What do you think?
Rate this book
Are You Enjoying?
An exhilarating debut by a young writer from Pakistan: provocative, funny, disarmingly original stories that upend traditional notions of identity and family, and peer into the vulnerable workings of the human heart .
From the high-stakes worlds of television and politics to the intimate corridors of home–including the bedroom – these wryly observed, deeply revealing stories look at life in Pakistan with humor, compassion, psychological acuity, and emotional immediacy. Childhood best friends agree to marry in order to keep their sexuality a secret. A young woman with an anxiety disorder discovers the numbing pleasures of an illicit love affair. A radicalized student’s preparations for his sister’s wedding involve beating up the groom. An actress is forced to grow up fast on the set of her first major TV show, where the real intrigue takes place off-screen. Every story bears witness to the all-too-universal desire to be loved, and what happens when this longing gets pushed to its limits. Are You Enjoying? is a free-spirited, confident, indelible introduction to a galvanizing new talent.
From the high-stakes worlds of television and politics to the intimate corridors of home–including the bedroom – these wryly observed, deeply revealing stories look at life in Pakistan with humor, compassion, psychological acuity, and emotional immediacy. Childhood best friends agree to marry in order to keep their sexuality a secret. A young woman with an anxiety disorder discovers the numbing pleasures of an illicit love affair. A radicalized student’s preparations for his sister’s wedding involve beating up the groom. An actress is forced to grow up fast on the set of her first major TV show, where the real intrigue takes place off-screen. Every story bears witness to the all-too-universal desire to be loved, and what happens when this longing gets pushed to its limits. Are You Enjoying? is a free-spirited, confident, indelible introduction to a galvanizing new talent.
194 pages, Hardcover
First published April 20, 2021
98 people are currently reading
4163 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 206 reviews
Read
January 30, 2021Beautifully delicious short stories that take place in Pakistan. The stories are emotional and gutting- yet balanced with humour. The diction and adjectives is what really surprised me. Mira doesn't try to sugarcoat with fluffy metaphors or make things beautiful. She shows us the truth. She shows us how ugly we are in the privacy of our own homes, when no one is looking. This was perhaps my favourite part of this book. I really couldn't pick which story was my favourite- because each story had such strong characters I truly felt for.
June 8, 2021
That title really wasn’t properly thought out, because if you aren’t enjoying this short story compilation (which I most certainly was not), the answer becomes sort of funny. Unfortunately, there are only so many times you can be amused at how atrocious the content within the book is before you want to just fling it far away from yourself, a feeling that routinely accompanies my reading experience with books such as these.
The problem with pretty much every story in the compilation was that they were so pointless. So, so very unnecessary. If you don’t read these stories, you will have missed absolutely nothing of importance. There is such little value addition to a reader’s enjoyment or even knowledge within these pages that it’s fascinating the stories ever made it past an editor’s red pen. Chunky writing, really weird dialogues, and endings that come unexpectedly: almost everything was particularly designed to infuriate me. I’ve said before that I don’t care for short stories, but a fair few of the ones I’ve recently read have taught me that, if well written, I can be comfortingly entertained. Over here, all I had were horrible flashbacks to Daniyal Mueenuddin’s short story compilation, an experience I could have done without repeating. In fact, it wouldn’t be a far stretch to say that Sethi’s stories are the weaker, more boring version of Mueenuddin’s work. Like Mueenuddin, Sethi focuses either on the super rich, with their drinking problems and casual adultery, or on the poor with their supreme lack of morals and corrupt ambitions. Characters overlap between stories, and both privilege and fraud are flaunted in an almost bizarre manner.
“Drink?” She elbows me in the ribs.
“Is that even a question,” I mumble.
Honestly, I would not be surprised if Daniyal Mueenuddin and Mira Sethi were friends or belonged to the same social circle, because they have the eerily similar vibes of the well-travelled and the delusional. Both their works include the type of pretentious, snooty writing that people of a certain elite circle seem to relate to, writing that people who have no sense of the country read and then pat themselves on the back for having read ‘diverse literature’. This is the kind of literature that wins prestigious awards, which you then force yourself to read and wonder what exactly the award was based on. One only needs to check the blurb of this title to see what I mean, because trust me, none of the adjectives used in that description fit any of the stories. This might be one of those cases where I can honestly, in as bewildered a manner as possible, ask whether the blurb writer and I read the same stuff.
