| Product: |
Maps for Lost Lovers - Nadeem Aslam |
| Date: |
18/09/07 (88 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Absorbing, memsmorising.
Disadvantages: Occassionally too poetic.
Nadeem Aslam was born in Gujranwala, Pakistan in 1966, the son of a poet and sometime film director who had to flee the country when Nadeem was fourteen because of his communist beliefs. The family settled in West Yorkshire where Nadeem went on to start writing, inspired in some ways, one would think, by his father. His first book,’ Season of the Rainbirds’, was published in 1993 to critical acclaim, enabling him to work on his book,
‘Maps for Lost Lovers.’ A feat which took him eleven years to complete. It was finished in 2004 and published by Faber & Faber.
I was attracted to the book because of the nature of the story and the number of plaudits given to it by some of my favourite authors. It isn’t the sort of book I would normally read, there have been quite a few of these books about lately, but as I picked it up and then replaced it on the shelf, I was being pulled towards what I could see would prove a challenging read. It’s quite long at 369 pages and the typeset is very small, so I knew it would take me some time to read. In the end I decided to buy it. At just £2 in a charity shop I thought it worth the money.
The plot is difficult to describe as the actual story is more in the characters than in the action described. The main theme is about two lovers, Jugnu and Chanda who openly live together in defiance of the traditions and religion of their families. When they disappear from the (unnamed) English town they live in speculation is rife in the local community. Then, on a cold January morning, Chanda’s two brothers are arrested for the murder of the lovers. The following twelve months tells the story of both the present and the past as both families are affected by the events that follow.
The closest family to be affected are Shamas, the older brother of Jugnu and his wife, Kaukab.
Shamas is the director of the Community Relations Council, a respected man who nevertheless is not a particularly religious person much to the grief of his loyal and devoted wife. Much of the power of the book comes from these characters and the way they interact between the other religious cultures.
Aslam has woven elements of various myths and legends into his story, so that each chapter has a poetic title. The prose is indeed flowery and at times almost swamps the narrative, but it covers some often brutal truths about religion and bigotry, sensation, cruelty and bitter loss of a way of life in a strict Muslim community.
The unnamed northern English town where the story is set becomes a strange place of rapturous description, where the reader is lost in the universe of peacocks, butterflies and trees cascading their beauty through winter’s snowflakes and Springs weeping blossoms. This rich language does make the story hard to follow, though Aslam never loses sight of the woven threads that give life and, yes, achingly tender love, to each chapter.
I found I was beginning to see life through the eyes of the aging Islamic mother, whose faith never falters or her love for her children lessen when they take up the western way of life. I felt the pain of the father and brother who could not converse with his wife and turns his back on a religion that is inflexible. Strangely enough the brutal murders come as something of a relief as the tale turns darker. Possibly because the part played by the lovers is as victims only.
I found the book hard going as it takes a while to penetrate the style of the author. I also found a little bit isolated from the characters, though that was probably because I had expected some startling revelations following on from a story of star-crossed lovers, a sort of modern-day Romeo and Juliet. I can understand why it took Aslam eleven years to write, when its taken me nearly two hours to write this much while trying to omit any words which could be misconstrued as racist. Aslam does this while still keeping the horror and the poetry intact. I thought the book was well worth reading, the kind I would pick up again when the images fade. Definitely worth reading, but not a book for the faint-hearted. It has been hailed as courageous and beautifully written, I agree with that, but as Aslam finally gives his town the name of Dasht-e-Tanhaii, in English “The wilderness of solitude” or “The desert of loneliness”. I think I understand what he means.
Published by Faber & Faber.
Available from Amazon at £4.79 new, 0.98 used.
Also a few on Ebay at £1.00.
Summary: murder and the aftermath in terms of faith and religion.
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