Khadeja's Internet Wha-pow!

deafmuslimpunx:

(note: this is a book review, and I hope to do a series of book reviews. This is my 2nd book review so far)

As I am sure some of you may remember, I posted some screenshots of With Your Tongue Down My Throat and posted an entry some months ago telling people (especially Taqx punx and Desi punx) to read it. Well, I just re-read it and I would like to share my thoughts on why With Your Tongue Down My Throat is one of my favourites and why it resonates so strongly with me.

The novella was published in Winter 1987/88 in Granta. The story tells of two main leading characters, Nina and Nadia. Nina happens to be half British (white), half Pakistani. She is a punk. She was born and raised in London for her whole life, having grown up poor in a council estate (council estate is like the “projects,” for you Americans not familiar with British slangs). She does not have a father figure - her father, a rich Pakistani man, abandoned her and her mother many years ago, and went back to Pakistan.

Nina just finds out that she has a sister, and her name is Nadia. She invites Nadia to London, and Nadia accepts the invitation and visits London. Nadia is shocked when she meets Nina for the first time, and Nina when she meets Nadia.

Nina and Nadia are two very different sisters. Nina is the trashy, slutty, uncultured punk girl who apparently has no self-respect. Nadia, on the other hand, is an overachieving, intelligent, well-dressed Pakistani girl who aspires to become a doctor. Nina immediately dotes on Nadia, but Nadia is wary of her at first. After some bad encounters in London, Nadia decides to go back to Pakistan. Nina announces she’s going, too.

Upon arriving to Pakistan, Nina is completely ostracized and outcasted by her father’s family. She is lonely and laments about how much everyone hates her. She spends time with the driver and accidently gets him fired after he obliges to her demands to drive her around. She also meets another expat, who happens to be half Pakistani and half Canadian (I should probably point out that the writer, Hanif Kureishi, is half Pakistani and half British, so he writes a lot about mixed desi characters). They are immediately drawn to each other. They bond over their immense love of punk music and of being… different from everyone else in Pakistani society.

Although Nina and Nadia are very different, they still care about each other and we witness their sisterly bond developing through-out the story. At first, Nina assumes that Nadia is very confident and happy and well-loved, but after accidently witnessing Nadia encountering with a man in bed, Nina discovers that Nadia isn’t so happy or perfect at all, either. Nadia is lonely and desperately wants to be loved. Just like Nina.

Anyway, the writing is brisk and lovely, quite stylistic. It’s different and refreshing from other books I’ve read. Don’t get me wrong - there are many great books out there with a wonderful, simple steady writing style. But this one is different, and I love how Hanif Kureishi tells stories. Sometimes he uses the 2nd person point of view (YOU, YOU, YOU) in the novella, to describe other characters’ emotions and facial expressions and actions.

How/Why is this related to Taqwacores?

Well, it irks me that many people think Taqwacores (the novel by Michael Muhammad Knight) is the only (or first) book to come out that features a cast of South Asian and Muslim punk characters. Please! Hanif Kureishi did that first, but it wasn’t called Taqwacores back in the 1980s (remember, the UK punk scene was huge back in the 80s?). Nina and Nadia are two characters that are very different from each other. Based on each other’s appearances and backgrounds, both make false assumptions about each other. 

You have an English punk girl, born and raised in the UK her whole life, and a Pakistani girl, born and raised in Pakistan her whole life, aspiring to become a doctor, who are so different from each other. They share a father in common, but both grew up in different cultures. But I see them both in ME. For me, being South Asian and being punk are not seperate. They are BOTH in me! Like Nina, I am a punk. Like Nina when she goes to Pakistan for the first time and is outcasted from her father’s family, I’ve always been the black sheep in my family. I’ve always been gossiped and whispered about by other people in public. Like Nina, I was born in England, (albeit raised in both UK and USA).

However, unlike Nina, I didn’t grow up with an English mother. Now that part is where I’m more like Nadia. I came from a traditional Indian family and grew up exposed to Indian culture, and we were raised with expectations to become doctors or lawyers or engineers. I rebelled and broke out of that moldness, due to being Deaf, Different, Angry, Alienated, Lonely.

I think a lot of Desi and ethnic, non-white, Third World punks can relate to both Nina and Nadia. As Desi punks and as Taqx punks and I’m sure for punks from other Third World cultures, I believe we all have a bit of Nina and Nadia in ourselves.

If you want an easy read, With Your Tongue Down My Throat may NOT be the right choice for you!!!

If you want a great story with an ethnic punky twist, you should read this

If you want a great story with desi characters that has nOTHING to do with boring, predictable topics, you should read this

If you want a great story mixed up with British and South Asian themes, you should read this

If you want a GREAT story with a great refreshing, unique writing style, period, you should read this!!!

5/5 stars

Anyway, I just got some new books set in Ethiopia and I will let you know how they are.