Maps for Lost Lovers is deeply sad tale of Pakistani immigrants in England. Of people who come from a culture with deep rooted beliefs that are diametrically opposite to what the west holds. Of immigrants coming to an alien land with hope, only to lose everything they ever held dear, including things they would not have lost even in the poverty-stricken homeland they had left behind.It is a book that has been carefully crafted in exquisite detail, and written in highly metaphorical prose that pauses ever so often to take the reader deep into a frozen moment in time. One has but to read the first few pages to realise why the author took eleven years to write the book. One can almost imagine him writing and re-writing repeatedly till he was happy with every single word. The book must be read slowly, one chapter at a time, lest you lose the detail of the complex canvas.The prime features of the writing are the remarkably vivid imagery and the extensive use of metaphors to paint a multi-layered picture. The full extent of the portrayal will appreciated by those who have an understanding of both cultures – western and Islamic. Readers with only one may not fully relate to some of the situations Aslam creates.For instance, there is a scene where wine is surreptitiously served in the darkness caused by a power outage. The mere intellectual knowledge that wine is considered haraam (a sin) in Islam is not sufficient to feel the depth of outrage a character feels when she realises that alcohol is defiling her – a devout Muslim's – dining table. One must have lived in a culture where wine is haraam to relate to her. That she had thanked her God for the unexpected darkness in just the previous page makes the betrayal – both by the hand that pours the wine, as well as by her God – all the more profound.The clash of cultures and beliefs is deafening in the still, silent immigrant community in Britain that remains nameless. A community of immigrants that lives in mute fear of what the host country will do to them, and of how their God will judge them. But the tale, moving as it is, was still incidental to me and subordinate to the prose. There is so much imagery in the pages that it challenges the reader’s ability to absorb – and appreciate – the finely crafted mosaic the author creates.Not only does the book capture the suffering of first generation immigrants in an alien land with incompatible beliefs, it also brings out the insensitivity of the next generation. My take away from the book was that one must be prepared to reconsider all beliefs and values when one moves to an alien land. At least to the extent of developing some tolerance.The book’s theme is hugely topical in India, where “honour killings” seem to have become a routine thing. But unfortunately, the message of the book will not reach those who practice it, as they are very unlikely to ever read such a book. Yet I hope that Maps for Lost Lovers does not remain another intellectual’s lament destined to grace chic bookshelves.And finally, a word of caution. If you don't like metaphorical prose, or are unwilling to pause and savour imagery, or are simply impatient for the story to move on, do not pick up this book. You will be disappointed. The story moves slowly.But if you do like this kind of writing, you will find it a delight.
It took me a few chapters to get into the story, because the beginning is so bogged down with metaphors, similes, and flashbacks. Once I started to learn more about the characters and get a handle on what the story actually was I read with much more enjoyment. However, pacing continued to be an issue as there would be a few chapters of good plot development, then a few chapters that descended into this semi-reality of tangential metaphors and similes. The author is very capable of ingenious figurative language which was poetic in and of itself, but it was a detractor for me from the story. Even though I learned more about the characters as the pages went on, I'm not sure that I ever grew to liking any of them, and I'm not sure if I was supposed to. I think this is meant to be a story where the reader is just an observer of a year-long period in a family/town's existence rather than a story that has characters you are rooting for. To be honest, the character that I rooted the most for was Kaukab, who was often portrayed villainously due to her religious fanaticism. However, I think the inner-workings of her fanaticism were well portrayed, showing how she was torn between her children and husband's perceptions of what is right and her religious convictions. I think it would be easy to use this book as a demonization of Islam in particular and religion in general, and yet the characters without religion are equally as fanatic in their pursuits: Shamas in his desire for purpose, Suraya in her desire to be reunited with her son, the unnamed Hindu and Muslim lovers in their desire to be together. It's an interesting commentary on the means people use to justify their actions.
What do You think about Maps For Lost Lovers (2006)?
To be concise - something Nadeem Aslam has never tried in his life - this novel is tooFLOWERY!Mr Aslam's prose is more flowery than two trips to Kew Gardens (which consist of 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England, and is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and an internationally important botanical research and education institution with 700 staff and an income of £56 million and has shedloads of FLOWERS); if Mr Aslam ever opened a shop it would be called FLOWERY PROSE STYLES R US.So reading this is just an exhausting fight past all the metaphorical ingenuity, the fecund similes and the flashbacks and sudden bursts of sortofkindofslightly magical realism, and the who are these people again? is this woman a peacock or is the peacock a talking one who has married a human? Uh?EJECT!!
—Paul Bryant
I am not a Muslim nor an expert on Islam, therefore I cannot authenticate the beliefs and practices of Pakistani Muslims depicted in this novel. Perhaps it depends on the level of fanaticism. I read it with a western mindset and found myself shocked by many of the events in the story, most notably the killing of an unmarried couple whose cohabitation is believed to be the motive for their murder, probably at the hands of the woman's family. Notwithstanding the occasional culture shock I experienced, Maps for Lost Lovers is a beautifully written book about mixed culture family relationships and the tribulations faced by migrant families not only as a result of cultural differences and racial prejudice but also the conflicts that arise between second-generation children and their immigrant parents.
—Jacqui Debono
A difficult book. Simultaneously rather lovely and COMPLETELY MADDENING, and desperately in need of an editor - there are places where he repeats the same wildly flowery simile almost word for word within less than five pages, which would have been a mere single annoyance if not for the fact that this is hands down the most over-similed book I have ever read and most of them should have been pruned out ANYWAY. Characters can't walk down the street without three paragraphs of description about the plants and the weather and the feel of the air, so that by the time they actually get to where they're going I'd forgotten why they set out in the first place because I was so scenery-dazzled.And yet many of the similes are incredibly beautiful. Aslam has a completely tin ear for dialogue - his characters speak in exactly the same ay as the narrator, brimming with helpful, simile-laden exposition - and yet the images themselves are often constructions of great loveliness. I was disconcerted by the heavy-handedness of his anti-religious sentiment, despite his attempts to write from the points of view of the devout; I got the sense that he couldn't quite squash his feeling that the characters who were believers were basically stupid for sticking with their faith, even though he was trying to make them sympathetic (which effort I did appreciate). As an atheist myself, it was odd to find myself coming to the defense of his devoutly religious characters, but the scorn he had for them - combined with the fact that they mostly all women - left a bad taste in my mouth. But though I was constantly annoyed and can't conclude that the book is a good one, those similes...! Not all of them work, and the book woul have been better with massively fewer of them, and yet...some of them are as improbably lovely as the butterflies fluttering (also somewhat pointlessly, it seemed to me) throughout the book. In fact, they are almost worth reading it for all on their own, if you don't bother to try to understand how someone with such poetic power can be such a poor writer in every other respect.
—Jericha
