Thanks Ged for recommending the book to Lev. It is a brilliant book. I mean, it is my kind of book and I give my highest glorious holy shit ratings, piled higher and deeper.
The multiple settings of the book is perfect for this inglorious wanderer's random mindfuck blogs: Lahore, Manila, New York, New Jersey and Santorini among others. For me the theme of the story is one/s origin, one's roots.
I would repeatedly say to anyone who could understand what I am saying that I may be out of my country of origin but the country of my origin could never be taken out of me. I think this is true for most immigrants. There are some who shout it out, some flaunt it because they think they have it and some quietly dwell on it and find strength from it, whatever it is. Americans would always look at my country as an urban poor in the capital and exotic in the islands. And yes, don’t refer to my country of origin as P.I. because P. I . is short for putang ina. Americans would also tend to look at another country as a protectorate. I don’t care if you think I’m an ingrate. I guess, no matter what, I would always be refuting misrepresentations of my country of origin. I know my country of origin better than any foreigner to my country of origin.
Mohsin Hamid is one of those authors I know who writes in English and based their stories with their homelands as main settings. Yiyun Li, author “The Vagrants”; Gita Mehta, author of “River Sutra”; and Khaled Hosseini, author of “A Thousand Splended Suns”, among others. Reading their books is like traveling with them to revisit their country of origins while I revisit my own.
I would repeatedly say to anyone who could understand what I am saying that I may be out of my country of origin but the country of my origin could never be taken out of me. I think this is true for most immigrants. There are some who shout it out, some flaunt it because they think they have it and some quietly dwell on it and find strength from it, whatever it is. Americans would always look at my country as an urban poor in the capital and exotic in the islands. And yes, don’t refer to my country of origin as P.I. because P. I . is short for putang ina. Americans would also tend to look at another country as a protectorate. I don’t care if you think I’m an ingrate. I guess, no matter what, I would always be refuting misrepresentations of my country of origin. I know my country of origin better than any foreigner to my country of origin.
Mohsin Hamid is one of those authors I know who writes in English and based their stories with their homelands as main settings. Yiyun Li, author “The Vagrants”; Gita Mehta, author of “River Sutra”; and Khaled Hosseini, author of “A Thousand Splended Suns”, among others. Reading their books is like traveling with them to revisit their country of origins while I revisit my own.
No comments:
Post a Comment