Diaspora Writers emerged in recent past as new dimension of rich literary culture of sub- continent , They are different, observant and more real than past creators. )(older post )
Finally I read it ,At first this book, "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
" did not invoke any curiosity it was more like one sided perspective of things. Honestly, the first few chapters seemed irrelevant and not interesting enough to continue reading; however halfway through the book writer started to make sense. Mueenuddin's description of place and people got more real, especially the part where he writes about Europe, his expressions are more nicer and sweet, may be due to his brought up in USA, his perspective always appeared as one of an outsider's for Pakistan, and only the things shocking to him, he considered worth mentioning.
The author totally skipped the real people living in cities, average lives, average people. He just got caught up in the feudal part of the system, and he is not to blame for it, as it is a big part of our reality. Any one who has experienced a fairer and civilized system can not ignore the disparity of it all.
Where his expression is lot more lead by his soft spot for the West and especially the United States of America - Mueenudin's critical point of view is only limited to Pakistani society. If you talk about morality and values, the West has lost its hard-earned value system as well and it is not hard to ignore the decline. May be in his next book, he can throw some light on that too.
I think the book is a good effort for a starter, as a dialogue and identity search for Pakistan, book consists more on observations or sketches as characters. Although I do see lots of stories sprouting in between, however it may need another attempt to bring out the stories from his characters.
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