BOOK REVIEW: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin ★★☆☆☆
WARNING SPOILERS AND SWEARING.
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders illuminates a place and people as it describes the overlapping worlds of an extended Pakistani landowning family. Servants, masters, peasants and socialites, all inextricably bound to each other, confront the advantages and constraints of their station, the dissolution of old ways, and the shock of change.
I’ve been meaning to read more Pakistani fiction and the last one I read was Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and before that Qaisra Shahraz’s Holy Woman. I came across Mueenuddin because I needed something quick to read, thinking it was eight separate short stories.
Oh boy… was I wrong?
As the Punjabi proverb goes:
Three things for which we kill – Land women and gold.
So, you get the idea that this book will be… deadly serious.
These eight tales of woe connect with K.K. Harouni, a rich Pakistani patriarch of a landowning family and his network of his employees, servants, relatives and opportunists. The collection portrays a vivid yet scornful picture of Pakistan, with staggering rifts between classes, government corruption, scandalous relationships between servants (younger women) and masters (older men) and women’s vulnerability without the protection of family and marriage ties.
I was expecting something positive, but this was just a brutal, depressing depiction of Pakistan. The country in recent decades doesn’t have a good reputation, so why write a book that makes it worse. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything so depressing, cynical and condescending, in my life.
How, do you ask? Let me tell you.
I got this general vibe from Mueenuddin that Pakistanis are horrible, horny people. I know its extreme to say. The number of times the characters have affairs and sex are beyond me. And it’s usually between older men and younger women which in turn shows how desperate and low women have to go in a male dominate society. Example are Saleema, Provide, Provide and the titular story.
Corruption is prevalent in modern-day Pakistan. In About a Burning Girl and A Spoiled Man, the government and police abuse power to their advantage. You can get you out of trouble for a crime you’re guilty of or condemned regardless of your innocence.
Marriage seems to virtually non-exist in Mueenuddin’s Pakistani world. You're either unhappily married (Lilly) separate (titular story) in secret (Provide, Provide). The only exception was Nawabdin Electrician who actually likes his wife.
His idea around class is either the elite rich or the repulsively poor. Even the middle class (Our Lady of Paris) are still rich. There seems to be no middle ground, just two extremes. The lower class apparently lack love, loyalty, with no sense of friendship or family bonds. The wealthy whine about freedom. The poor are either corrupt and seedy or content and naïve. I got this feeling that these stories are narrated from a position of privilege, that poor described in these stories are the imaginings of a rich man’s view.
The themes mentioned were unexpectedly expected, in the sense that I know Pakistan is a patriarchal society but the mistreatment of women hasn’t changed one bit and to see it written proves it. I started to dislike this book because I couldn’t connect with most of these characters and that’s probably because of the author’s interpretation of what these characters and society should represent from his point of view and that four of these stories are about affairs.
I’ll treat this review as I would with any anthology by reviewing eight stories separately.
Nawabdin Electrician
Rating: 3/5
Nawabdin Electrician (published in New Yorker, Best American Short Stories 2008), Harouni’s electrician in his Multan village, has a vicious encounter with a thief who tries to steal his Honda 70 motorcycle, a valuable asset that helps Nawab support his wife and thirteen kids. Six shots were fired but one hits Nawabdin. As they are rushed to the hospital, the thief begs for his life. Nawabdin refuses to help.
It’s a good start to the collection and we see how an ordinary working-class man corrupts his way with electricity in the village and his ardent relationship with his family. This is mild compared to what’s to come (but I’ll get to that later). This story shows one’s own dire circumstances and that they would go as far as murder to get what they want. The thief would have sold the motorcycle to pay for his alcohol addiction and Nawabdin’s resilience to hold onto a possession even in the face of death. I took the theme of greed and not helping others, especially when the thief dies at the hospital and the doctor attending Nawabdin’s wounds couldn’t care less.
All he wanted was his motorcycle. (Page 16).
These eight tales of woe connect with K.K. Harouni, a rich Pakistani patriarch of a landowning family and his network of his employees, servants, relatives and opportunists. The collection portrays a vivid yet scornful picture of Pakistan, with staggering rifts between classes, government corruption, scandalous relationships between servants (younger women) and masters (older men) and women’s vulnerability without the protection of family and marriage ties.
I was expecting something positive, but this was just a brutal, depressing depiction of Pakistan. The country in recent decades doesn’t have a good reputation, so why write a book that makes it worse. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything so depressing, cynical and condescending, in my life.
How, do you ask? Let me tell you.
