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Very difficult to follow and get into. Not my cup of tea. Wouldnt bother.
First of all, although the writer is from Pakistan, she does not have any knowledge of Urdu(besides some common names) and has no idea about the real culture of Pakistan and subcontinent(maybe because she is English speaking Pakistani-American elite class here (BTW, I call them "the bastards of Pakistan"). I didn't like it so I didn't finish it. Kamila Shamsie is that kind of writer and part of Pakistani elite class(they might be 2 % of the total population)who get their early education in missi...
Salt and Saffron had a lot of promise. It has an interesting array of characters and history behind it. However, while the characters are (too) many, the story is poorly developed. The central character is Aliya whose relationship with another man is developing, and then there are a bunch of relations who just appear now and then. The author should have developed the characters further or reduced the references to so many of them.
I keep changing my mind about books. My opinions are not only subjective, they're also contextual.This one probably has to do with my disdain for glorifying the likes of Timur the lame. History and historians are insensibly and insufferably dull and boring. Even KS can't change my mind with attaching all this thrill and intrigue with historical investigation. It may take the entire X-Men cast parroting historical facts to me to make them interesting. Aliya may not have taken up historical study
The Dard-e-Dil family saga, the stories and the secrets, told by the young Aliya is the means by which she attempts to find the rhyme and reason of her attraction to the 'wrong' type of guy, a fellow Paksitani unfortunate to have been born on the opposite side of the tracks as herself. Discovering the truth behind the unmentionable, the fate of her starred not-quite-twin will, she believes, lead her to the right choices she needs to make. It sounds just like any other tearjerker love story, but
I still think she is over-rated
Aaliya is a global citizen of Pakistani origin. But a flirtatious conversation with a stranger on the plane sets her thinking about her roots and the people and stories that have led to her. The Dard-e-dils, Aaliya's family, trace their roots back to the Mughal era, through British occupation, down to the Partition that broke hearts & families and finally their current day status as Karachian elite. Aaliya skips between past and present as she grapples with the mysterious loss of a beloved cousi...
this book warms my heart...what a way with words the author has...
Kamila Shamsie is one of my favorite authors. This is one of her earlier novels. It's the beautifully crafted story of a very bright Pakistani young woman who has spent time in the United States and England and is visiting her home in Karachi. Aliya comes from wealthy family that once upon a time ruled a princely state in India. She is a veritable Scheherazade, full tall tales that are family legends. Her family is eccentric even in the present day.Aliya is attracted to a young Pakistani-America...
The plot of this book is something along the lines of a girl named Aliya becoming interested in Khaleel, a boy who's not from the same social class which forces her to reconsider her entire family history. This of course is complicated by the author's attempt in order to incorporate actual history (Mughal as well as Partition era) into the story, which adds nothing to it except confusion as well as her concept of "not-quite twins" which was interesting but unrelated to Aliya-Khaleel.Ultimately,
The novel begins as Aliya is on a London-bound airplane after graduating from college in Massachusetts. Aliya is a young Pakistani woman and is on her way home to Karachi. She is a natural storyteller and spends the flight relaying tales of her family, the Dar-e-Dils, to several of the other passengers. Throughout their history, the Dard-e-Dil family has had sets of `not-quite twins' who bring bad luck or shame to the family. Aliya tells tales of her family and these twins back to the time of th...
