Picador Noon

I loved from beginning to end. A great look into different cultures, the differences and similarities.Would highly recommend it

I love every book written by this gifted author .

Aatish Taseer is a writer who I really want to like. I keep on buying and reading all of his books. There are occasional flashes of brilliance that drag me in and make me want to read more. But somehow, it just doesn't quite feel as if any of his books (including this one) quite get there.Noon is a novel - and it's worth mentioning this, because there are almost always confusing glimpses of Taseer's real life scattered in his fiction and of course also in his autobiographical writing. The main character, Rehan Tabassum, is a young man caught between various worlds (India/America, ancient/modern, rich/poor) and unsure of what to do when he finds himself caught up in an investigation into a burglary at his mother's home in Delhi. The inner conflicts that Rehan explores echo broader conflicts at play in modern India and Pakistan. A character in flux becomes symbolically representative of a whole culture in flux. It's definitely thought-provoking, and the backdrop of the burglary makes for an engaging enough romp as it all plays out.Like most of Taseer's writing, Noon is a very male-focused novel. There aren't many female characters and where they are, they are rather one-dimensional. The writing style various between slick, quick dialogue and more reflective eloquent prose. It's readable and the plot is engaging. Somehow, though, it falls just short of greatness for me. I find it hard to explain why but I guess the best way I can put it is that there are a lot of big, clever ideas here - but somehow the execution lacks something and ends up feeling slightly superficial and banal. I just ended up wishing there had been a little more humanity and a little less cleverness.I really do like Aatish Taseer, and Noon was a good read, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed that this novel doesn't quite live up to the promise of the author or the catchy quotes on the back cover.

The novel comprises four related stories covering a period of about twenty years from the 1980's to the present day, a period which encompasses enormous changes in India. The main character is Rehan Tabessum who we meet initially as he travels to Pakistan to meet the father he has never known. Both Rehan's natural father and his step-father are hugely wealthy men and he has been brought up in Delhi in a life of privilege. Rehan also reflects a cosmopolitan India, in his case perhaps more westernised through his American university education. The book explores the themes of tradition & modernity, fractured families, class & caste, corruption, the corrosive effect of wealth, moral ambivalence, deceit. There are undercurrents of violence too (occasional references to the London bombings and riots in Pakistan to protest about the use of English).I found it slightly odd that after introducing Rehan's mother, a woman who achieved success in a male-dominated society and profession, women more or less disappear thereafter, except for minor and inconsequential roles. Perhaps this is meant to have some significance, but it left me wanting to know more.Taseer's writing style is cool, laconic, somewhat detached. For me, the first three stories were more engaging and compelling than the last one which seemed slower and more confusing than the earlier parts. I didn't feel any empathy for many of the characters in that section, most of whom are unsavoury and deeply morally flawed. Curiously, I didn't feel a sense of anger at their behaviour either. Maybe I missed the point but the end of the book was disappointing. Had the book been more even I would probably have awarded an additional star, although I don't think the author is on a par with, for example, Aravind Adiga or Rohintan Mistry.

This is a lovely novel about self-discovery, relationships and life.Rehan Tabassum is the protagonist, and the novel spans some two decades of his life. He lives with his mother and step-father in India, while his natural father, whom he has never met, lives in neighbouring Pakistan.The book is split into four chapters, spanning various parts of Rehan's life. The third chapter, in particular, struck a chord with me. 'Notes from a Burglary' is about a robbery which takes place at Rehan's mother's home in Delhi. Rehan is home from university in America, having what he hopes, will be a restful and inspiring break. Instead, he has to deal with the aftermath. Rehan, having a Western and modern outlook in life, has high hopes for a new, progressive 21st century India. Instead, he finds he has to deal with old customs and traditions, the discomfort of being a privileged person in a world where the moneyed can do wrong, where equality and justice apply only to the upper echelons of society. The police investigation, the corruption and suggested violence, the reactions of the suspects, their place in the order of society, and that of Rehan's and his mother's, and the tired and inevitable expectation of that which will be cannot be changed, are uncomfortably brought to the fore. Rehan wants no part of it but finds he has to collude with the India of the past.His visit to Pakistan in the last chapter is no less arduous. Here, he deals with a whole new set of societal, political and religious clashes; the old and the new sit uncomfortably. As with Rehan, Pakistan, too, continues to form her identity and the many competing facets of his father's homeland lead to troubled encounters.Taseer's writing style is smooth, floral and eloquent; at times, it reminds me of Salman Rushdie. Despite the florid writing and delicate descriptions, there is the sense that immoral, corrupt, shady nuances can exist, a fine line between right and wrong, good and bad. Optimism and pessimism co-exist: there is the suggestion of something darker, be it sexual immorality, extra-marital affairs, religious extremism or simply the breakdown of familial relationships. Answers are not necessarily provided, and while Taseer's novel is a pleasure to read, you can't help feeling slightly dissatisfied at the outcomes or lack of them, although this can add to the charm of the novel. Life is not necessarily black and white, solutions not always found and relationships not always as we want them to be, and so we are reminded.