A Golden Age

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The behavior of the characters that Tahmima portrayed throughout the book are simply illogical and out of consistency. has very critical name because I could not understand when a country is under military reign and the most fierce suppression, from which angle the time seems to be ‘golden’? In my multi-year quest of reading a book from every country, I still had not checked off Bangladesh. As a young widow she fights to regain custody of her children after losing them to her late husband's brother and wife.

This, her debut novel, is set in 1971 in East Pakistan, where Rehana Haque, a young widow, is throwing a party. I've had this book since I found it on paperbackswap in 2012, so it's been on my shelf for a while too. And as she struggles to keep her family safe, Rehana will be forced to face a heartbreaking dilemma.

Povestea incepe inainte de 1971, atunci cand Rehana isi pierde temporar copiii, dupa moartea sotului. Anam follows the lives of this one family and their close neighbours, illustrating how the historical events of that year affected people and changed them.

The author Tahmima Anam was born in Bangladesh, but grew up traveling around the world due to the work of her father, Mahfuz Anam, who is the editor of The Daily Star. Whilst there is warmth and empathy for those struggling for independence, the characterisation is very polarised and the Pakistan based characters tend to be generally evil. Taste and fragrance and memory merge in word-pictures of the places Rehana has known: the smell of salt in the Karachi streets and the burned taste of kababs on Clifton Beach; the sweet Dhaka air in a garden filled with jasmine or ripening mangoes; and the heavy first drops of the monsoon rain that a child curves his face up to catch on his tongue. The Good Muslim, a sequel to A Golden Age, was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2011.At first, I was lulled into thinking that Rehana was an innocent in a sea of turmoil, but as the tale unwinds, I learned that she also harboured secrets, some of which had nothing to do with the invasion of Yahya’s forces. As it is though, it is a book rife with big names, and big events and big, lofty ideals that can't ever be bothered with the dirt and strife that are real lives.

On the other hand, I just finished another book concerning how war wreaks havoc in people’s lives, Scribbling The Cat, and that I loved. Anam's skill at gradually building a sense of doom was quite impressive - I almost couldn't read the last few pages.It is loosely based on a similar story told to the author by her grandmother who had been a young widow for ten years already, when the war arrived. This is the first in Anam's Bengal trilogy, which follows the fortunes of Rehana's children and grandchildren after the war, and I look forward to the next volume, The Good Muslim. I have to give a special shout out thank you to my GR friend Jalilah because if she had invited me to join the Middle Eastern reading group, I wouldn’t have read this wonderful book. She heard the trucks before they turned on to the road; she felt them slowing in front of the bungalow, lining up along the neighbourhood gates. Dar Rehana isi revine repede, construieste o casa si din inchirierea ei reuseste sa stranga banii necesari sa ii aduca inapoi langa ea.

Povestea de viata a Rehanei este foarte interesanta, ea, asa cum se descrie fiind intai de toate o mama. Even Rehana could see the logic: what sense did it make to have a country in two halves, posed on either side of India like a pair of horns? Descumpanita de turnura pe care a luat-o viata ei, nu reuseste sa il convinga pe judecator ca ii poate creste singura pe Sohail si Maya, iar acestia sunt luati timp de un an de rude. She grew up listening to the stories of her grandmother harboring freedom fighters and hiding guns and weapons in the family garden. When her children were small and she first became a widow, Rehana lost custody of them and went to great lengths to get them back.Our protagonist, Rehana, is an unintentional hero, pushed by circumstance to be extraordinarily courageous when all she wants is a life of wholeness and peace. The denouement left me slightly annoyed, but despite that, it was a beautifully written story in prose that flowed like music on paper. This is an effective way to communicate the urgent story of the conflict, and I was engaged with Rehana's feelings and relationships. The civil conflict is the backdrop to the story of Rehana as she tries to do the best for her family, and to keep her children safe, while acknowledging that her freedom fighter son Sohail and idealistic daughter Maya, young adults now, are determined to live by their own principles, no matter what the cost. Sadly, I don’t know enough about the historical events to comment on the historical accuracy, but Anam tells an engaging story.