Customer Reviews

Mirage

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The title is the key to understanding Mirage. Chapters 1-23 are indeed a mirage, an ancient land of milk and honey, a delicate pastoral simplicity, a precarious balance of old and new as oil wealth and Westernization impinge of bedrock religious values. But in Chapters 24-25, the reality underlying the mirage erupts with all the fierce violence that characterizes much of the region today. Chandraratna got it right - weeks, months, perhaps years of tranquility suddenly shattered by piercing screams from an honor killing wherein the victim of the crime is executed. To confront another face of this reality from a Western perspective, read Hilary Mantel's (1988) Eight Months on Ghazzah Street: A Novel, a chilling experience which, like Mirage, may leave you puzzled until you know that alien world.

** Slight Spoiler? **

Like all the reviews I can find say, Chandraratna's prose are quite elegant. Simple, but beautiful. But as I reached what felt like the climax of the book, I realized there were only a few pages still in my hands. The book ended abruptly and left me questions what, exactly, Chandraratna wanted me to understand about the main character's life.

The main character, Sayeed, is a good man, simple and uneducated and hard-working. He is driven by events that happen around him, and makes use of the small opportunities that appear. He lives his life as a good Muslim, but is not intolerant of the non-muslims in the hospital where he works. He does not begrudge foreigners like many of his peers... he simply makes the best of his existence without complaint, and neither laziness nor entrepreneurship.

When, in the last five pages, his life dramatically and violently changes, I was just left wondering what the hell he's going to do now, and how devestated he and all of the other characters will be. Perhaps this is Chandraratna's point? That everything can change and that you have no idea what will happen next... But for such a pleasant book, I was left feeling unfulfilled and with an unpleasant taste in my mouth.

After reading the "official" view for this book, I was looking forward to reading it. After finishing, it, though, I have to say it was one of the worst books I've read in my entire life! (And I do a lot of reading!) Ordinarly I would finish such a short book in one sitting, but this was was so incredibly boring that it took me several days. The first part of the book dragged on so slowly I felt like tearing my hair out! In writing classes, they always stress attention to detail, but this author takes that tip to extremes. (For example, instead of just saying that the main character, Sayeed, "brushed his teeth", this simple act is described in 5 or 6 sentences. In fact, Sayeed's complete morning hygiene ritual is described in excruciating detail.

Ordinarily, if a book doesn't "grab" me in the first 50 pages, I quit reading, but I made an exception in this case because I was curious to find out what happens in the end; and the book was short (thank God!!!) so I kept on. It wasn't until at least halfway through the book that any real action occurred--when Sayeed went to visit his brother. Once this happened, the pace of the book moved more quickly. The interactions between Sayeed and his brother's family were interesting (although Sayeed's sudden switch from being against the marriage to accepting it was a bit puzzling).

The worst part of the book, for me, was the final 10 or 15 pages. As the other reviewers have stated, the way the ending was resolved was disappointing. After moving at a snail's pace for 100 or so pages, suddenly everything happens within a few pages of the end, so there was no opportunity to gain a sense of WHY what happened at the end happened. It was just a hurried, jumbled mess and by the time I finally finished the book I was fuming at myself for sticking it out until the end and not giving it up by page 10!!!

OK, now for the praise, such as it is. (I'm a firm believer in "Thumper's Rule" - If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all".) Ever since I read this book (which was back in early April) I've been trying to figure out how it nearly won a prestigious award. I've kept thinking I must have missed something when reading the book. It's only after mulling it over for 2 months that I've come to the realization that the author may have intentionally structured the book the way he/she did. Devoting pages and pages to Sayeed's tiniest routine moment may have been done not only to show how boring his life was, but also to demonstrate how one simple, well-intentioned action can go spiralling out of control in an instant. If this was the author's intent, then it was successful. And I do have to give the author credit for being a capable writer (great attention to detail!! :) For these reasons, I changed the rating to a 3 instead of the 1 I initially put down. It may make some good points, but it's still a boring (and disappointing) read! (And I'm still mad at myself for finishing it!)

Mirage is a poorly written book about the interaction between the main characters and their social environment around them. I would have appreciated a more informative and imaginative work of fiction dealing with Saudi Arabia's cruelty in its modernity. Compared to A Nector in a Sieve, which handles the same core concepts of poverty, love, economics, etc., Mirage failed in its attempt to convey such messages by not building the story line properly. Towards the ending, the actions were rushed and unbelievable. Overall, the author failed to educate and engage the reader in this dramatic depiction of gains and losses in a religious, unequal society.