Customer Reviews

Moghul Buffet (Soho Crime)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an interesting part mystery, part travelogue and part droll gentle voice for women's rights in Pakistan. First-time author Benard has written a cute little whodunit whilst employing an usual voice. There is an omniscient third-person narrator telling the story, often digressing into informing the reader on aspects of Pakistani culture. Many of the characters are types, but well-captured ones, and not ones usually seen in everyday reading, much less a mystery. The whole thing takes place in Peshawar, near the Pakistani border with Afghanistan and Benard does a nice job of capturing the different levels of society there (including a nascent Taliban band). The whodunit part is almost by the way, but the characters are easily lovable and hatable, and the whole thing glides along satisfactorily.

Cheryl Benard plunks us down in Pakistan with a socially inept American businessman, adds a murder to the stew, sprinkles liberally with women hidden beneath chadors - and stirs in wicked funny narrative. The author is obviously familiar with Pakistan; although she is not a native, she strews her brew with stories about the locals: the police investigator and his modern wife, an ex-pat American who is a champion of the poorest of the poor, and a girl enslaved in a wealthy man's home. Each side character raises timely moral issues within the strictures of the Taliban who lurk in a nearby refugee camp. In spite of this heavy background, Moghul Buffet entertains at every step along the way.

When businessman Micky Malone disappears from Peshawar on the Pakistani/Afghan border, the Pakistani government becomes alarmed and sends out Detective Iqbal to investigate. As the body count rises Iqbal struggles to find the murderer. He is hampered by his lack of understanding about how the women of Pakistan think and this leads to a great many comic moments and wrong deductions during the investigation. This is a fascinating look at a country in turmoil and also features a brief glimpse of the Taliban before they came to power in Afghanistan

Humor and feminist fiction in the same breath? Is such a thing possible? Author Cheryl Benard certainly seems to be proving her point with her first novel, "Moghul Buffet." I read her second novel, "Turning on the Girls," and found it to be neck deep in sarcasm and humor, but also naive and judgmental. Regardless, I was so blown away by Benard's satire and skewering of her subjects that I just had to check out her earlier work.

There are so many sub-plots to Moghul that I'm not even going to try to describe them all.

It's odd that the "official" description of this book is slanted towards the male perspective. Micky Malone and Iqbal are important characters, but the story doesn't revolve around them. Indeed, the main character is Fatima, a sixteen year old girl who's raped by a fanatical Muslim zealot and then forced into prostitution by the female head housekeeper. Things go from bad to worse for Fatima as she is threatened and beaten by the various men in her life. At the core of the story is the farcical notion that Fatima is behind all the mysterious murders that are taking place in Peshawar. 

Just like "Girls," Benard has created something that defies categorization. "Moghul" is fiction, murder mystery, feminist theory, social commentary and humor all wrapped into a small package of 264 pages. And also just like "Girls," Benard targets everyone from US imperialism to Muslim misogyny. Take, for example, the following passages:

"Before interrogating or accusing an American, Iqbal, ask yourself one thing: is this person worth an F-14 fighter jet?"

And:

"A good Muslim man prefers his women to die modestly, in his tent. And a good Muslim woman, " Mara lectures, in the hopes of grinding on the nerves of the Muslim woman who stands before her, "if she has any decency at all, will prefer to be shoveled straight into her grave rather than display her body to one of the leering, depraved foreign doctors who staff our clinics."

Perhaps other readers will blanch at such passages, particularly the latter, but I found myself at least chuckling as Benard took her aim and fired. At the very least, she's consistent, not tolerating the excesses of either Western or Eastern cultures. 

With that said, I can see at least two patterns in Benard's writing that are quickly getting on my nerves. 

For one, both "Moghul" and "Girls" have moments where Benard interjects her sarcastic omnipotent narrator perspective. It is funny at times. In fact, she can be frequently hilarious. However, she's followed the same pattern in both her first and second novels. As a new fan of her biting social commentary, I hope her third ditches this repetitive device. It works once, maybe twice, but continuing to rely on it will only reflect her inability to create something new.

My second major criticism is almost identical to what I thought of "Girls." Ms. Benard needs to seriously get out in the world and meet different kinds of men. Both books generally had two kinds of males: Those who were violent, and mean (alpha males) and those who were kind and considerate but are absolutely clueless about the realities of gender issues (perhaps on the cusp of being beta males). In the case of "Moghul," Benard presents countless men who fit the former description and three of the latter. These include the American Micky Malone, Fatima's protective brother, and a college student who believes that Fatima is a righteous prostitute because she "represents all the oppressed of the Third World." Benard is particularly harsh on all three of these males and more than once illustrates their ignorance by pointing out how convenient it is for them to talk about gender justice and equality while obviously conveniently inhabiting the body of a privileged male. Only once does Benard divert from this path when it's revealed that Micky was forced as a child to suffer the beatings and humiliation of larger males.

