JAMEELA IN A JAM

Jameela Green Ruins Everything by Zarqa Nawaz, Simon & Schuster, $24.99. Zarqa Nawaz gathered a huge fan following with Little Mosque on the Prairie, the delightful and insightful television show she created.

She’s back with a book that’s a dark comedy as much as it’s a touching story of one woman’s search for her place in the universe.

As a kid, Jameela was “forced to wear pants under her dresses, and any hairstyle besides pigtails was deemed too alluring. If Anne of Green Gables had been brown, with a unibrow and a mustache, Jameela would have been her doppelganger”.

As an adult, she has only one wish: To see her memoir on the New York Times bestseller list. When her dream doesn’t come true, she seeks spiritual guidance at her local mosque.

New imam and recent immigrant Ibrahim Sultan agrees to assist her on the condition that she perform a good deed.

Jameela appeals for divine intervention. “You are God. You can do anything. You can make my book a bestseller without me having to save a homeless person.”

When that doesn’t seem to be working, she reluctantly agrees and sets off with Imam Ibrahim for a local park to get the good deed done. Which sets off an absurd and unfortunate chain of events. The imam goes missing and convinced that the CIA has captured him for interrogation via torture, she embarks on a one-woman rescue mission.

The imam, meanwhile, is also praying for divine intervention.

“My Lord, I think I am in trouble. I have not sinned,, but in this country, if you are a Muslim, you do not have to sin to be in trouble... I could handle waterboarding, though. My brothers would do that to me at home when they wanted to play Cops and Americans. I have learned how to concentrate underwater as a result.”

Little details flesh out each character.

Like Jameela’s mother, for instance, whose preferred form of addressing Jameela’s husband Murray is “You Idiot”. As in “I was just about to tell you that, You Idiot”.

And her daughter Maleeha, otherwise known as Lee Lee. Lee Lee had no idea what the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours would hold, but at least she wouldn’t have to take her physics exam.

“To write a satire about Muslims, terrorism, and ISIS was not easy or necessarily advisable,” Nawaz admits in her author’s note. “But I am an optimistic person and believe in the goodness of humanity. And writing through the prism of faith helped a lot.”

 WHAT PLAGUES US

Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk, Alfred A. Knopf, $32.50. Set more than a hundred years ago, it’s part detective story, part historical epic, about a plague taking over the fictional island of Mingheria, in the eastern Mediterranean between Crete and Cyprus.

Half the population is Muslim, the other half is Orthodox Greek. And tension is high between the two when a plague arrives, brought either by Muslim pilgrims returning from Mecca or merchant vessels coming from Alexandria. The Ottoman sultan sends his trusted quarantine expert, an Orthodox Christian, to the island. People revolt. A murder happens. And the plague continues its rapid spread. The quarantine measures get stricter. The administration’s incompetence is all too apparent. Mingherians are on their own. The theme feels remarkably contemporary, and Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, keeps the storyline taut. Did they manage to conquer the plague? Have we vanquished our own modern version of the pandemic? Instructive and interconnected. 

LIFE LESSONS

Life Interrupted, Dr Dua’s Survival Guide by Dr Manu Dua, Laurel Elite Books. Dr. Manu Dua was a young dentist, owner of his own practice in Calgary.

His sister, Dr Parul Dua Makkar, describes him as a giving soul; someone who volunteered on mission trips to far away places. In 2019, he was diagnosed with oral cancer of the tongue. As he battled the disease that was ravaging his body, he also fought to keep his positive approach to life intact. Through painful treatments and the highs and lows of remission and relapse, he maintained a blog.

Filled with wisdom not often witnessed in one so young, the writing displays a keen understanding of what and who truly matter.

He begins with saying that “the irony in all of this is that as a dentist, I had the fortune and misfortune of finding my own oral cancer on two separate occasions”.

Below are his thoughts on a variety of topics.

On hope: “Hope is a tool we use to emotionally and mentally live to fight another day. I realized so long as my mind could endure, the body would follow.”

