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must
read
Nadeem Aslam's The Wasted Vigil paints
a profound picture of interlinked relationships
Nadeem Aslam shot to fame with his first two novels, particularly
the much acclaimed Maps for Lost Lovers. With his third novel,
The Wasted Vigil, he weaves a web of interlinked relationships
set against the desolate backdrop of Afghanistan.
By Saba
Imtiaz
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When one
thinks of recent popular fiction set in Afghanistan, the first name
that comes to mind is Khaled Hosseini, author of the best selling
novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. And while both
these books are incredibly poignant and have developed a signature
style of their own, another recent novel, Nadeem Aslam's The Wasted
Vigil also deals with the tragedy that life in Afghanistan has become.
Nadeem Aslam's books have a signature of their own. They delve into
the sights and sounds of a place, working in slow motion to aid one
getting into the skin of a character. Unfortunately, this also means
that one cannot read a Nadeem Aslam novel in stages - they are best
read in a stretch, for one tends to lose the significance of the words
if you read them over a period of time.
Nadeem's last novel, Maps for Lost Lovers, hit home particularly hard.
It was released in 2004, a year before the 7/7 attacks in the UK,
and dealt with an immigrant family in the UK, set at a time when racism
was just beginning to rear its ugly head.
On the other hand, The Wasted Vigil, published last year, has been
released at a time when the tragedies of Afghanistan have long been
relegated to the back pages of newspapers, and all but disappeared
from mainstream media abroad. In this book, Nadeem paints a picture
of several characters who come together in the novel, who are still
coming together to deal with the tragedies born unto them by the conflicts
of Afghanistan.
There is Marcus, a Britisher who married an Afghan woman, whose daughter,
Zameen, was taken away by the Soviets, and raped repeatedly by a Soviet
soldier, Benedikt Petrovich, who then helps her escape. David, an
American who meets Zameen in a different time and space, and who is
trying to find a child named Bihzad, who Zameen gave birth to, and
Lara, Benedikt's sister, trying to uncover whether her brother is
still alive, or has become a casualty of war. Interspersed with these
intermingling characters who live in a house that is also a relic
of the Afghanistan past.
The house's description itself takes a number of pages: it lies in
the shadow of the Tora Bora mountains, the miniature art paintings
on the wall have been hidden, and the roof has been crammed full of
books to hide them from the Taliban.
The story of The Wasted Vigil weaves itself with the background of
the ever lasting tragedies of Afghanistan, and real events: the Taliban,
the dismantling and bombing of the Bamiyan Buddha statues, and the
rise of suicide bombings as Western forces attempt fruitlessly to
control a region that has not seen peace in decades.
And Nadeem pains this picture poetically, intertwining the scenic
landscape with the point he hopes to drive home. Take for example
this line: "It would be no surprise if the trees and vines of
Afghanistan suspended their growth one day fearful that if their roots
were to lengthen they might come in contact with a landmine buried
nearby." And through the course of the winding book, Marcus,
David and Lara spend their time in a fruitless search of their own,
discovering more about each other than they do about their mission
at hand.
However, while The Wasted Vigil is engaging, the book loses its charm
when two more characters add to the plot: Casa, a radical and Dunia,
a school teacher who displays the same shades of defiance that one
can see in the female protagonists of Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand
Splendid Suns. While these characters have an important role to play
in how the book's climax, it makes the book, already a complicated
read that packs a heavy emotional punch, even more winding and leaves
the reader drained.
Regardless, Nadeem Aslam's novel is yet another sign that Pakistani
fiction is on the rise. One looks forward to the year ahead to see
more great work from Pakistani authors, most notably the much awaited
Daniyal Muenuddin book, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, which is slated
to be released in February this year. But until these new novels can
occupy our bookshelves, get a taste of Pakistani fiction at the hands
of Nadeem Aslam
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