Friday 15 December 2017

Book Review: Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie.


Book: Home Fire

Author: Kamila Shamsie

Pages: 272

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Read On: Hardback

How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days

Plot Summary: Isma is free. After years spent raising her twin siblings in the wake of their mother's death, she is finally studying in America, resuming a dream long deferred. But she can't stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London – or their brother, Parvaiz, who's disappeared in pursuit of his own dream: to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew.

Then Eamonn enters the sisters' lives. Handsome and privileged, he inhabits a London worlds away from theirs. As the son of a powerful British Muslim politician, Eamonn has his own birthright to live up to – or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz's salvation? Two families' fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined in this searing novel that asks: what sacrifices will we make in the name of love?

A contemporary reimagining of Sophocles' Antigone, Home Fire is an urgent, fiercely compelling story of loyalties torn apart when love and politics collide 



General Thoughts: This was my third Shamsie and I am fan of her writing and the stories she tells. This book came with a lot of good reviews and a lot of award buzz. I picked it up and started reading it pretty much immediately.

Things I Liked:

1. It is always a pleasure to read Shamsie's writing. She builds her world and the characters in them spectacularly well. Her voice and style are both wonderful.

2. This book is essentially a closer look at being Muslim in the western world. The struggle of balancing your faith and attempting to blend in the western world comes across as genuine and real at all times. It shows with painstaking clarity the struggles of being Muslim and being under scrutiny at all times. This is something that makes you pause and think, I love when books do that.

3. I also loved reading about the aftermath of having a close family member join ranks of a terrorist organisation. Here the three siblings deal with their father being not only an absentee father but also a known terrorist. Each sibling has a reaction to this and in it's own way this affects them and their lives. Later on when Parvaiz goes off and joins ISIS, the sisters are left to pick up the pieces of their lives once again. This made for a compelling read and showed up the other side, the side often ignored in News stories.

4. The way in which these terrorist groups go about recruiting people is so manipulative and calculating. Parvaiz's recruitment into ISIS was shown so well and I think more people should read this book just to understand and learn about their underhanded ways.

5. The two kinds of Muslims in this book were contrasted wonderfully. There are the three siblings who live in the UK but are fairly rooted to their traditions and culture. On the other hand we Eamonn and his family, particularly his ambitious politician father, who has all but cut ties from his Pakistani roots. It was interesting to see how two families from similar backgrounds can adapt so differently to their new homes.

6. I really enjoyed getting to know Aneeka and Eamonn and even their little romance. Aneeka especially was very well developed and imagined character, as was Eamonn- I particularly enjoyed reading about his growth and change in perspective as the novel progresses, he really evolves as the novel reaches it's conclusion.

7. Parvaiz's life in Syria and even this journey to Syria and the almost immediate disdain for that life was another aspect of the book I really enjoyed, it was fraught with tension but still made for some of my best moments of this book.

8. This book was so current in so many ways. Apart from addressing the much needed issue of ISIS, this book also talks about social media and how it reacts to News stories and how people are often attacked and torn down once they become headline news. The trolls, the haters and the armchair activists everyone jumps on the object of their ire.

Things I Didn't Like:

1. I would have liked to see more of Isma in this book. She appears all too briefly in the very beginning of the novel and then is a mere secondary character in the book. I really liked her and wished she had a more prominent role in the book.

2. I think the ending, while impactful was a little too...out there? A bit much? Far fetched?

3. Eamonn does grow and change this perspective towards certain things throughout this novel and while some of it could be attributed to his relationship with Aneeka and of course, relationships change you, but some of his actions and his total and complete change was a bit much.

4. I felt that the author wanted us to not like Eamonn's father and he was supposed to be a bit of a shrew but I think any parent would want steer their child clear of anything to do with ISIS. I don't think there is anything wrong with it and people judging him harshly on that is being a bit hypocritical. I can't think of any parent, Muslim or otherwise, politician or not, who'd be OK with their son dating the daughter of a known terrorist and a sister of an ISIS terrorist. I mean, seriously come on!

5. Aneeka and Eamonn's love story was a little bit rushed, almost bordering on the dreaded 'instal-love'.

6. While I get that Aneeka loved her twin brother and wanted to help him in any which way and would stop at nothing to bring him back home. But it was very naive of her to expect that Parvaiz will come back home and go back to normal life with minimal fuss. I mean he went to join ISIS!!! He won't be welcomed back with open arms!
I was a little conflicted by the last 30 pages of this book. Both sisters wanted Parvaiz back home and were willing to fight the government and public opinion on the matter. You might know and love your  brother and know that he made a terrible mistake by joining the ISIS and he wanted out and didn't harbour any terrorist views but it is silly to expect the general public and lawmakers to feel the same way.

Rating: 3.5/5

I did enjoy this book overall and I do recommend it. It isn't a perfect book but it is a book I enjoyed reading and I do recommend it.



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