{"id":20537,"date":"2013-03-18T09:43:14","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T13:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=20537"},"modified":"2014-05-09T14:33:40","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T18:33:40","slug":"moth-smoke-by-mohsin-hamid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/moth-smoke-by-mohsin-hamid\/","title":{"rendered":"Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Moth<\/a>Let’s work ourselves from the outside in … that is, from the first and last pages, and so on towards the novel’s center.<\/p>\n

Outermost layer 1 (presented in italics): The aging, ailing Emperor Shah Jahan asks a Sufi saint which of his sons will inherit his coveted throne.<\/p>\n

Penultimate layer 2 (chapters one and nine, italics lost): An unnamed man in a jail cell “full of shadows” receives an envelope … and eventually begins to read.<\/p>\n

The core: The prime characters just happen to share the names of Emperor Shah Jahan’s family. Did you pay attention? And what exactly are their relationships to each other?<\/p>\n

Darushikoh Shezad is the man accused. In brave new Pakistan \u2013\u00a0powered by cell phones and the growing possibility of nuclear power \u2013\u00a0the once promising Daru has been fired from his bank job. Unable to find work, he loses himself further when his recreational drug use becomes abusive, fueled by his sometime dealer Murad. Recently reunited with his childhood best friend Aurangzeb (Ozi, to his nearest and dearest) who has returned to Pakistan with his American degrees, Daru is immediately enthralled by his almost-brother’s gorgeous new wife Mumtaz. As the title hints, think moths \u2013 far too close to the proverbial flame …<\/p>\n

Mohsin Hamid<\/a> \u2013 Pakistani-born, Princeton and Harvard educated, peripatetically domiciled \u2013 layers, weaves, and transforms his global experiences to create a rare\u00a0debut novel that hit shelves 13 years ago with confidence and grace, engaging and disturbing both. If you’re wondering about the audible version, it’s\u00a0read by actor Satya Babha (watch for him in Deepa Mehta’s film adaptation of Midnight’s Children<\/em><\/a>, hitting U.S. theaters this May<\/a>),\u00a0and is quite an enriched experience \u2013 Babha’s affected stutter\u00a0for Murad\u00a0(not on the page), for example, is a daring enhancement.<\/p>\n

In the decade-plus that follows Hamid’s lauded literary entry (Moth<\/em> won a 2001 Betty Trask Award<\/a>, was a finalist for the 2001 PEN\/Hemingway Award<\/a>, and shortlisted for the 2001 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book), time had only made him better: The Reluctant Fundamentalist<\/a><\/em> and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia<\/a><\/em>\u00a0are both not-to-be-missed-read-right-now(!) titles. That said, I must responsibly offer a sobering reminder:\u00a0savor Hamid’s novels wisely, because patience will need to be a virtue while we wait, wait, wait for his as-yet-unpublished titles to come.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s work ourselves from the outside in … that is, from the first and last pages, and so on towards the novel’s center. Outermost layer 1 (presented in italics): The aging, ailing Emperor Shah Jahan asks a Sufi saint which of his sons will inherit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,6,296],"tags":[84,6608,11,68,13,295,304,212,305],"class_list":["post-20537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-fiction","category-pakistani","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-friendship","tag-haves-vs-have-nots","tag-love","tag-mohsin-hamid","tag-moth-smoke","tag-murder","tag-satya-babha"],"yoast_head":"\nMoth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/moth-smoke-by-mohsin-hamid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Let’s work ourselves from the outside in … that is, from the first and last pages, and so on towards the novel’s center. 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