I couldn't tell who the target audience was, even though there doesn't necessarily have to be one and good writing, regardless of the reader's age, is pleasurable.Still, if this is meant for small children, then it fails as some of the concepts such as loneliness, rejection etc., may be too abstract for them. On the other hand discerning older children would not find these stories particularly interesting either. The style varies rather wildly through the collection. It appears as if she tried her hand at writing, in every literary style, and with a few bumps along the way got a little better. The editor seems to have stuck faithfully to this linear progression and unfortunately for the author and the reader has put the best stories of the lot at the very end, asking for more patience than justified by the early ones.
Three stories stand out. 'Abdullah and the Yellow Dog' is a Dickensian tale of the desperate attempts of a young boy trying to flee the harshness and cruelty of the Madrassah. The boy does ultimately get his freedom and the way in which he does reflects the lack of choices that a society mired in poverty imposes on its weakest. Religion here is proxy for wielding power and religious education, seemingly the only hope for young boys is shown to be a fate worse then death.
The next story, 'Beating the Donkey' is a simple and enjoyable one about a donkey that shows up a minister. It is like any number of folktales from South Asia and uses humor well. This seems to be strangely juxtaposed to 'Never Hurt Again' a dark and terrible story of a psychotic boy/young man who is abused as child physically and sexually, who in turn murders a couple of children. It is written rather well and describes the psychotic visions of the protagonist who's fears have morphed into rats.
In another story, the issues of growing up in America and exploring the taboos of one's culture is developed, in a very realistic way, through a Pakistani undergrad who for the first time tastes the 'Forbidden Meat' pork and likes it.
As for the rest it was a painful exercise in trite writing. The author states the point rather than making it avoiding all recourse to irony, implication and subtlety with only a glimpse or two of the comic. The stories were rather preachy with the kind of tone that one found in annoying moral science books as a child. Most of the characters appeared to be young adults although as it was hard to tell from the stories what the ages of the protagonists' might be. This colored the way one felt about the characterization. What would be somewhat annoying at nine can be downright obnoxious at twelve and the author doesn't tell. Overall, the characterization is weak. Most of the children, when they are not desperate victims, sound like spoilt, whiny, 'goody two shoes'; It seems hardly surprising when they get bullied by their peers or ignored by the adults. Yet, while the stories would do well with a rewrite and reordering, they are not all inherently bad.
In 'Crows Know' the dramatization is effective. Her description of the clashbetween the crows and the eagles was nicely done. Going Fishing was the one I liked the most of all, which is not saying too much. Curiously, she seems to get into the skin of the boy in this story than any of the girls in the other stories. But she does.
'Elephants and Angels' would like to show that people can rise above their physical deformities. It is about an unspoken empathy between a deformed from birth boy from the slums and an upper class girl. They don't speak to each other but he feels that for the first time in his life he has not been rejected on sight. He later finds out that she herself is scarred. The story is not bad although the writingevokes the rhetoric of mainstream Hindi cinema. Poor boy from slum whom nobody loves, meets rich girl, falls in love and becomes whole again.
The 'Names of Butterflies' is about a young girl who develops a growing interests in butterflies. She studies them, draws them, researches about them and gets a very superior attitude. She actually sounds rather insufferable and would have paid a price were she in Malory towers. But here she is encouraged by her teacher. So far so good. But oh! Her father thinks what she does is silly and why would she want to studyscience when she will grow up to raise a family. The author is not quite sure where she wants this story to go. A commentary about how hard young girls have to struggle to fulfill their innermost desires. Or perhaps on the difference between the classes through the character of Mali Baba who seems to the girl to be the most supportive person. Or yet perhaps how parents are after all caring and kind even though they sometimes don't appear so to their children. But in the end she doesn't end up saying much as she depends so much on stereotypes to delineate her characters - the mother focused on clothes, the father reading the newspaper and not paying attention, the little sister laughing at her and the kind hearted concerned servant.
'If only cats could talk' is a bit surreal. It is handicapped by the tone of the cat, which is most kindly described as annoying. This cat is asking for a swift kick in the rear! Also, there is this curious switch from first person by a cat to first person narration by his grandfather - it doesn't seem necessary to the story andcreates an abrupt break.
The collection improves at the end but finishes disappointingly with 'Snakebite', which I admit nonplussed me. It lacked any meaning or story line and appears to be about a demented girl who voluntarily pokes a cobra out of its hole. If it was meant as a metaphor about the constricted freedoms of a girl child in Pakistan, it isn't apparent in the least.
It is a pity that one has to be so negative about any first time author's efforts but this collection doesn't provide much incentive. However, any criticism of this work must be shared in a large degree by the editor as well.
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