Customer Reviews

The Rug Merchant

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I usually read thrillers such as "The Da Vinci Code" or high-fantasy novels by the likes of George R. R. Martin, and I count "Aliens" as my all-time favorite movie. So, not the type of person who, upon hearing that a book is about an Iranian rug dealer and his relationship with a young American woman, shouts, "Awesome! Bring it on!"

Yet circumstances led me to read this book, which I started with some trepidation. (I've been burned occasionally by books with reviews that state, "Well-written," and "true-to-life characters," which can sometimes translate to, "Difficult, hard to chisel through prose," and "boring.")

"Well-written" here means an eloquent, fast-moving writing style that effortlessly meshes the interesting, hard-to-predict, and dare I say it, true-to-life characters (in a good way) with subtle truths about human nature that deep down we all know, but since we rarely see them discussed we can't help but smile as we read them. (One tiny example, "Ushman looks at the lighted windows and yearns to be let in. Even if there is no soccer match on TV. Just to sit around a table with people in the middle of the night, their camaraderie heightened by the absurdity of the hour.")

For me, this was a page-turner in a far different manner than what I'm used to, but a page-turner nonetheless. Highly recommended (even if you DO have a book about rampaging prehistoric sharks on the top of your Wish List).

This novel is as rich, moving and complex as the rarest handmade carpet which its lonely Iranian protagonist sells. He has grown up with them, and the selling of them takes him away from his much adored wife in Iran to New York City. His wife, made miserable and blaming Ushman for her inability to bear a child to term, refuses to follow him, takes up with a lover and leaves him. But he cannot leave her in his heart, even though he is fascinated by and much loves a young college student who is far from his culture and his melancholy soul. The portrait of Ushman is one of the deepest portraits of a man I have read. I closed the book a few times because I felt I had in decency to look away from the intimacy of his hopes and his pain as he struggles with the strangeness of his new country when all he longs for is his old life. Such a tender man, so complex! What a wonderful book! I will be reading it again soon.

This is the story of Ushman, an immigrant Iranian rug merchant who owns a small establishment ideally located on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. His wife is still in Iran, looking after his ailing mother and regularly sending him high quality rugs for his wealthy customers. Ushman dreams of the day his wife will join him in America, although he realizes that his mother's illness makes this not immediately possible.

The cultural differences are very evident, and when Ushman's long distance relationship deteriorates, he becomes lost and confused. It isn't long before loneliness overcomes him, and we learn that he feels insecure in seeking out the company of American women. His subsequent encounters with three women of completely different backgrounds make up the major part of the story, and we learn more about his character through his interaction with these women.

The female characters could have been better developed, and we don't really get into them as much as we do Ushman. Instead, the author prefers to dwell in great detail on the emotional turmoil and uncertainty that Ushman brings to new relationships, personal or professional. By the end you'll realize that this is a short story stretched into a novel, but then again, one woman's padding may well be another's evocative narrative.



Amanda Richards, July 29, 2007

A fortyish rug merchant, having spent three long, lonely years in America while his miscarriage-prone wife remained in Iran to care for his mother and locate his stock, learns that his wife has moved on without him. When he meets a young American girl (19 years old and described as "half his age") his sad world transforms.

Although the wordplay involving the American-idiomatically-challenged immigrant is really good, the point of the story is unclear. In fact, it seems that there is no point. Among the incomprehensible: discussions of three suicides and/or attempted suicides; two incidences of a certain type of intimate contact; an incident involving an overheard appropriate or inappropriate conversation between a father and young daughter in a bathroom stall; the pure state of the young love interest, as well as her desire to become otherwise with with the help of a fatherly foreigner (one with revulsion for his own mother, whose existence only inconveniences him in the form of phone calls and letters); a bitter, hate-spewing African man; and the ending.

Except for the great cross lingual conversational issues between the American teenager and her Iranian boyfriend, the story just plain senseless. House of Sand and Fog by Albert Dubus is a better read.

I thought this was a wonderful read. The crafting of the words made me feel the loneliness and quiet desperation of Ushman and Mrs. Roberts and even the city itself. Like music in the background, I thought the prose was so fitting for the story.

In response to other comments here, I agree that the other characters, the women were not well developed but I think the key to the story is that it is solely from Ushman's point of view. We read only what he sees, what he thought and felt. While reading the book, I didn't realize that they were flat or poorly developed, I saw them from Ushman's perspective and he didn't understand them at all! I think this added to the story.

This one touched my heart. You can read the plot details in the other reviews ... it was the emotional connection with the character Ushman that surprised me. His loneliness and confusion of his place in his world was so well conveyed, that I felt and understood and related. We all have our sad stories, it's remembering that they all had elements of joy as well. A suprising and strong debut novel.

An extraordinary debut by Meg Mullins, THE RUG MERCHANT centers on an Iranian immigrant, Ushman Khan, who sells beautifully crafted rugs to wealthy Americans in New York. His wife Farak continues to live in their hometown of Tabriz where she personally picks out the rugs that will be shipped to America, and Ushman subsequently sells for thousands of dollars a rug.

Ushman and Farak have tried many times to have a child of their own, but Farak had suffered through too many miscarriages, the last one occurring during the big quake in Iran a few years ago. After that, Farak gave up trying. Ushman goes to America to find a better life for them, but instead he finds loneliness and a wife who does not seem to want to be with her husband. She finds excuses not to follow him to America, mainly using his ailing mother as the reason why she must stay in Iran.