Take, for example, the really weird descriptions of body parts, or the almost creepy obsession with breasts in the first story, Mini Apples. Focusing on a Pakistani man’s affair with a foreigner, the story started and ended with a short-lived fling that lead nowhere and ended in as vague a manner as possible. Was there something subliminal that I didn’t understand? Was there subtext that will only be visible if a professor teaches this in class? What were the multiple and mostly random references to breasts supposed to even mean?
Her feet were bare and her T-shirt dug a sharp V into the surf of her breasts.
The thought of her walking around in her cotton tunic, her breasts safe and fragrant, steadied him.
He buried his face in her chest, scented like cake.
I’m not even sure how to properly analyse some of the stories, parts of them were so arbitrary. A part of me was convinced at the beginning that a smarter editor could have maybe saved these stories, but eventually I faced the fact that the writing was too disastrous to be worth saving. Additionally, the pandering to a Western audience was staggering and mostly mortifying, in the sense that you want to look away, pretending you’re not in the room so that you don’t have to suffer from second-hand embarrassment as someone fawns over the gora in the room.
Soni was newly startled, every time, by how her English acquaintances exuded warmth iced with formality, even when they were happy. These were good people who worked hard, stuck to plans, who spoke gently of life.
Some of my favourite things-to-hate also reared their head, such as casual misogyny, of the sort where a woman’s makeup being too thick is sneered at, as an indication that this is the antagonist of the story and worthy of our censure.
Huma’s lips were overdrawn with maroon pencil…
And of course, no compilation by a Pakistani author published abroad can be complete without the addition of my particular pet peeve: the italicization of the desi word. This, coupled with the horrible spelling of actual desi words, such as ‘mamoun’, led me to moments where I was seconds away from flinging the book away from me as far as it would go. This was made worse by the fact that the random words would be italicized, and others just casually left alone. In one particularly disastrous sentence, a complete list of food items included a few arbitrarily italicized ones, while others were presented in their full English glory. What is the method being followed here? Either translate all the words, or leave all of them untranslated? Makes absolutely no sense.
In the reception room ZB’s choice of food had the easy look of a fatty rural feast: chicken cooked in its own brother; saag paneer with corn roti, mutton kebabs off the spit, rice garnished with cilantro; Kabuli chickpeas and egg stew…
Absolute disaster. Out of 7 stories, I couldn’t count even a single one as worth recommending. The characters were boring, the endings weak, and the writing terrible. Even the last story, which lends its name to the book’s title and should have supposedly been the saving grace of the whole endeavour, fails massively. On a personal note, I don’t care much for adultery as a sin, and found it hard to care for the heroine of the last story, the mistress to a married man’s extramarital behaviour. Of all the flaws that I manage to defend, and I can defend quite a fair few (all humans are flawed, all situations are contextual, sometimes a little empathy is needed, so on and so forth), adultery is the one I find the hardest to justify, because it speaks of such a pointed cruelty, such a needless malice towards the unsuspecting spouse in the weakening relationship. I don’t care much for it, or for characters who dabble in it, and usually need a healthy dose of carefully cultivated nuance to be able to get behind such a narrative. It was inevitable then, on the backs of the multiple boring stories I had read, that I would hate this last, feeble entry into the collection.
She understood, for the first time, her own pathetic ruse: rushing to thwart the relationship and gamely surrendering her demands the next moment. What good was it to step back and recognize the lunacy spilling from their interactions if she wouldn’t do anything about it?
Overall, a mostly weak collection with almost nothing worth writing home about. If someone had just written on the blurb ‘Read this if you liked Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders’, I could have done myself a favour and stayed far away from this. My one-word recommendation: Avoid.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: My god, what a pointless book. Review to come.
The problem with pretty much every story in the compilation was that they were so pointless. So, so very unnecessary. If you don’t read these stories, you will have missed absolutely nothing of importance. There is such little value addition to a reader’s enjoyment or even knowledge within these pages that it’s fascinating the stories ever made it past an editor’s red pen. Chunky writing, really weird dialogues, and endings that come unexpectedly: almost everything was particularly designed to infuriate me. I’ve said before that I don’t care for short stories, but a fair few of the ones I’ve recently read have taught me that, if well written, I can be comfortingly entertained. Over here, all I had were horrible flashbacks to Daniyal Mueenuddin’s short story compilation, an experience I could have done without repeating. In fact, it wouldn’t be a far stretch to say that Sethi’s stories are the weaker, more boring version of Mueenuddin’s work. Like Mueenuddin, Sethi focuses either on the super rich, with their drinking problems and casual adultery, or on the poor with their supreme lack of morals and corrupt ambitions. Characters overlap between stories, and both privilege and fraud are flaunted in an almost bizarre manner.
