oppression

Title: Spirits Rebellious

Author: Khalil Gibran

Published in: 1908

Genre: Fiction

About!

This book is said to have been burnt after it came out because it proved to be very controversial. That is, mainly, due to the open question to authority that it contains. The book contains three stories centering around man, religion, law and authority all of which do not just depict the society in the early 1900s but the themes are universal.

There are many questions posed by Gibran in this book. His inquisitive thoughts are very provocative to the mind and conscience.

My thoughts!

Umm okay so I gotta admit that I don’t know how I felt about this book. Not putting you off from reading it, I feel that everyone should read this but there are things in it that I think can mislead a person if taken as they are but it is still a GREAT piece of work no doubt.

The first story is ‘Madam Rose Hanie’. Treatment/abandonment of women by men with their selfish motives is the main feature. It also talks about Materialism. Very deep and seemingly right questions are asked by the writer in the end of this story but again they can encourage people who are at the brink of morality to cross the line.

The second story is ‘Cry of the Graves’. It is a well written account of corruption, misunderstanding, cruelty and death. All done to man by man.

The third story is ‘Khalil, The Heretic’. Presumably the writer himself is the protagonist. His thesis is the doom of a society/community when its administrative/ruling class along with the representatives of religion is filled with corruption. He paints a very miserable picture of the common man who suffers in these circumstances. Khalil openly and boldly condemned all these evils which are pretty much the same or worse today.

Overall, I really liked the writing style. Khalil has written for a layman. Diction is beautiful. Almost poetic.

But I read this book a couple of months ago and I feel like if I read this now I might interpret it in a better way than I did before even though it has only been a couple of months but sometimes it doesn’t take long for one to change I guess.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this. How many of you have read this book? Have you read anything else by Khalil Gibran? I’m eager to know. Tell me in the comments below.

Hey everyone! Hope you’re all doing well. I read a book after so long (exams, what else?!) and feel so glad to have reviewed it. I had almost forgotten the joy of this whole art. Anyways, I’m back now. Tell me what you think of my review and where I need to get better. Read on and have fun!

Title: The Shadow of the Crescent Moon

Author: Fatima Bhutto

Genre: Fiction, Drama, Contemporary, War.

Published in: 2013

Synopsis:

It begins and ends one rain swept Friday morning in Mir Ali, a small town in the troubled tribal region of Waziristan, close to the Afghan border. Three brothers meet for breakfast. Soon after, the eldest, recently returned from America, hails a taxi to the local mosque. The second brother, a doctor, goes to check in at his hospital. His troubled wife does not join the family that morning for no one knows where Mina goes these days. And the youngest, the idealist, leaves for town on a motorbike. Seated behind him is a beautiful, fragile girl whose world has been overwhelmed by war. Three hours later, their day will end in devastating circumstances.

My Thoughts!

A beautiful, harsh story of love, war, terror, instability and fight for a cause. The first thing that came to my mind when I was past one quarter of this book was that it felt such a raw story to me. Without any glamor or fantasizing the life of the inhabitants of Mir Ali, the border town in Pakistan, the writer surely gripped me with her story which seemed, so many times, a non-fiction work which it isn’t but it did sound like that to me because of the truth in it or because of the familiarity of many elements in the novel.

I found out something similar said by the author herself,

In a Gulf News interview, Bhutto disclosed that “When I was a journalist, I had traveled a lot. All the things that did not fit into articles, all the little moments you have with people, those stayed with me. The surge in this book came from that period of journeys. The scenery or the descriptions come from what I saw. So, even though it is fiction, The Shadow of the Crescent Moon is not a fake story.” Source

Also the story may be fiction, it’s very realistic nonetheless. Fatima Bhutto has skillfully painted a very true picture of the tribal area of Pakistan, the way its people are treated and seen from others’ eyes, whatever they face due to their misfortune.

The Shadow of the Crescent Moon is a tale of three brothers determined by the fates of their ancestors and mingled with their own desires, wishes and not so easy decisions. It is the story of these three brothers spanning just a few hours of a day from their lives but we are taken to each of their pasts in the form of flashbacks which clear some things and mystify some others.

Scenes full of emotions, thrill and mystery take the story to its completion with the ending still leaving us on our own imaginative ability. But let me tell you, the end does relax you a bit at the same time leaving you with more, yet different questions.

There was however something that made me a little uncomfortable (cuz of personal reasons) the way (a very contemptuous way, at that) the military and intelligence forces of the nation are treated by the author in her novel. But then again, I’ll make no further comments as this was a fictional work.

I would still recommend this novel to the readers out there who want to have a quick read (as it’s a very short novel) about people coping up with war on terror and injustice in their country in their own distinctive ways.