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milo0o0o's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
louisadassow's review against another edition
3.0
Probably more like a 3.5 but something is leaning lower. A great premise with expert dry political humour about General Zia's regime in Pakistan. An excellent start but my enthusiasm for the book petered out after the first few chapters and the moments of the middle of the book didn't quite fit.
Well-written, very strongly reminded me of The Reluctant Fundamentalist in the best way but I'm not clear whether I really enjoyed it.
Well-written, very strongly reminded me of The Reluctant Fundamentalist in the best way but I'm not clear whether I really enjoyed it.
sof00's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
ahmadmtera's review against another edition
2.0
*Spoilers alert*
The book goes around investigating the death of Zia, also known as Ex. General Zia of Pakistan. His son, and other commanders like Akthar go around to search the actions that happened before the death/suicide of General Zia. Talking about that, it's unknown if General Zia had planned the suicide or if C.Obaid had planned the bombing of the plane Zia was taking.
I didn't like a lot of things in the book. A lot of boring details explained in each chapter, for example:
C.5 P.71: "the phone answered on the second ring":"he put his red pencil aside, savoured his tea" etc. These are just two examples I chose from randomly picking pages, let alone reading the whole book.
I didn't also like the idea of the representation of muslims in mosques, not sure if that's how it is in Pakistan but if I didn't know much about Islam reading this book would give me a wrong idea of muslims. This can be seen throughout the book as they mix the stories up in the chapters(which I haven't took note of for the review).
As I said, I didn't like the boring details as well as some parts where it's really hard to understand due to the writer putting different sides of the story in chapters. The way the writer used is decent but it wasn't well used in this book in my opinion. I didn't get a lot of parts because the writer spend the whole chapter talking about the color of the carpet or the walls (boring details that aren't needed at all) and didn't even bother explaining the chapter or giving any hint to why what we're reading is related to the story itself.
Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone unless you have free time to read useless details and to get a seizure in your head. Once you get to the middle, it feels boring and you'll probably question whether you want to continue or not. The whole book talks about things that happened in Zia's life. Whether it's him or not, it's always related to his suicide as if it was really important for anyone reading the book. I chose to read it because it seemed interesting, but it failed to amaze me.
I think this book suits Pakistani people well, especially those who like to read about someone who's in this case General Zia, and the reason behind his death. Otherwise, I never recommend this book because you'll probably hope you could get back the time you wasted reading the book.
The book goes around investigating the death of Zia, also known as Ex. General Zia of Pakistan. His son, and other commanders like Akthar go around to search the actions that happened before the death/suicide of General Zia. Talking about that, it's unknown if General Zia had planned the suicide or if C.Obaid had planned the bombing of the plane Zia was taking.
I didn't like a lot of things in the book. A lot of boring details explained in each chapter, for example:
C.5 P.71: "the phone answered on the second ring":"he put his red pencil aside, savoured his tea" etc. These are just two examples I chose from randomly picking pages, let alone reading the whole book.
I didn't also like the idea of the representation of muslims in mosques, not sure if that's how it is in Pakistan but if I didn't know much about Islam reading this book would give me a wrong idea of muslims. This can be seen throughout the book as they mix the stories up in the chapters(which I haven't took note of for the review).
As I said, I didn't like the boring details as well as some parts where it's really hard to understand due to the writer putting different sides of the story in chapters. The way the writer used is decent but it wasn't well used in this book in my opinion. I didn't get a lot of parts because the writer spend the whole chapter talking about the color of the carpet or the walls (boring details that aren't needed at all) and didn't even bother explaining the chapter or giving any hint to why what we're reading is related to the story itself.
Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone unless you have free time to read useless details and to get a seizure in your head. Once you get to the middle, it feels boring and you'll probably question whether you want to continue or not. The whole book talks about things that happened in Zia's life. Whether it's him or not, it's always related to his suicide as if it was really important for anyone reading the book. I chose to read it because it seemed interesting, but it failed to amaze me.
I think this book suits Pakistani people well, especially those who like to read about someone who's in this case General Zia, and the reason behind his death. Otherwise, I never recommend this book because you'll probably hope you could get back the time you wasted reading the book.
tagoreketabkhane31's review against another edition
*dnf*
This was just read so dull - I can't tell if I just did not connect with Hanif and his prose, or if the narrator for the novel just irritated me along with the frequent shifts in the pov and tenses.
This was just read so dull - I can't tell if I just did not connect with Hanif and his prose, or if the narrator for the novel just irritated me along with the frequent shifts in the pov and tenses.
linehw's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0