Men in black drag a bearded Arab male away from the waiting room at Chicago O'Hare port-of-entry. Fouad Khan, a young Pakistani coming to US on a Fulbright scholarship to do a PhD, witnesses the arrest, unaware that the event will end up having a profound bearing on his own future. His first week in America, Katrina; an uninhibited, blue-eyed, nymphomaniac barges in on him taking shower in the men's dressing room at University of Houston's school gym, and a journey of sexual misadventures begins. Caught in the blurry cycle of chase and gratification, he becomes an addict and his life, a running porn flick. But then back at the lab, his research starts to point towards a bleak conclusion about the future of human civilization. As he tries to make sense of his discovery, the behavior of his close Arab friends, Ishmael and Ramna, starts to turn increasingly mysterious. Meanwhile, his aging father back home -who needs him dearly in a rare hour of weakness- waits for him to finish his PhD and come back home. On Fouad's mind, there's only Katrina and the tingle of anticipating a new carnal experience every night. A tale of sex, intrigue, violence, passion and revelation, Katrina Nights is an ambitious debut novel about nothing less than the nature of life, the clash of civilizations and the very future of mankind. This is a book that will, in the least, leave you looking at the world through boldly different shades.
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About the Author
Fouad Khan is a writer and environmental consultant based in Karachi, Pakistan. A Fulbright alumnus, he holds advanced degrees in Environmental and Civil Engineering. His consultancy work has had him walking deserts in southern Pakistan and wading bayous in urban Texas. He's been involved in environmental projects for international bureaucracies and energy conglomerates and his opinion pieces have appeared regularly in popular magazines in Pakistan.
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More About the Author
Fouad Khan is a writer and environmental consultant based in Karachi, Pakistan. A Fulbright alumni, he holds degrees in Environmental and Civil Engineering. His consultancy work has had him walking deserts in southern Pakistan and wading bayous in urban Texas. He's been involved in projects for some of the world's largest international bureaucracies and energy giants and to this day regrets the episodes. His opinion pieces have appeared in popular periodicals in Pakistan from time to time.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Jean Galt
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is a flawed little masterpiece.
First of all, the verisimilitude makes me doubt that this is fiction at all. This reads like a true account of what this guy went through while getting his education and getting mad laid. If anything, this could be a fictionalization rather than pure fiction.
I couldn't put the book down because it provides this odd outsider perspective on Americans, Americana and the American way of life. It's odd because it's straight forward and direct to the point of sounding naďve. Little customs such as the practice of ironically calling long lost acquaintances "stranger" are analyzed and dissected. Sweeping statements are then made about the nature of American society and life based on these analyses of the minutiae. What's stranger still is the insight and accuracy these observations contain. They make you look at life and the people around you in a completely different way.
Then there's the engrossing portrait of the young terrorist in the character of Ishmael. In long tirades mourning essentially the loss of human innocence in industrial society, Ishmael takes apart everything from modern architecture to the Vegas kitsch. You see where he's coming from, but then you see that hate, pure-unadulterated-terrorism-grade-hate, is often little more than love denied.
The writing varies from sloppy to brilliant and apart from the title character Katrina, none of the characters bounce at you from the pages, they remain two dimensional. But the book is un-put-down-able in its crassness; like amateur porn it is insightful in its rawness and has high points that are often unintentional.
I don't want to sound racist, but it is like making an alien walk amongst us for a year and then reading his interviews about human society. It's like listening to someone talk about you non-stop. Absolutely riveting in a strange, narcissistic way. A sort of anti-Avatar if you may.
Then there's the little matter of the `theory of extinction'. The explanation of the theory stretches out a bit but it's thought through in such rigorous detail, it's reminiscent of Stanislaw Lem.
This book is far from perfect, but it's a must read. And I think it can turn out to be a very important book for our future. There's truth here that needed to be told.
First of all, the verisimilitude makes me doubt that this is fiction at all. This reads like a true account of what this guy went through while getting his education and getting mad laid. If anything, this could be a fictionalization rather than pure fiction.
I couldn't put the book down because it provides this odd outsider perspective on Americans, Americana and the American way of life. It's odd because it's straight forward and direct to the point of sounding naďve. Little customs such as the practice of ironically calling long lost acquaintances "stranger" are analyzed and dissected. Sweeping statements are then made about the nature of American society and life based on these analyses of the minutiae. What's stranger still is the insight and accuracy these observations contain. They make you look at life and the people around you in a completely different way.