“Drink?” She elbows me in the ribs.
“Is that even a question,” I mumble.
Honestly, I would not be surprised if Daniyal Mueenuddin and Mira Sethi were friends or belonged to the same social circle, because they have the eerily similar vibes of the well-travelled and the delusional. Both their works include the type of pretentious, snooty writing that people of a certain elite circle seem to relate to, writing that people who have no sense of the country read and then pat themselves on the back for having read ‘diverse literature’. This is the kind of literature that wins prestigious awards, which you then force yourself to read and wonder what exactly the award was based on. One only needs to check the blurb of this title to see what I mean, because trust me, none of the adjectives used in that description fit any of the stories. This might be one of those cases where I can honestly, in as bewildered a manner as possible, ask whether the blurb writer and I read the same stuff.
Take, for example, the really weird descriptions of body parts, or the almost creepy obsession with breasts in the first story, Mini Apples. Focusing on a Pakistani man’s affair with a foreigner, the story started and ended with a short-lived fling that lead nowhere and ended in as vague a manner as possible. Was there something subliminal that I didn’t understand? Was there subtext that will only be visible if a professor teaches this in class? What were the multiple and mostly random references to breasts supposed to even mean?
Her feet were bare and her T-shirt dug a sharp V into the surf of her breasts.
The thought of her walking around in her cotton tunic, her breasts safe and fragrant, steadied him.
He buried his face in her chest, scented like cake.
I’m not even sure how to properly analyse some of the stories, parts of them were so arbitrary. A part of me was convinced at the beginning that a smarter editor could have maybe saved these stories, but eventually I faced the fact that the writing was too disastrous to be worth saving. Additionally, the pandering to a Western audience was staggering and mostly mortifying, in the sense that you want to look away, pretending you’re not in the room so that you don’t have to suffer from second-hand embarrassment as someone fawns over the gora in the room.
Soni was newly startled, every time, by how her English acquaintances exuded warmth iced with formality, even when they were happy. These were good people who worked hard, stuck to plans, who spoke gently of life.
Some of my favourite things-to-hate also reared their head, such as casual misogyny, of the sort where a woman’s makeup being too thick is sneered at, as an indication that this is the antagonist of the story and worthy of our censure.
Huma’s lips were overdrawn with maroon pencil…
And of course, no compilation by a Pakistani author published abroad can be complete without the addition of my particular pet peeve: the italicization of the desi word. This, coupled with the horrible spelling of actual desi words, such as ‘mamoun’, led me to moments where I was seconds away from flinging the book away from me as far as it would go. This was made worse by the fact that the random words would be italicized, and others just casually left alone. In one particularly disastrous sentence, a complete list of food items included a few arbitrarily italicized ones, while others were presented in their full English glory. What is the method being followed here? Either translate all the words, or leave all of them untranslated? Makes absolutely no sense.
In the reception room ZB’s choice of food had the easy look of a fatty rural feast: chicken cooked in its own brother; saag paneer with corn roti, mutton kebabs off the spit, rice garnished with cilantro; Kabuli chickpeas and egg stew…
Absolute disaster. Out of 7 stories, I couldn’t count even a single one as worth recommending. The characters were boring, the endings weak, and the writing terrible. Even the last story, which lends its name to the book’s title and should have supposedly been the saving grace of the whole endeavour, fails massively. On a personal note, I don’t care much for adultery as a sin, and found it hard to care for the heroine of the last story, the mistress to a married man’s extramarital behaviour. Of all the flaws that I manage to defend, and I can defend quite a fair few (all humans are flawed, all situations are contextual, sometimes a little empathy is needed, so on and so forth), adultery is the one I find the hardest to justify, because it speaks of such a pointed cruelty, such a needless malice towards the unsuspecting spouse in the weakening relationship. I don’t care much for it, or for characters who dabble in it, and usually need a healthy dose of carefully cultivated nuance to be able to get behind such a narrative. It was inevitable then, on the backs of the multiple boring stories I had read, that I would hate this last, feeble entry into the collection.
She understood, for the first time, her own pathetic ruse: rushing to thwart the relationship and gamely surrendering her demands the next moment. What good was it to step back and recognize the lunacy spilling from their interactions if she wouldn’t do anything about it?
