The Cloud Messenger

by Aamer Hussein

Like his parents, he too spent many hours sending cloud messages to other places, messages of longing for something that he knew existed otherwhere.

London, that distant rainy place his father lived in once, is where Mehran finds himself after leaving Karachi in his teens. And it is there that his adult life unfolds: he discovers the joys of poetry, faces the trials of love and work, and spends his dreaming hours "sending cloud messages to other places," hoping, one day, to tell his own story.

A feeling of not quite belonging anywhere pursues Mehran as he travels to Italy, India, and Pakistan. But the relationships he forms—with wounded, passionate Marvi, volatile Marco, and the enigmatic Riccarda—and his power of recollection finally bring him some sense, however fleeting, of home.

Aamer Hussein was born in Karachi in 1955 and moved to London in his teens. He lectures at the University of Southampton and the Institute of English Studies and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His novella Another Gulmohar Tree was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Europe and South Asia 2010.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Poetry, Pakistan, India

203 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Aamer Hussein was born in Karachi in 1955 and moved to London in 1970 for further education after a year at boarding school in India. He has a degree in Urdu, Persian and South Asian studies from SOAS, and later studied French, philosophy and psychology. He began publishing fiction in the 1980s in journals and anthologies. His first collection of stories, Mirror to the Sun, appeared in 1993, to be followed by This Other Salt, Turquoise, Cactus Town, and Insomnia. He has also published a novella, Another Gulmohar Tree (2009) and a novel, The Cloud Messenger (2011). His stories have been translated into many languages, including Italian, Arabic and Japanese. In 2012, he contributed four original stories and a memoir in Urdu to the Karachi journal Dunyazad. Hussein, who is also an essayist and critic, is Professorial Writing Fellow in the Department of English and Humanities at the University of Southampton, and a Senior Fellow of the Institute of English Studies at London University.

Reviews

[Manahil Huda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book when I was 18 or 19. And since then, it has stayed as my companion, as my best friend. Coincidentally, it is one of those very few books that I never purchased. Just like a cloud messenger, it came floating to me, passed from one friend to the other.

It is the story of Mehran, his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. It is the story of belonging everywhere and nowhere at once. It is a story of the cities, seasons and people one comes across throughout their lifetime. It is also the story of fleeting and/or long-lasting relationships made with those cities, those seasons and those people. It is a story that celebrates the love of language, of Persian, of Urdu, of Italian. It also celebrates the nuances of these languages.

This book has been with me everywhere since I acquired it. All the cities I have lived in since then: Islamabad, Ankara, Karachi, Milan. It has also been with me everywhere I have travelled: Skardu, Istanbul, Fez, Lake Como, Bologna, the list goes on. I ask myself, why do I take it everywhere with me? Why do I like to read it especially when I am travelling?

‘I spend my life longing for the place I’m not in, but when I go back I never fit,’ she laments. (pp. 122)

After almost 10 years of reading and re-reading it, I think I have finally found the answer. I see myself in the book. I have very rarely come across any author who describes so poetically and subtly the passing of time and the melancholia of searching for a place and people with whom you belong, searching for your roots and for your foliage. When I read the Cloud Messenger, it helps me find myself again. It helps me realise that the search for many answers is what certain lives can be about. The fleeting quality of time and relationships is so aptly captured in this book that even after years of re-reading it, the words still move me deeply. Like Mehran, I am a nomad. Just like Mehran, I have been moving about with family (when younger) and then of my own vocation as well. This book is important to me, because it has become my anchor. Many phrases in this book remind me of what I have left behind, what I have right now. It helps me make peace with the cities I miss, the loss of friendships, and with the uncertainty of the future.

‘I too, want to send such messages home on the back of a rain cloud […] But I have nowhere to send my messages to: only the rainless place in which I am a stranger now. I too have built myself a net of words and images in lieu of a home. Other people’s words. And sometimes I imagine myself escaping that net: rising as vapour and then dissolving and dripping away, drop by drop, to become not the exile who sends the messages, but the cloud that carries them, to rain down my belongings on the dry, dry earth of my past, the land I left behind.’ (pp. 137-138)

The Cloud Messenger, as a book, has many qualities of a cloud. It passes through time, floating through various geographies, and various seasons. It could be a white cloud next to a bright blue sunny sky, or a dark cloud pouring away its contents. It is beautiful prose, the descriptions of various places stir fond, soft memories (both visual and tangible) of the cities I have lived in.

[Slawka Scarso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the Italian translation. I'm usually very interested in stories of migration but this book was just not engaging enough. I've often thought about identity in a mixed family, as this is my case too, but despite the closeness to the topic, everything was so distant, every character.

