On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 11:47 AM, Supriya Nair <[email protected]>wrote:
> Heh, I hadn't caught up on this thread then, but I warned Thaths away > from Daniyal Mueenuddin just yesterday. > > 'In other rooms' is interesting because it's not often one finds English > writing that deals with the daily struggles of the underclass in Pakistan; > Adiga's White Tiger is interesting in much the same way, and has better > writing. I recall Mueenuddin's writing style as being somewhat awkward and > cramped, like that of a first time author, which he is. Secondly the first > few stories I read gave me the impression that the entire book was going to > be narrated from the author's lotus eater lifestyle in the Pakistani upper > class. I found that hypocritical and decided against reading the rest of the > book. > > Cheeni > DM's neo-feudalism has been remarked on before; I think the root of his choices is how obviously he's inspired by pre-Marxist Russians and Henry James - not exactly class anarchists. Everyone is hard done by in his stories but poor people and particularly poor women seem to necessarily catch the worst of it. Reflecting reality or a creative inability to imagine different narratives? But I liked his style and formed exactly the opposite impression of it from yours: I thought it was graceful and perfectly pitched. Of all the high-profile Pakistani writing over the last couple of years I think it ran a creditable second to Lahar's recommendation, A Case of Exloding Mangoes, which I loved. Thaths: >> In my history of reading Indian books in English translations, the only one I liked was Ashokamitran's Eighteenth Parallel. The others all seem thick or treacle or somehow alien. I think these may retain that alien feeling as well, but that's often just part of the experience of translation, particularly if the translator is conscious that they're producing a crossover. But in the last five years or so we've seen more translations than ever before in Indian publishing, I think the whole translation industry is changing and becoming part of popular reading. Perhaps the way we read these works will change as much as the way translators translate them. S -- roswitha.blogspot.com | roswitha.tumblr.com