On fear: “What happens when we realize we spent so much of our time worrying about little adverse outcomes that are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, and how different our lives would be if we had just captured some of that energy to move past these fears and progress in our endeavours? It occurred to me that it was not necessary to endure such pain and trauma to learn the simple concept that life is precious.”

On parents: “They are often either embarrassed by their own difficulties, or choose not to tarnish your version of your childhood with inconvenient truths about the actual realities they faced. It is in these glossed over or unspoken realities that we can find infinite wisdom... I would ask, regardless of age, that the next time they lecture you on life, maybe, just maybe, instead of rolling your eyes, perhaps take out a pen and paper, as it might save your hide some day.”

On finding internal peace: “We are all constructs of our own self-importance... Often the same mind that would criticize me for mistakes made and opportunities lost became my most compassionate friend and advocate for inner peace. In a sense, I forgave myself for mistakes past, present and future.

Included are the sweetest family photographs of the siblings,

A brother’s loss is devastating. In the foreword to the book she helped bring to fruition, Parul Dua Makkar describes the day she lost her brother and was “left with the shells of her parents”. “Time heals, and I try to give myself that time; time to let go of him but not his memories.”

Live and learn, we use the expression so casually.

The poignancy in this account stems from the awareness that Manu Dua didn’t get to do that. That he’s leaving behind the lessons he gleaned from a brief life for others to benefit from.

• Parul Dua’s tribute to her brother in the August 2022 issue of Desi News can be viewed online.

SHATTERED DREAMS

House of Glass Hearts by Leila Siddiqui, Yali Books, USD 13.99. The past casts a long shadow in Maera’s life. Ten years ago, her brother disappeared from a rooftop while on a family visit to Karachi.

Her heartbroken parents’ marriage didn’t survive the loss and now, she is confronted by an apparition that only she and her young friends can see but which is invisible to the adults. Blending the experience of a modern teen from an immigrant family in America with myths and lesser-known WWII history, Leila Siddiqui presents an exciting read for young adults.

THE SECRETS THAT BIND

What a Happy Family by Saumya Dave, Berkley, $22. Saumya Dave (Well-Behaved Indian Women) returns with another nuanced tale about families.

From the outside, the Joshi family is living the immigrant dream in suburban Atlanta. The parents are successful and pillars of the society and their adult offspring are all on their way to achieving their own dreams.

Until family secrets spill out following a scandal and old relationships start to unravel. As they encounter public humiliation, gossiping aunties and self-doubt, the Joshis must rely on one another like never before.

IMAGINE THAT!

Marie Curie by Nell Walker, illustrated by Charlotte Ager, DK Life Stories, $24.99. Marie Curie discovered two radioactive elements and won the Nobel Prize two times, but had to study at a secret university. Her fascinating and inspiring story comes alive with facts, photographs and illustrations.

TEEN REVIEW

By HARMAN KAUR

The Strangers by Katherena Vermette, Penguin Random House, $22. This is a journey of four Indigenous women in a family. Cedar is forced to live with her unloving father after being tossed around foster homes. Her sister  Phoenix is living with strangers after serving time in a detention centre and giving birth to her son. And her mother Elsie is an addict living with her mother Margaret in a care facility. The struggles and the pain in these women’s hearts is what makes them strangers.

The theme of intergenerational trauma runs through the book. Phoenix’s child is abandoned immediately after birth. This mirrors her traumatization when she and her sister were taken away from their mother. Elsie was also detached from her mother due to loosened connections.

The book does an exemplary job of providing connection to real-life experiences of Indigeous people.  It sparked anger inside of me with every page. How can the Canadian government be so heartless?

It was disheartening to read about the lives of Indigenous women. The story unveils prejudice against Indigenous women and how ruthlessly they were treated. I recommend this book to youth and young adults to enlighten themselves on the experiences of the Indigenous community. I rate this book 9/10. 

• Harman Kaur is a youth volunteer at Brampton Library.