Farak finally informs Ushman that she is leaving him, but he cannot accept the news, especially the shocking reasons why she's divorcing him. His life had always revolved around his love for Farak, and he cannot believe that his marriage is over. One night he goes to the airport on a whim and watches the people around him, dreaming of Farak coming off a plane to finally join him in America. Instead, he meets a young woman named Stella, a freshman at Barnard College. Despite their age and cultural differences, this meeting leads up to a rather unusual friendship.

By this time, Ushman's knowledge of America is still very limited, and he is constantly overwhelmed and confused as to what is proper behavior in this country. Stella represents a huge contrast to the type of woman he is familiar with, and in his mind he often compares her to Farak, who he still refers to as his wife. Stella is as free as one her age can be, with ethics and moral standards that are far from what Ushman is used to. Yet he knows he is now in America and is allowed to do things such as look at women who are not covered up from head to toe, and that even a one-night stand is not frowned upon. Ushman is attracted to the free-spirited Stella, who teaches this lonely man what it is like to be an American.

In the meantime, Ushman continues his business of selling exotic rugs, his most frequent customer being the wealthy Mrs. Roberts, whose husband appears to be an invalid. Their relationship is akin to that of master and servant, and Ushman tries his best to behave the way she expects. However, things happen to make him wonder what Mrs. Roberts is really feeling toward him, as she seems to be reaching out to him for more than just a business relationship. While a friendship is far from what is evolving, their behavior around each other hints to a type of association that may diverge from their original business relationship.

As the friendship between Ushman and Stella progress into something serious, Ushman's world begins to change. But he still has Farak in the back of his mind, always reminding him of his past. Things come to a head when a tragic event occurs in Mrs. Roberts's home while Ushman is there doing business, and it becomes another turning point in Ushman's life in America.

THE RUG MERCHANT is a complex tale that focuses more on behavior and feelings than on actual action and events. Meg Mullins does a wonderful job describing the immigrant experience, writing this story with a delicate prose that brings out the sensations of loneliness and that of being an outsider in a foreign land. Ushman's awkwardness and confusion are detailed in exquisite form, and the reader will truly feel embarrassment and maybe even a sense of protectiveness toward this man who wants desperately to live the American dream yet feels out of his element. His love for Farak is near tragic, as he has no control over what is happening with her because she is so far away. By moving to America, he essentially gives up his rights, so to speak, to be her Iranian husband; divorce would never have been permitted if he had remained in his homeland.

Mullins's auspiciously wonderful debut is highly recommended and I anxiously await her next novel.

--- Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton (Ratmammy@lofton.org)

As a short story, this book would have been great - except too long. As a novel, this book doesn't work and after all that reading just to see what happens to the main character, it has no real ending. What a waste of time. The book starts off with an interesting character and then drops her for a younger woman (a much more boring and predictable character), much like a philandering man. The older woamn character is never fully developed and the reader never gets to learn more about her, until towards the end of the book and by then, it is still not enough and too late. There are also many elements thrown in that have very little relevance to the story, other than perhaps the author can claim to write of relevant subjects, shocking as they may be, even though they have absolutely nothing to do with the central plot. In some parts of the book, I felt like I was being set up by the author, instead of allowed to make my own interpretations of the characters; there are a lot of the dreaded telling rather than showing that so many contemporary writers seem so fond of doing. I think I can understand why the main character has that photo under his pillow. I did not need to be told why. It is a real insult of intelligence to have everything spoon-fed.

An interesting story that works better as a short story, which it should have remained as, otherwise it desperately needs more character development of all characters involved.

Now alone in New York City, Ushman, struggles to build his rug shop to send money back to his wife and mother still living in Iran. His wife, Farak, sends rugs to him to sell to the rich clientele. Soon, though, Farak will no longer be sending him rugs. The thing is, it is such a struggle for Ushman to understand this foreign country, America, and its very foreign customs and people.

Take women, for example, so much skin, so much responsibility left up to him. Ushman understands the hejab; "though Ushman never came to sympathize with the Ayatollah's fanaticism, he has come to appreciate his country's policies. There is litte ambiguity in Islam. Whereas in America, everything is negotiable. Everything is possible. These endless possibilities become exhausting."

This book starts with such promise but very unfortunately, about a third of the way in, Ushman meets Stella, a nineteen year old Barnard College student. The book takes a dive from which it never recovers.

The book becomes an All-American girl meets fill-in-the -blank-foreigner and they are fascinated with the difference in their cultures. They sleep together and then sleep together some more, and in case you didn't get enough of that, they sleep together. Boring.

I'd recommend the first third of the book and then simply return it to your library.

This is a novel by Meg Mullins.

I first noticed this book on a table at a bookstore. The hard cover version at least has a picture of a very beautiful Persian rug on the front. I have had an interest in those rugs for many years, so I decided to take a look at the book.

While the backdrop for the book does have to do with these rugs, it is more a story about a man trying to find a place in another world - here an Iranian in New York City. There is a romantic part and lots of tragedy. Overall, it was a good book, but as a guy I think it was maybe a little more "chick-lit" than I bargained for. Rather interesting that it was written by a woman, but from a male point of view - she did a good job I think.

Anyway, it has much to recommend it.