I got this general vibe from Mueenuddin that Pakistanis are horrible, horny people. I know its extreme to say. The number of times the characters have affairs and sex are beyond me. And it’s usually between older men and younger women which in turn shows how desperate and low women have to go in a male dominate society. Example are Saleema, Provide, Provide and the titular story.
Corruption is prevalent in modern-day Pakistan. In About a Burning Girl and A Spoiled Man, the government and police abuse power to their advantage. You can get you out of trouble for a crime you’re guilty of or condemned regardless of your innocence.
Marriage seems to virtually non-exist in Mueenuddin’s Pakistani world. You're either unhappily married (Lilly) separate (titular story) in secret (Provide, Provide). The only exception was Nawabdin Electrician who actually likes his wife.
His idea around class is either the elite rich or the repulsively poor. Even the middle class (Our Lady of Paris) are still rich. There seems to be no middle ground, just two extremes. The lower class apparently lack love, loyalty, with no sense of friendship or family bonds. The wealthy whine about freedom. The poor are either corrupt and seedy or content and naïve. I got this feeling that these stories are narrated from a position of privilege, that poor described in these stories are the imaginings of a rich man’s view.
The themes mentioned were unexpectedly expected, in the sense that I know Pakistan is a patriarchal society but the mistreatment of women hasn’t changed one bit and to see it written proves it. I started to dislike this book because I couldn’t connect with most of these characters and that’s probably because of the author’s interpretation of what these characters and society should represent from his point of view and that four of these stories are about affairs.
I’ll treat this review as I would with any anthology by reviewing eight stories separately.
Nawabdin Electrician
Rating: 3/5
Nawabdin Electrician (published in New Yorker, Best American Short Stories 2008), Harouni’s electrician in his Multan village, has a vicious encounter with a thief who tries to steal his Honda 70 motorcycle, a valuable asset that helps Nawab support his wife and thirteen kids. Six shots were fired but one hits Nawabdin. As they are rushed to the hospital, the thief begs for his life. Nawabdin refuses to help.
It’s a good start to the collection and we see how an ordinary working-class man corrupts his way with electricity in the village and his ardent relationship with his family. This is mild compared to what’s to come (but I’ll get to that later). This story shows one’s own dire circumstances and that they would go as far as murder to get what they want. The thief would have sold the motorcycle to pay for his alcohol addiction and Nawabdin’s resilience to hold onto a possession even in the face of death. I took the theme of greed and not helping others, especially when the thief dies at the hospital and the doctor attending Nawabdin’s wounds couldn’t care less.
All he wanted was his motorcycle. (Page 16).
He thought of his motorcycle, saved, and the glory of saving it. He was growing. Six shots, six coins thrown down, six chances, and not one of them killed him, not Nawabdin Electrician.
Saleema
Rating: 2/5
Saleema, who has been surrounded by drugs and prostitution all her life, is married to a man she resents because of his drug addiction. She’s a young maid to Kamila, Harouni’s oldest daughter, who seeks protection by seducing older and influential servants, like Hasan the cook and wonders why she has no respect. She falls in love with Rafik the valet, a married man who’s in his 60’s. After the affair, she gives birth to their son named Allah Baksh, but Rafik chooses his family over her. He promises to send her money, but after his death, she becomes destitute, seeks money via prostitution and drugs, dies and orphans her young son in the slums of Lahore.
This one was really depressing. The pacing was slow and the climax happened to fast, the ending felt rushed and abrupt. Saleema is an example of how poor, uneducated women in Pakistan survive using their sexuality and feeling worthless as a result. Whilst using bhang (a narcotic), Saleema and Rafik make love. Then Saleema panics. (Page 36).
Rating: 2/5
Saleema, who has been surrounded by drugs and prostitution all her life, is married to a man she resents because of his drug addiction. She’s a young maid to Kamila, Harouni’s oldest daughter, who seeks protection by seducing older and influential servants, like Hasan the cook and wonders why she has no respect. She falls in love with Rafik the valet, a married man who’s in his 60’s. After the affair, she gives birth to their son named Allah Baksh, but Rafik chooses his family over her. He promises to send her money, but after his death, she becomes destitute, seeks money via prostitution and drugs, dies and orphans her young son in the slums of Lahore.
This one was really depressing. The pacing was slow and the climax happened to fast, the ending felt rushed and abrupt. Saleema is an example of how poor, uneducated women in Pakistan survive using their sexuality and feeling worthless as a result. Whilst using bhang (a narcotic), Saleema and Rafik make love. Then Saleema panics. (Page 36).
