Two weeks ago, I had not heard about Tabish Khair. His book was recommended to me by a friend who is fanatical about reading fiction by Indian authors, good or bad. Knowing that I am rather choosy, he rarely recommends such books to me, but he was so sure that I would like this one that he took the gamble and did.
I am glad that he did.
The Guardian review starts with “What are the odds that the title of Tabish Khair’s novel was suggested by his publisher, keen to inject a frisson of riskiness into a rather quiet, oblique book? Fairly high, at a guess.”
That fairly sums up the book. There is simply no terror, nor much of what the missionary position would imply, but the story is narrated in such a way that the stereotyped Muslim comes alive only to sock the reader with a powerful punch to the solar plexus in the end.
Three South Asians feature in the story and the character portrayal of each is so realistic that I could slot each to persons I know. That is the most redeeming part of the story.
I intend reading Tabish Khair’s other books as well.
Must be a fascinating book (which I won’t be reading since I’m not reading books now).
Good way to get killed; be a missionary in an Islamic country.
In Pakistan, you don’t even need to be a Missionary. You just need to be a Christian or an Ahmadia or a Shia.
Sounds interesting. If it’s ever available at audible.com I’ll get it. at the moment even Amazon doesn’t know about it.
Cheerful Monk recently posted..#GivingTuesday
http://www.amazon.com/Fight-Islamist-Terror-Missionary-Position-ebook/dp/B00GHK74UG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1417695387&sr=1-1&keywords=How+to+Fight+Islamist+Terror+From+The+Missionary+Position.
I must have typed it incorrectly. Amazon’s search engine isn’t as helpful as Google’s.
Cheerful Monk recently posted..Poor Congress, Poor Us
totally out of my usual realm of reading.
but i am going to look for this book.
tammy j recently posted..THE BEST EVER!
Tammy, I guarantee you that you will enjoy reading it. Let me make an offer to you. Have you got a kindle or its equivalent? I shall gift you a download.