This book has gripped me and refused to let me go.
Admittedly, the first few chapters didn't quite hit it off with me as it appeared too wordy and too descriptive for my liking. It seemed to me that Shamsie adored stringing together as many adjectives as fittingly possible to coin a strong enough and vivid enough description to present to the reader. I'm a strong believer that simplicity is key, words are undeniably powerful, yet force to many together and they lose their beauty, ultimately failing to portray that powerful imagery the author yearns for you to see.
After a few chapters I fell in love with the characters Hiroko, Sajjad, and even the cruelly portrayed Elizabeth Burton. Their world enticed me, the fusion of culture, a Japanese women, an Indian muslim man and a German-British couple coming together as a result of that one country, yes, India. The book opened with the Nagasaki atomic bomb, I do admit I knew little about this horrific event and felt slightly guilty of this fact as the book unravelled the devastating consequences it had on the victims, something which still of course hasn't left this world. Shamsie's description of the immediate consequences remained a blur to me, I just couldn't picture it for myself at first, yet as the book progressed and the long lasting consequences had seeped themselves onto Hiroko's skin in particular, it then, for me, all became very real.
Sajjad's character is one that has appeared to me as cliché, the Indian poet, lover of the world, and lover of his Dilli. However, his love for Hiroko and thirst to enrich their relationship had me cheering for the poetic audactiy Shamsie had presented. I'd expected Hiroko to fall head over heels in love with this perfectly presented man, a man any women would be proud to be with. But no, she challenged his romance, she questioned his impulse and she refused to give in to his socially constricted norms. This is what drew me to Hiroko. The focal of this novel, she acts as the glue the holds the cultures together, her love and talent for language had me awe-struck as she flowed in and out of German to Urdu and then back to Japanese. This is a character like no other. I've never bonded with a fictional character as much as I have Hiroko. She was the definition of an immigrant, a women pushed out of her home, losing a soul part of her but refusing to give up her identity for anyone, anyone but perhaps her most beloved, her son.The fierce braveness of her character had me cheering for her triumph against social classes as she married a man merely one rung above the place of a servant. Yet she doesn't become this man, he doesn't define her, she defines herself. As much she loves him, she doesn't need him, and he knows this. Just as she up and left her Nagasaki home, she can just as easily up and leave him and that's what I love about her. She doesn't let men define her. She doesn't let women define her. She defines herself.
I still have some chapters left to go and as much as I'm trying to pace myself through the book I'm too deeply involved to take a break from it.
I'll update my thoughts on the ending...
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