Her thoughts were racing, from idea to idea. Oh, would he marry her and she knew he wouldn’t. She had been taken by so many men; could have given herself to him so much more pure.”Although Mueenuddin gave her a sad backstory and a reason to her circumstance, I didn’t like anyone in this story, except the poor unfortunate boy who “begged in the streets, one of the sparrows of Lahore.”
Provide, Provide
Rating: 2/5
In Provide, Provide, the story follows Chaudrey Nabi Baksh Jaglani, (Harouni’s manager) from Dunyapur, a heavy-handed selfish man, who’s used to getting what he wants. His driver Mustafa requests that his sister Zainab work in the house as a cook as her husband mistreats her. Jaglani can’t find a fault with her. She cooks delicious food attends to his needs, so much so that he starts sleeping with her. Realising he’s falling in love with her, he bullies her husband Aslam to divorce her so she can marry him (in secret), although Jaglani has a wife. After a year of marriage, Zainab can’t conceive a child and wishes that Jaglani’s son Shabir give up his little girl Saba to her. A few months later Jaglani is dying of cancer. Mustafa warns Zainab that her husband’s family might not welcome her. Meanwhile, in a subplot, Shabir is going into politics against his rival Makdoom.
I didn’t like the narrative. It was meant to be about Jaglani and Zainab but ends with Shabir and Makdoom. Zainab left with Mustafa, as a widow and motherless. I didn’t like Jaglani. He's a bit of an arsehole and giving him a sad backstory of how he never truly loved his first wife who he married at seventeen does not excuse the fact that he can sleep with anyone’s wife in the district. He lives in a lifestyle of taking and not giving; an opportunistic life, which in the end left him with no development or attachments to his men, land, possessions or power.
Much like Saleema, Zainab knows how to use her sexuality, but she is cautious of her relationship with her master. And his love for Zainab is actually lust because unlike the other women in his life, she doesn’t want to spend the whole night with him.
When asked why Zainab doesn’t stay the whole night she replies (Page 59).
"They (the villagers) leave me alone because they are afraid of you. It’s nice, it’s proof of just how much they do fear you. If you dropped me, they would call me a whore out loud as I walked down the street.”
About A Burning Girl
Rating: 1/5
The only short story written in the first person. About A Burning Girl, follows the account of a nameless (I can’t remember the name) sessions judge. His servant, a twenty-year-old named Khadim, whose father works for Harouni’s nephew, askes for leave as his mother isn’t well. Two days later he gets a call from the servant’s brother stating he’s in jail for pouring kerosene over his wife and setting her on fire, resulting to murder. He meets the brother who tells him the wife tried to commit suicide, setting herself on fire because a week before a robbery took place.
I don’t know what was going on half of the time. There were too many theories about if the woman killed herself, or her in-laws did it to stage a robbery and make her a scapegoat. But on the whole, it shows government corruption, and how a favoured servant is saved, despite the numerous evidence against them.
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Rating: 3/5
In the titular story, (published in New Yorker) K.K. Harouni is a feudal landowner who has an affair and is slowly losing power over his servants who take criminal advantage of him.
Husna, a young girl from a lower social class, turns up at his door looking for a teaching position as she’s been recommended by his separate wife Begum Harouni. Shah Sahib, the secretary, teaches Husna how to touch type. When the wife goes on Umrah Harouni tells Husna to stay with him, fixing her up in the servant quarters. They have an affair (have sex, eye roll). Sarwat, Harouni’s youngest daughter who’s married to a wealthy industrialist in Karachi comes for a visit, isn’t fond of Husna. Husna builds a reputation (getting Hasan, the cook into trouble) and gets an annexe to stay. But after Harouni dies of a heart attack, his daughters, Kamila, Sarwat and Rehana tell her politely to leave.
This one gets a three-star because we get to read more about Husna and her role, unlike in the previous stories where it was about the masters and the men. Much like Saleema and Provide, Provide, women use their sexuality for favours and comfort, leading to the dependency of men and left alone when the man dies. This one had more meaning because Husna knew had to wield power (upgrading from servant quarters to an annexe) and by wearing tight and revealing clothes to entice Harouni. Maybe she might have loved him in the end when they realise they see one another in a different light. (Page 125).
For a moment, Husna and K.K. looked at each other, his face lined and grave, hers puffy with sleep. For the first time he had thought of her as a grown-up, as a woman and for the first time she thought of him as a lover, sick and possibly dying.”
