Let me be frank and perfectly honest that I am not a novel reader. But I began reading novels since Mira Nair revealed her intentions to make a movie on a novel written by a Pakistani writer. When I read the title of the book, it blew my mind. When I read its synopsis, it crew my find. My first novel-reading was Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist. And I realized it was a perfect choice to begin novel-reading.
Now I have read the second novel, also written by the same author, with the impression that the writing will again be cardinal. Moth Smoke was Mohsin Hamid’s first book and was published back in 2000. The amazing feature of the writing truly is the expression of words one can sing the reality and stink the brutality. He will mesmerize you with the way he reviews nature, the lifestyle of Lahore, and the beauty of femininity. The way things began flowing from a smashing scene to a melo-rhythmic scene is very dramatic and hectic.
Set in the late 90s of Lahore during the times of Indo-Pak nuclear tests, a drug-addicted guy loses his job and enters into a love affair with his best friend’s wife. Life is screwed up, financially he is getting low, starving from his job, and getting more hungry for sex. It is a tremendous attempt of explaining human psychology and the way when things go wrong and misery propels you to commit wrong.
The best part is the impression you get from the writer being his first manuscript, how nurtured his pen grows to talk his story. The vocabulary of words and picking the lines to dramatize the scene and bring his nostalgia at any moment is very lively, choosy, and natural.
Creativity is astounding as the core characters are Mughal-era-tically named. Then the explanation of each character is beyond reality. Things work at ease for Mohsin, as the 245-pages book is an easy read and comprehensive divided into 17 chapters. Tumultuous applause for the writer!!
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Sami Naik | Film Critic 