This is the same pattern in "Girls": The women always get it, the men, at best, try but still remain out in la la land. This is ridiculous considering both the real world and Benard's own writing. In direct contrast to the men, Benard presents us with at least four female characters who she, at most, only mildly ridicules. It was pretty obvious to me that she saw them as realistic, pragmatic, and generally supportive of women's equality. Fair enough, especially since she also gives us women in the story who oppress other women. But where are the male equivalents? In the real world this kind of thing just doesn't wash. There are sexist patriarchal females and egalitarian males. Benard, just like in "Girls," either doesn't see this part of the world or refuses to interject it into her writing.

Despite these criticisms, I'm still a fan of Benard's work. I love how she's able to reveal society's moral inconsistencies with humor and sarcasm. You won't finish her books and think, "Well that was a real downer!" Still, I wish she would expand her horizons a bit. If she ever happens to read this review, I hope she will get this message: Please , PLEASE, incorporate some males who "get it" into your writing.

That's precisely what I did; took it off the shelf in the public library and then, once I'd finished the book (getting snagged on the solution of the mystery at the very end), went out and bought it for my personal collection. Benard is a rare author; her language is as humorous & elegant as it is simple, she spins a good yarn and, most important of all, she has her facts right. Ask me about the facts. I am an anthropologist from the Indian subcontinent of which Pakistan is a part. And male to boot. All too often I come across a potentially good story which is ruined by the setting; the places are hardly real, the people seem all wrong, the evidence which forms the basis for the plot is like a house of cards. Benard may call her writing "pop sociology," but if such fiction is proof of what she's capable of may she write on.

While this book is technically a mystery, it is more effective as an occasionally black comic look at modern Pakistani society and the way it interacts with westerners. The plot of the novel is rather convoluted: it follows a series of murders starting with the apparent murder of an American business man. However, this book is both much more and much less than a standard murder mystery. The plot quickly develops numerous subplots involving a mysterious woman seemingly involved with all the murders, a fundamentalist Iman, the birth of the Taliban, not to mention to complex relations between modern men and women in Pakistan's upper classes... hence the title, Moghul Buffet. The book has a little of everything.
The subplots and depth of characterizations of some of the main characters are the books best qualities. As a mystery, the story is rather convoluted and in the end not completely resolved. Some things are left only implied, and some are never really explained at all. It wasn't the best mystery I've ever read... but it was an incredibly interesting book for the way in which it examines Pakistan today, and especially the role of women in Pakistani society. The book is also fun. The author has an understated sense of humor all through her story... and yet she is always detached, also.
I should also say I was in Peshawar some 15 years ago and from what I remember the author's depiction of this place is quite accurate.... go ahead and read the book, you won't be sorry!

I read this book right after it came out, and loved it. I bought eight copies to give to friends and relatives. It's funny AND it's a great story.
Now -- in the aftermath of the terror attacks of September 11 2001 -- I'm recommending it to friends, and buying it (to give to friends), all over again, for readers who want to understand something of how people in Pakistan and Afghanistan really think.

Dr. Benard really knows her stuff. Her husband, Zalmay Khalilzad, is a native of Afghanistan and a member of the National Security Council advising President Bush on Afghanistan and Southwest Asia. Dr. Benard gives you an up-close-and-personal look at Peshawar and the whole ambience of living in an extremist Islamic state.

This was always a great book. Now -- after September 11 2001 --- it's also one of the most relevant books you can read if you want to understand the extremist Islamic movement -- and get some good laughs at the same time!

Moghul Buffet is extremely well written. The characters are funny and each and every one of them is likeable in their own way. The author does a good job of portraying life in Peshawar, especially for women. I like that the novel does not insult Pakistani culture by pointing out its faults. Instead, it tells of things as they are and it showcases characters who are trying to make a change. Moghul Buffet is a refreshing read. Interesting and full of amusing twists and turns. My favorite aspect of the novel is how things are explained for the coincidences and misunderstandings that they are. The narrator doesn't attempt to fool the reader, instead he/she is involved in understanding why it is that characters are led to believe certain things. A simply wonderful novel.

This is a very witty, fast-paced story set in Pakistan that opens with the disappearance and presumed death of a visiting American businessman. A local inspector is assigned to find the murderer, and we meet many strange and wonderful characters along the way, from the local television preacher who believes soccer is a big cause of sexual deviancy to the chauffeur who seems more interested in liberating young women politically than sexually to the servant girl who is maybe a bit more than a servant girl. These characters and their stories are the best part about the novel, which turns out to be much more than a mystery - it's a tour through a backwater town and its customs that tells us as much about how men and women treat each other here in the West as in this distant, exotic land.

With a voice funny and biting and wise, MOGHUL BUFFET marks the debut of a wonderful writer.

Moghul Buffet oozes sulfurc acid and laughing gas from every pore. It masquerades as a murder myserty set in Peshawar, but it's really a sardonic commentary on women's and men's roles in society -- both in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan and in the supposedly enlightened West. But this is not the sort of book that will make non-members of NOW groan --it's hilarious even as it points at life with a certain disgust. Along the way, we get to grapple with a murder mystery that is quite secondary to the point of the book but engaging nonetheless. At one point the baffled detective realizes that the scrawled clue the serial killer leaves at each murder scene is a line from a particular song. A couple of murders later, although he's no closer to solving the case he's relieved to see that the killer is getting to the end of the song... But it's the very last sentence of the book that's the real killer.