Our Lady of Paris
Rating: 2/5
Our lady of Paris (appeared in Zoetrope: All Story) follows the story of Helen, a white American falling in love with a middle-class Pakistani, Sohail (Harouni’s nephew). They spend Christmas and New Years in Paris where she meets his parents Rafia and Amjad (Harouni’s cousin). Sohail and Helen have some underlying issues about where they would live after marriage; New York or Pakistan. Helen meets Rafia at the Hotel George V, where Rafia tells her if Sohail lives in Pakistan, he’ll be eaten by politicians and in America, he would be emasculated, more since 9/11. From that talk, Helen starts to have doubts about her relationship.
This story deals with not only inter-racial relationships, but with the diaspora, belonging and wanting to be someone/someplace else. Amjad is asked by Helen who he would have liked to be, he states:
Our lady of Paris (appeared in Zoetrope: All Story) follows the story of Helen, a white American falling in love with a middle-class Pakistani, Sohail (Harouni’s nephew). They spend Christmas and New Years in Paris where she meets his parents Rafia and Amjad (Harouni’s cousin). Sohail and Helen have some underlying issues about where they would live after marriage; New York or Pakistan. Helen meets Rafia at the Hotel George V, where Rafia tells her if Sohail lives in Pakistan, he’ll be eaten by politicians and in America, he would be emasculated, more since 9/11. From that talk, Helen starts to have doubts about her relationship.
This story deals with not only inter-racial relationships, but with the diaspora, belonging and wanting to be someone/someplace else. Amjad is asked by Helen who he would have liked to be, he states:
“If I ran away to the South Pole some Pakistani businessman would one day crawl into my igloo and ask if I was the cousin of K.K. Harouni.”Honestly, I was bored. I get the fact that inter-racial relationships are hard, but the ending wasn’t much help. With an ambiguous, abrupt, last line, I guess they break up (Page 155).
Now their loves blown away, their pain.
By this point, I so want to be done with this book.
Lily
Rating: 3/5
Leila, aka Lilly, is a party animal in Islamabad, who attempts to cleanse her scarred past by marrying a decent wealthy man, which fails as she’s incapable of change.
In part one, she’s a bad girl with a bad reputation (giving blow jobs for ecstasy). One night, at a part she meets Murad, Makhdoom Talwan’s nephew from Muzaffargarh. After much pursuing, they get married and she moves with him to the countryside in Jalpana. In part two Lilly struggles to adjust to the life of wife and landlady. She doesn’t want to be a mother, or have a child that would destroy her beautiful youth and body she’s maintained with strict dieting. She tries to spice up her marriage but Murad would rather talk about problems on the farm. After fucking one of her guests at a party she had at the farm and reading her husband’s diary about her destructive attitude, Lilly realises she will never change and stays in an unhappy marriage, drinking her sorrows away.
This one was far by engaging, flowed, albeit long. Lilly is not a likeable character, but you understand her flaws and her lifestyle she can’t give up. It’s sad that she realises her future would just be her drinking and sleeping with other men on the down-low. See, rushing into a marriage in hope that your spouse will change you is a bad idea. No matter if you are rich or poor, women have it hard in Pakistan. (Page 206).
Rating: 3/5
Leila, aka Lilly, is a party animal in Islamabad, who attempts to cleanse her scarred past by marrying a decent wealthy man, which fails as she’s incapable of change.
In part one, she’s a bad girl with a bad reputation (giving blow jobs for ecstasy). One night, at a part she meets Murad, Makhdoom Talwan’s nephew from Muzaffargarh. After much pursuing, they get married and she moves with him to the countryside in Jalpana. In part two Lilly struggles to adjust to the life of wife and landlady. She doesn’t want to be a mother, or have a child that would destroy her beautiful youth and body she’s maintained with strict dieting. She tries to spice up her marriage but Murad would rather talk about problems on the farm. After fucking one of her guests at a party she had at the farm and reading her husband’s diary about her destructive attitude, Lilly realises she will never change and stays in an unhappy marriage, drinking her sorrows away.
This one was far by engaging, flowed, albeit long. Lilly is not a likeable character, but you understand her flaws and her lifestyle she can’t give up. It’s sad that she realises her future would just be her drinking and sleeping with other men on the down-low. See, rushing into a marriage in hope that your spouse will change you is a bad idea. No matter if you are rich or poor, women have it hard in Pakistan. (Page 206).
“This is a marriage, not a love affair, it’s different. Marriage is process. Love is knocked about.”
