, and family relationships as mother to Zola and in her love for Layla. Her ambition though, which leads her to join the influential right wing Top Table fundraising organisation and succeed in manipulating political decision making, shows just how ruthless and vengeful she ultimately has become - very much in the same mould as her grandfather. Zahra has been unsuccessful in her romantic relationships - a risk taking teenager who then sought out similar experiences as a university student, and now lives something of a celebrity lifestyle as CEO of a Civil Rights lobby group, with her defence of civil rights, personal freedoms, and her support of migrant cases. I read the book in the week of an inquest relating to the tragic suicide of a teenage girl who was subject to online bullying - one of many such recent horrific cases and the case featured in the story seemed even more pertinent and poignant.
I enjoyed the book’s relevance to several such current socio-political issues - conflict between tech and personal liberties, attacks on civil liberties, insidious intrusion of technology into our personal lives, debate over the introduction of ID cards, facial recognition technology, police intrusion, privacy laws, horrendous treatment of asylum seekers and detainees but none of these were explored in any real depth. I did find the continual use of cultural references at times annoying and wonder if these will date the book in time despite the author presumably using them to set the story in a definite time period, place and context. I didn't really warm to any of the protagonists - both women and their friends and families were so very privileged from the outset and continued to live in an elite world with which I could not identify or have much in common. I found the writing style at times clunky and very much a case of telling rather than showing particularly in the first half. I ended up having little sympathy for either Maryam or Zahra nor did I ultimately like either of them very much. I had hoped that the story might develop into an exploration of racism, attitudes towards and the role of women in a patriarchal society, and Muslim women in particular but maybe this wasn’t the book Shamsie wanted to write? Too much of a cliche?
However I did find the final climactic confrontational scene between the two friends riveting and powerful as it pulled together all the strands of the story. The revelations, personal attacks on each other’s behaviour and character were fascinating .This was the story of two educated, successful, privileged, middle class, affluent career women and their relationship and how perhaps ultimately questions of morality trump these historic emotional friendship ties. Did I care very much though…….?
With thanks to The Reading Agency, Reading Groups for Everyone and Bloomsbury Press for sending copies to myself and other Hythe Book Group members.