[Eleanor]

It bothers me when authors lace a text with metaphorical language that doesn't shed light on the story or characters themselves. Guess what the motif in "The Cloud Messenger" is? You guessed it: clouds. Honestly, clouds are about as difficult a metaphor to pull off as shadows or footprints: so easy they risk being only cliche'.

What makes me curious, still, is the author's note at the end: these are scenes from a life he could have led -- paths he could have taken. That's interesting! And perhaps that's why the book reads a bit like a dictation the author made of scenes he imagined. Unfortunately, though, the choppy year-to-year style made me feel shortchanged: what, you're only giving us the highlights? And, quite honestly, it feels a bit lazy. The author lingers in the main character's younger years, then uses years as titles in order to jump ahead in the story. We are supposed to believe what we're told about the characters, and still feel for them, despite the lack of continuity. These are not flash forwards; the whole plot surges ahead, leaving huge gaps. As a result, the story feels quickly told, not leaving enough time or space for the reader to grow to care about the characters beyond a surface interest in them.

I still don't understand what the idea of "cloud messenger" has to do with Mehran, the main character, or his friends.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book through the Goodreads First Reads program, so I was pretty excited for my first free book to review! I expected this book to be like The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, which I enjoyed. However, I found it confusing and without enough details for me to get interested in the storyline. The book follows the life of one man, from childhood through adulthood, but only certain excerpts of each year are given. I found myself getting confused with the geography mentioned in the story, first of all. The story was supposed to be about the relationships of the main character, but I wasn't very interested in them, especially since I wasn't really following the plot very well. I didn't develop any empathy for the main character or see very well how the pieces of his life fit together. Also, there were many cultural and literary references (particular to India/Pakistan) that went completely over my head. Overall, it was a short novel that could have been interesting but was missing too many pieces to draw me in.

[anaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

beautiful language.

not much of a plot, which I don’t usually mind. but… if you’re gonna call a partial autobiography fiction, you have to edit. Tina. Ghosting 17-year-old girlfriend. Breaking his hip?? All Marco’s love interests. And more

the themes were inconsistent and the things he moaned most about (i.e. no lasting relationships) DIDNT WORK!!!! yes he’s lonely but people don’t flit in and out of his life like he talked about sooooo much. this man has adult relationships and friendships that last for years and years across different settings, but claims he can’t hold more than two days of conversation.

Final takeaway: LOVE MILFS

[Rebecca Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book enveloped me like the soft wave of an incoming tide. For a while I was submerged and comforted by the depth of the protagonist. I surfaced with a sense of feeling cleansed from all that is extraneous.

[Lora Osborn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, the “Cloud Messenger” is abysmal and mundane. It reminds me of the much-acclaimed movie “The History of Violence” that was released a few years ago. You continue to watch (or read, in this case) because you are confident that something is going to happen because there surely can’t be a storyline that is that dull. But of course, once you reach the end, you are mad at yourself for even making it that far – since nothing has happened of importance. Perhaps if you are intrigued by slow storylines filled with random events, this may be the book for you.

Read my full review at www.crazybookreviews.com!

[Audrey Arnold · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book as a giveaway through Goodreads. It was hard to get into this book at first but the author has such a poetic way of writing that I pushed through to the end. It's a nice story that reads like a drifters memoirs. Though well educated the main character travels around and lives a bohemian lifestyle which made it interesting but again it was the writing style that got me through and made it worth reading.

[Ming · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing is at times beautiful. But the general feel of the book is depressing and has a disjointed effect. While a chronological scheme is there, it lacks some overarching drive or momentum (and needs some more complete resolution). I just finished the book and I feel like I'm dangling and somewhat unsatisfied.

[Chinmoy Bordoloi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never knew that words can intoxicate you. But this book does it and does it in style. The bittersweet memories of the lost world, lost dreams and missed opportunities............. the loneliness of a man and the unquenchable thirst for something undefined...... and yet, contentment.

[Varsha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was confused about the story or message the book was trying desperately to convey.
Whats in it to be called “the cloud messenger“?
A series of connecting random things to rain doesnt really mean it is relating to title.
Not my kind of book.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like Mehran, the main character, so although there were some good bits (mainly the early part about his childhood) the book didn't really work for me.

[Sasha Strader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really had high hopes for this book but it was...random. Sort of like reading the rantings of an Alzheimer's patient with a poetic bend.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to relate to if you don't know much about Arabian poetry or literature which is the most common topic iirc.

[Anna Sternberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book, full of longing and sadness. Haunting and the writing is beautiful and poignant.

[Alka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Vague. Moving between Karachi, Indore, London. Didn't find it engaging.