Book: Moth Smoke
Author: Mohsin Hamid
Genre: crime fiction, thriller, romance
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Characters:
Ozi aka Aurangzaib: a young rich recently married guy who moves from Newyork to
settle in Lahore Pakistan
Daru: Ozi’s childhood best friend, a banker who recently got fired from his job
Mumtaz: Ozi’s wife, a Newyork party girl
Badshah: An anarchist, drug peddler, rickshaw driver, robber
Plot:
The plot loosely revolves around the corruption of the main character Daru, he
starts out as a respectable banker, then a heroin addict, and a drug peddler. The
lives of three main characters Ozi, Mumtaz and Daru overlaps and creates a
memorable, disturbing, and startlingly original story.
My thoughts:
Wow, where to start. Would you believe me, if I told you that I finished this
novel in two days?
When I first picked up this book, I thought it was a common love triangle story
but it turned out to be something completely different and quite remarkable.
Daru the main character is somewhat an anti-hero, actually, he is neither a
hero nor an anti-hero, he is stuck somewhere between. He is gray, neither white
nor black. The beauty of this story is that there is not a single good
character in this novel. All characters are terrible. All characters are
selfish and brutal.
I have been seeing this kind of thing in literature for a while, I mean look at
‘Gone girl’, a story of villains, or ’The silent patient’, or ‘The girl on the
train’. Stories filled with villains.
Cheating partners, casual sex, drugs.
The time for heroes has passed. It’s time for anti-heroes. The moral corruption
of our society has seeped into our literature. There are no good people anymore
just people worse than other people. Strange merit to measure goodness?
‘Moth smoke’ paints a picture of Lahore I have never seen before, of high
profile parties and expensive branded alcohol. Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind
a drink every then and now. But the picture seemed unrealistic to me maybe
because I am never been part of such high profile society.
Or maybe Mohsin is seeing Lahore through the eyes of a Newyorker. Is his story
an escape to New York's nightlife? But then again the rich have their Newyork
right here in Lahore.
The rest of the book is convincing. In fact stories worse than this are
happening in our cities. Which makes the book more believable.
Mohsin wrote his story beautifully, it gets better in later chapters;
especially POVs of Mumtaz and Ozi are pure class.
Personally, I think Ozi is the worst character because Mumtaz and Daru at least
have some remorse or regret for their actions but Ozi has none, he is an
entitled bastard. Another thing is that Ozi wrong about his belief that Daru is
not a victim of the system. He is wrong. My argument is that Daru is indeed a
victim of a flawed system. A system (there are dialogues like this in the book)
in which a man is the slave of his birth. Your life is determined by your
social status and that’s why Daru is the main character because 99 percent of
us can relate to his plight. Daru could have simply been Ozi if he had been
born in a different household.
Didn’t it strike a nerve when Daru said although he had top grades his wealthy
friends went abroad for studies and he couldn’t?
The Other thing is the Bulllshit argument Ozi tries to make for his father’s
corruption, what an AH.
There are some weak points related to the characters' hate for air
conditioning. Mohsin tries very hard to convince us. The question is how can
Daru blame air conditioning for his mother’s demise when he can blame bullets
or air firing? The argument for Mumtaz's hate for air-conditioning is as thin
as an eggshell.
The rest of the book is good. A good light un-put-downable thriller.
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