Usually, when I post a review on here, it’s one that’s been written about my own work – whether a story, or a book. There haven’t been that many, but I’m grateful for them all… particularly when they say something good!
This time, I’m posting the review I’ve done for a short story collection, and saying a little bit about the process.
It’s only my third review, and they’ve all been for collections, as it happens. I’d be interested to try a novel, at some point, though I think it would be a somewhat different exercise.
Reviewing can be a lot of hard work, and take quite a bit of time, even if, in the end, you do no more than post a shortened version on Goodreads, or wherever. I made pages and pages of notes for this one. One mistake I can think of is that I had the book on kindle, and now think it would be much better to have a hard copy, so that you can make notes on the text, and go back and fore, as required.
The other problem I had was that, normally, with a collection, I tend to dip in and out… not necessarily reading the stories in the order they occur. And I often have breaks in between, when I read other material. However, I felt it was right to read these stories in order, and straight through (not in one go, but with nothing interspersed). Of course, other readers and reviewers may treat collections quite differently.
Anyway, onto the review…
The collection in question is ‘White Moon’ by Mehreen Ahmed.
Mehreen is a well-published Australian author, who was born and brought up in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She writes both novels and short fiction, as well as academic articles and travelogues, and has won numerous awards for both.
‘White Moon’ is her second collection (the first being ‘Gatherings’) and comprises of fifty-one stories, some of which are ‘flash’ pieces – some micro – while others are of considerable length.
The Preface describes the stories as avant-garde, surreal, esoteric, even, and, yes, to open the pages of the book is to enter a dream-world, a realm inhabited by fantastical characters…phantoms; fairies, pixies, robots (found together in one story, ‘The Yellow God’!); and, surprisingly, a hobbit! It is a landscape where time, as well as setting and characters, shapeshifts back and fore – as it says in the second story, ‘The past, the present and the future in the human narrative of a timeline floated like… water hyacinth’, (the title of the piece).
That the settings are often ‘foreign’ might be expected from an author, born and brought up on the Asian sub-continent. Many of the stories are, in fact, set there, with names, practices, gods, that may be unfamiliar to western readers. I chose, on occasion, to look up some of these, to clarify certain references; for example, a ‘khawaja’ is an honorific title; a ‘dewaan’ is a government official. ‘Pushyabhuti’ was a ruling dynasty in northern India, during the sixth and seventh centuries. But this is simply my own preference, and not essential to the enjoyment of the tales – sometimes, allowing the words to wash over you is satisfying in itself.
The collection opens with a story ‘Sensible Shoes’, which is told from the point of view of those shoes – a conceit which put me in mind of the essays we were asked to write in school, with titles such as ‘A day in the life of a penny.’ But Mehreen’s interpretation is, of course, far more imaginative, with the shoes being a loyal friend to their owner, Samira – more than a friend, in that they believe they are responsible for some of her actions. They experience empathy to her plight, followed by despair, when they are ultimately replaced, when Samira rises in the world.
And from this first strange encounter we move on to ‘Water Hyacinth’ with its magical time-twisting – ‘I blinked, and it was all gone, as though it never existed. Magic, it sure was, the past and present were fused in my mind’, together with role-reversal, rags to riches and riches to rags, with relationships at its heart.
Reading further, there are stories featuring speaking crows, who rule over humans, and ruin two women’s crops; a child-snatcher; Sufis; owls rescuing abused girls. In ‘River of Melted Chocolate’ the audience of a film disappears into a setting from that film. Or we find a city that is able to smell.
Or there is ‘The Yellow God’, which starts with a beautifully-described pixie tea-party, so that the reader assumes they will be treated to a traditional fairytale… until the scene changes to a village wedding, where the Mother of the groom is accompanied by her ‘mate’ Juniper. Later, we discover that ‘Juniper’ is a robot, constructed by her son, who replaces the violent ‘Father’, in their lives. And who, or what, is the bride? ‘… such a perfect smile, what a doll.’ Her name – ‘Genesis .01’. A strange, strange tale!
And yet, amongst these marvellous creations there are themes relevant to all of us, wherever we are in the world. Love is at the heart of several stories, such as ‘Number Ninety Four’, which put me in mind of T.S. Eliot’s measuring out of life with coffee spoons – only, on this occasion, the lives, the love, is measured out in the journeys of the Number Ninety Four bus. Or ‘Oasis’, where love survives through repeated adversity. Death and time are often present, both in ‘Aina Ghar/The Mirror Room’ which contemplates how short the journey to death is. And how time can change everything… or nothing. The rights of the ‘ownership’ of land is considered, in ‘Of the Blue Evening’ and ‘The Giver’ for example. Do humans have more claim to the earth, above nature and its creatures? The end of the world, often through war – man, again – appears several times.
‘Pink Toenails’ is an interesting story in that it also featured in Mehreen’s first collection, but the author wanted it to be included here, too, because, although it is science fiction, it reflects a fast-developing reality – that of AI, robots, humans who don’t heed the warnings given to them by the land. Yet mermaids get a mention, as well!
And certain subjects – some of them quite mundane – crop up repeatedly, often described in startling detail. Food (Indian recipes, relayed in mouth-watering fashion – the potatoes and green papaya, mixed with turmeric, red chillies, oil and a dash of salt, cooked on a gentle flame). Houses. Wealth – both the lack of it, and too much of it. Going up in the world – or down. Clothes. Names. A lot of tea is drunk! Forests, fire. Dance. So many of these assault the senses, with their vibrancy of colour, sound… and taste.
One quite unusual feature of some of the stories, particularly the shorter ‘flash’ pieces, is the use of a form of rhyme. This technique sneaks up on the reader, with a sudden realisation of its presence. One almost feels that it would be beneficial to read them aloud – or hear them read aloud. This, in ‘Debt’, ‘They waited in row, at cocks crow, for Natalie the pro to bow, slow and low. Lo…’ In ‘Ylem’ – spotted, gloated, bloated. ‘Over the water, bold and low, fluttered a lorikeet, a flying rainbow.’ One can only admire the author’s skill in accomplishing this!
Yet, in the midst of all this, we have two stories firmly fixed in historical events and harsh reality: ‘Bengali 1971’, which centres on the war fought between West and East Pakistan, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh, and ‘Phantom War’, which is right up to date, about Gaza. Both focus on children dying in these conflicts, in a moving manner.
There are children, too, in the final story – other children who suffer at the hands of greedy men. But here, we again enter a fantastical realm, which contains a creature akin to the Loch Ness monster, magical melodies and vanishing loves. And it ends with the line ‘an unbreakable circle of all – space, time, and chime’, which could be an apt description for the entire collection.
Based on these stories, I suspect Mehreen will be winning even more prizes in the future.
‘White Moon’ is published by Bridge House Publishing.
The links in their Bridgetown Café Bookshop will give you various options of where to buy the book https://www.thebridgetowncafebooksshop.co.uk (scroll down the list of titles on the right-hand side, until you reach ‘White Moon’).