A Spoiled Man
Rating: 3/5
Rezak is a poor man who has a mobile home. Ghulam Rasool, the old majordorma who works for Sohail and his American wife Sonya, gets Rezak a job as a gardener in Kalapani. Meanwhile, Sonya tries to adjust to Pakistani life, but after arguing with her husband, she usually spends her time brooding in Kalapani.
Not much is known about Rezak. He is estranged from his family who lives in the mountains. One day he meets an old friend (lives on the mountains) who tells him his cousin has a retarded but beautiful daughter he could marry, who can cook, keep the house clean and bear him a son. This would make Rezak’s second marriage, as his first wife and new-born child died a long time ago during childbirth.
He marries her and they get along well, although unsuccessful to produce a child. One day she disappears. He’s feared that she might be dead, stolen, taken to a brothel in Pindi or Karachi. Sonya calls the DSP, (Deputy of Superintendent of Police) to investigate the case. He, in turn, blames Rezak and drags him to the police station. Rezak doesn’t die from his injuries but from a broken heart. Sonya and Ghulam bury him on the land and turn his mobile house into a memorial. But soon after people forget and take his things, leaving his cabin in ruins.
What a way to end this anthology; a story that ends in death and disrespect. This story had to do with networking for a job, marrying a docile woman to treat like a maid and the corruption of the police department who get a kick (pun intended) out of torturing prisoners. (Page 231.)
Rating: 3/5
Rezak is a poor man who has a mobile home. Ghulam Rasool, the old majordorma who works for Sohail and his American wife Sonya, gets Rezak a job as a gardener in Kalapani. Meanwhile, Sonya tries to adjust to Pakistani life, but after arguing with her husband, she usually spends her time brooding in Kalapani.
Not much is known about Rezak. He is estranged from his family who lives in the mountains. One day he meets an old friend (lives on the mountains) who tells him his cousin has a retarded but beautiful daughter he could marry, who can cook, keep the house clean and bear him a son. This would make Rezak’s second marriage, as his first wife and new-born child died a long time ago during childbirth.
He marries her and they get along well, although unsuccessful to produce a child. One day she disappears. He’s feared that she might be dead, stolen, taken to a brothel in Pindi or Karachi. Sonya calls the DSP, (Deputy of Superintendent of Police) to investigate the case. He, in turn, blames Rezak and drags him to the police station. Rezak doesn’t die from his injuries but from a broken heart. Sonya and Ghulam bury him on the land and turn his mobile house into a memorial. But soon after people forget and take his things, leaving his cabin in ruins.
What a way to end this anthology; a story that ends in death and disrespect. This story had to do with networking for a job, marrying a docile woman to treat like a maid and the corruption of the police department who get a kick (pun intended) out of torturing prisoners. (Page 231.)
He slapped Rezak again, cutting his lip. “You listen to me, I can make you fuck your own daughter if you want, you’ll hump her all night, like a dog fucking a bitch.”That was callous, vulgar and uncomfortable to read. I was NOT ready for that line, like at all.
And the last paragraph… utterly depressing out of the whole lot. (Page 237).
At first the cabin sat inviolate below the swimming pool, locked, Rezak’s things still in the cupboards and drawers. Sonya went to look at it, then not again, her attention fading. Gradually, like falling leaves, the locks were broken off, one person taking the thermos, another the wood tools – files, and a hammer, a plane, a level. The clothes disappeared, the last cupboard emptied, even the filthy mattress pulled out and put to use, taken by the sweeper who cleaned the toilets in the big house. The door of the little cabin hung open, the wind and blown rain scoured it clean.Maybe because it’s the last story from this collection but my heart goes out to Rezak. He did have a miserable life, who’s only one moment of happiness was snatched with his wife’s disappearance.
Summary
As a whole, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders was not fun to read and sounded vaguely similar. I felt absolutely no joy reading this. It took nearly a month to read when it could have been done in a week. It’s just so depressing and grim. I see why it was nominated for many famous book awards: Pulitzer, National Book Award, Commonwealth, etc. But to actually win it makes my mind boggle.
Many people love this collection, but I have my doubts. These eight stories could have been worked on. The characters are shallow, with no depth and so much scorn. There’s too much background information crammed in for a short story and too much telling rather than showing emotions. At times the narrative rambled and I was distracted with doing anything else but read this.
If this book was ever hyped, then it really isn’t worth it. If you love depressing reads that make you want to stay in bed then, by all means, dive right in. If you want to read something positive about Pakistan, please, skip this – there is far better Pakistani fiction out there.
Now, I need to watch something happy.
Rating: 2/5
Publishers: Doubleday
Publication date: September 13th 2011
Genre: anthology/Asian
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