The Good Muslim
By: Tahmima Anam
Copyright: 2011
Harper's Collins Publishing
4 Bookmarks out of 5
Sorry it's taken me so long to finish reading this one, everybody. My last entry was Monday of last week. After I finished with Shadows in Flight, I just felt a need to re-connect with the real world for a bit because I felt disconnected from other people. So, I vegged out with some Keeping up with the Kardashians, had a wonderful breakfast/lunch excursion with my twin sister, and managed to drive an hour and a half to visit an old college friend to celebrate her birthday. That's when I decided that I had re-connected enough with the world to retreat back into my book paradise and conquer the sequel to A Golden Age - a book, I may remind you, which I thought so very highly of that I downloaded to sequel to my nook without second thought. Even though The Good Muslim did not have my interest from the very beginning, Tahmima Anam doesn't fail to deliver her flawless story-telling technique in another heart-gripping novel.
One of the biggest differences between the first book and this one is the person who is telling the story. Rehana is one of the main reasons I fell in love with the first book. However, in this book it's Maya's turn to tell her story. The Good Muslim is the story of what happens to the Haque family after the war for Bangladeshi independence. Maya goes on after the war to become a surgeon who wanders the country side working as a woman doctor. Sohail, on the other hand, becomes a devout religious figure after returning home from the war. I missed Rehana's calming personality throughout this book, but I valued the character development of Maya. In the beginning, I felt that Maya was a very whiny figure, but as the book progressed I found her character full of depth.
Another thing that differs this book from the first is it's use of flashbacks to tell the story. A Golden Age told the story in a linear fashion mostly - each chapter happened after the preceding chapter. However, The Good Muslim tells the story of what happened directly after the war as the current story is being told. It becomes a lot for the reader to keep in mind as the plot progresses, but I also found that it revealed the characters in a more realistic manner. It's because of this use of the flashbacks that I felt the story was hard to read in the beginning. Maya and Sohail are so different than who they were before the war. It made them almost unbelievable. Anam creates the story of how Maya and Sohail reached their life positions through flashbacks and by the end, the characterization makes sense. I should have never doubted Anam, since her characterization of Rehana in the first book was absolutely stunning.
One thing I was wondering when reading this book was if Tahmima Anam has a bad relationship with men. I mean, Rehana's husband died, Joy's father died, and there are so many documentations of violence against women from men. But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized Anam has taken it upon herself to be a beacon of light for those women in Bangladesh still dealing with the falling out of the war for independence. As a woman myself, I value the fact that she is an unspoken advocate for women's rights and what is done to innocent victims in times of upheaval. I think that is why A Golden Age and The Good Muslim speak to me so much - they tell the story of women who face immense odds and still find a way to live in a world with so many shades of gray.
Once again, in The Good Muslim, Anam shows off her superior mastery of the English language and all its literary techniques. This book covers the aftermath of revolution - how dreams become past hopes and how democracy does not always prevail. However, it is a story of hope and of the wonderful culture of Bangladesh. This book is a great pair for the first book and a great read for any person who is interested in war, women, or just the strength of the human spirit. The sluggish beginning is the reason why I would give it on 4 bookmarks, but the plot does pick up and does eventually make you keep turning the pages until you are finished.
