Immagine dell'autore.

Nadeem Aslam

Autore di Mappe per amanti smarriti

5+ opere 1,729 membri 67 recensioni 6 preferito

Sull'Autore

Fonte dell'immagine: Nadeem Aslam Photo: Jerry Bauer

Opere di Nadeem Aslam

Mappe per amanti smarriti (2004) 716 copie
La veglia inutile (2008) 482 copie
The Blind Man's Garden (2013) 244 copie
The Golden Legend (2017) 163 copie
Season of the Rainbirds (1993) 124 copie

Opere correlate

Granta 112: Pakistan (2010) — Collaboratore — 172 copie
Granta 93: God's Own Countries (2006) — Collaboratore — 135 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Utenti

Recensioni

A very angry novel, about a group of characters who find themselves caught up in multiple ways in the cycle of violence that dominates life in modern Pakistan. For Aslam, it seems to be a country where the military are in an unhealthily close relationship with the US, the police and judiciary are corrupt, violent and inefficient, and there is a general culture of Islamic paranoia that means that even the slightest perceived threat to orthodoxy — local or remote — is liable to provoke disproportionate official punishment, mob violence, and/or acts of terrorism.

The book seems to be conceived in a tragic, romantic mode, but Aslam’s characters are the victims of this endemic violence at so many different levels and from so many different directions in the course of the book that it almost becomes farcical, which surely isn’t what he intended. There are also some odd bookbinding choices going on: a book damaged by a brutal intelligence officer in the course of the story is being lovingly repaired by stitching the torn pages together with gold thread, in a sort of literary kintsugi. I can see the point, aesthetically, but I’m not sure that it would work mechanically, and there are far better ways to repair paper…

In the end I liked the general approach of the book, with its Rushdie-like conceit of “beauty vs. violence,” but I felt that Aslam undermined his case by piling too much miscellaneous bad stuff onto too small a group of characters.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
thorold | 10 altre recensioni | Mar 19, 2024 |
Strange: Determined to make a bit of space on the A shelf, I picked up this novel with fond memories of British-Pakistani Nadeem Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers (2004) which was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. But now, having read The Golden Legend (2017) I've checked my reading journal and realised that I must have confused Maps for Lost Lovers with something else. Like The Golden Legend, Maps for Lost Lovers was very well-written and perhaps it was an authentic portrait of Pakistani immigrants who despise the country that's hosting them while they make money, but I did not enjoy reading it and I found The Golden Legend very confronting as well. My reading journal tells me that I didn't much like The Wasted Vigil (2008) either, but I'd forgotten reading it, so I don't think I'll be revisiting this author's work again.

He seems to have made a career out of writing about dysfunctional Islam. Maps is about an immigrant Pakistani community in England; Vigil is about Islam in Afghanistan, and The Golden Legend is about terrorism, cruelty, corruption and sectarianism in Pakistan. There is also love across religious divides in Aslam's fictional city of Zamaran, but as the novel traces the ill-fortune of Nargis after her husband Massud is killed in a terrorist attack, it portrays a culture of inescapable violence and intimidation.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/01/31/the-golden-legend-by-nadeem-aslam/
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
anzlitlovers | 10 altre recensioni | Feb 4, 2022 |
Actually it was amazing. I'm being mean with the stars. Shall have to digest this book over time.
 
Segnalato
Ma_Washigeri | 18 altre recensioni | Jan 23, 2021 |
Een zeer dubbel gevoel over dit boek.
Wat me erg gestoord heeft is het taalgebruik. Vaak zinnen van 6 regels, inclusief lange bijzinnen. Vaak was het ook geen goed Nederlands, wat mogelijks aan de vertaling te wijten was.
Anderzijds was het verhaal goed. In de eerste helft van het boek genoot ik van het uitzoeken van het verhaal en de linken die stuk voor stuk prijs gegeven worden. Na een tijd stoorden de vele uitwijdingen en de taal me zodanig dat ik sterk overwogen heb niet meer verder te lezen.
Het boek geeft wel een goed beeld van het leven in een Afghanistan, incl. de constante onveiligheid en de noodzaak iedereen te wantrouwen. Het is ook het eerste boek dat me zo veel inkijk geeft in de jihadkampen en de bijhorende indoctrinatie.
Wat ik wel miste, was de nuancering dat dit niet het overgrote deel van de bevolking is. Ik herken hier totaal niet de Afghanen in die ik persoonlijk ken.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
ArtieVeerle | 18 altre recensioni | May 28, 2020 |

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Statistiche

Opere
5
Opere correlate
2
Utenti
1,729
Popolarità
#14,867
Voto
3.8
Recensioni
67
ISBN
105
Lingue
10
Preferito da
6

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