Then there's the engrossing portrait of the young terrorist in the character of Ishmael. In long tirades mourning essentially the loss of human innocence in industrial society, Ishmael takes apart everything from modern architecture to the Vegas kitsch. You see where he's coming from, but then you see that hate, pure-unadulterated-terrorism-grade-hate, is often little more than love denied.
The writing varies from sloppy to brilliant and apart from the title character Katrina, none of the characters bounce at you from the pages, they remain two dimensional. But the book is un-put-down-able in its crassness; like amateur porn it is insightful in its rawness and has high points that are often unintentional.
I don't want to sound racist, but it is like making an alien walk amongst us for a year and then reading his interviews about human society. It's like listening to someone talk about you non-stop. Absolutely riveting in a strange, narcissistic way. A sort of anti-Avatar if you may.
Then there's the little matter of the `theory of extinction'. The explanation of the theory stretches out a bit but it's thought through in such rigorous detail, it's reminiscent of Stanislaw Lem.
This book is far from perfect, but it's a must read. And I think it can turn out to be a very important book for our future. There's truth here that needed to be told.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This brief but complex work can be viewed as a coming of age story, a stranger in a strange land tale, a terrorist thriller, or simply a ribald sexual romp, and it is all of these. But woven into the larger story is an important scientific hypothesis.
Why is the brightest species on the planet in crisis? Why do our present actions threaten our very future?
Although the book is described as a work of total fiction, many of the details reported in the story ring amazingly true. I suspect the story is a mixture of both truth and fiction.
All of the following is true. Fouad Khan was born and bred in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He was a graduate student at the University of Houston in 2005-2007. Fouad was in America on a Fulbright scholarship to pursue a PhD degree in Environmental Engineering. For his thesis and research, he did study the population dynamics of hydrocarbon-eating bacteria.
The story presented in the novel, describes the activities, thoughts, conversations, and research of a fictional graduate student who by coincidence also attends the University of Houston and is named Fouad Khan. In the process of this experience, Fouad discovers what he believes is an important truth about living populations. He titles his thesis: On the Extinction of Species: Finding Sustainability in the Patterns of Life and Death.
If he is correct, and I believe that he is, then he has discovered the scientific basis for our present human crisis.
Crisis is always the harbinger of an overwhelming problem. Fortunately, crisis has two components--Danger and Opportunity. When faced with crisis, there is almost always a window of opportunity, when intelligent action can avert most or at least some of the danger of the crisis. But, that opportunity is fleeting. The only rational response is Carpe diem -- Seize the Day. We must recognize the opportunity in time and then act quickly and intelligently.
This book will make you think, it may even transform you by challenging almost everything you belief about our modern world.
Seriously,
Timothy Wilken, MD
Why is the brightest species on the planet in crisis? Why do our present actions threaten our very future?
Although the book is described as a work of total fiction, many of the details reported in the story ring amazingly true. I suspect the story is a mixture of both truth and fiction.
All of the following is true. Fouad Khan was born and bred in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He was a graduate student at the University of Houston in 2005-2007. Fouad was in America on a Fulbright scholarship to pursue a PhD degree in Environmental Engineering. For his thesis and research, he did study the population dynamics of hydrocarbon-eating bacteria.
The story presented in the novel, describes the activities, thoughts, conversations, and research of a fictional graduate student who by coincidence also attends the University of Houston and is named Fouad Khan. In the process of this experience, Fouad discovers what he believes is an important truth about living populations. He titles his thesis: On the Extinction of Species: Finding Sustainability in the Patterns of Life and Death.
If he is correct, and I believe that he is, then he has discovered the scientific basis for our present human crisis.
Crisis is always the harbinger of an overwhelming problem. Fortunately, crisis has two components--Danger and Opportunity. When faced with crisis, there is almost always a window of opportunity, when intelligent action can avert most or at least some of the danger of the crisis. But, that opportunity is fleeting. The only rational response is Carpe diem -- Seize the Day. We must recognize the opportunity in time and then act quickly and intelligently.
This book will make you think, it may even transform you by challenging almost everything you belief about our modern world.
Seriously,
Timothy Wilken, MD
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