Overall, a mostly weak collection with almost nothing worth writing home about. If someone had just written on the blurb ‘Read this if you liked Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders’, I could have done myself a favour and stayed far away from this. My one-word recommendation: Avoid.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: My god, what a pointless book. Review to come.
August 27, 2021
| | blog | tumblr | ko-fi | |
Are You Enjoying? reads very much like a debut. While I appreciated the themes Mira Sethi explored in these seven stories, the writing definitely detracted from my overall reading experiences. As collections of short stories go this is a rather forgettable and conventional one.
The setting (Pakistan) and ideas behind each story had potential, for example, in the first one, 'Mini Apple', a TV presenter has a 'dalliance' with an American woman, who works at the American embassy. While their dynamic had that certain something, the storyline doesn't do much with it. The second one has very strong #metoo vibes as we follow an aspiring actress who has just landed a good role and catches the attention of the film's tyrannical director. In another story Sethi writes of a young student who finds purpose after he joins an extremist group. Many of these stories examine topical and interesting topics but Sethi's execution left much to be desired. The last story in particular, which happens to be the one this collection is titled after, struck me as being a rather lacklustre and superficial take on a toxic relationship.
Much of the phrases (“if you look closely, most women have restless eyes”) and imagery in these stories was clichéd (“he spat on the ground: a spray of blood soured in the dust”). The dialogue was clunky so much so that it made the characters seem unrealistic. We have a young man who works in the film industry say that after he uploaded a photo of himself without a shirt “lots of 'like' came. Then I was relaxed.” and “So many comments coming on my page”. Something about the way he phrased this didn't really 'flow' (I am aware that others can and will think differently). In another story we get the director characters telling an actress that he “groom” her (surely he would use another word). And then later one we get a story in which a man says the following thing: “Your butt, it's not a Kardashian yoga ball. It's just a cute bubble”....what the feck is that even supposed to mean?
I also abhorred most of the author's descriptions, which struck me as either 'trying' or nonsensical:
“Sex with Asher was liquid, hard, dissolving” , “The gray in Asher's hair became a mischievous afterthought, like a snaggletooth on a beautiful woman” , “my face flushes red, flushes blue” (what is she, an ambulance?) , “her legs were smooth, as if rubbed with light”, “mopping kabab crumbs from his mouth with the coarse pink tissue wrapped around a bottle of Pepsi” (this unnecessary detail detracted from the actual scene), a “whistle” bounces from someone's nose, “a brief dip in her wrist sprang into a mound of arm” (wtf?), and last but not least, “her collarbones were so deep they could rock a baby to sleep” (I assume here the collarbones are actually prominent given that the woman in discussion was skinny....).
Anyhow, just because this didn't work for me does not mean you should not give it a try. I recommend you check out some more positive reviews before making up you mind.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Are You Enjoying? reads very much like a debut. While I appreciated the themes Mira Sethi explored in these seven stories, the writing definitely detracted from my overall reading experiences. As collections of short stories go this is a rather forgettable and conventional one.
The setting (Pakistan) and ideas behind each story had potential, for example, in the first one, 'Mini Apple', a TV presenter has a 'dalliance' with an American woman, who works at the American embassy. While their dynamic had that certain something, the storyline doesn't do much with it. The second one has very strong #metoo vibes as we follow an aspiring actress who has just landed a good role and catches the attention of the film's tyrannical director. In another story Sethi writes of a young student who finds purpose after he joins an extremist group. Many of these stories examine topical and interesting topics but Sethi's execution left much to be desired. The last story in particular, which happens to be the one this collection is titled after, struck me as being a rather lacklustre and superficial take on a toxic relationship.
Much of the phrases (“if you look closely, most women have restless eyes”) and imagery in these stories was clichéd (“he spat on the ground: a spray of blood soured in the dust”). The dialogue was clunky so much so that it made the characters seem unrealistic. We have a young man who works in the film industry say that after he uploaded a photo of himself without a shirt “lots of 'like' came. Then I was relaxed.” and “So many comments coming on my page”. Something about the way he phrased this didn't really 'flow' (I am aware that others can and will think differently). In another story we get the director characters telling an actress that he “groom” her (surely he would use another word). And then later one we get a story in which a man says the following thing: “Your butt, it's not a Kardashian yoga ball. It's just a cute bubble”....what the feck is that even supposed to mean?
I also abhorred most of the author's descriptions, which struck me as either 'trying' or nonsensical:
“Sex with Asher was liquid, hard, dissolving” , “The gray in Asher's hair became a mischievous afterthought, like a snaggletooth on a beautiful woman” , “my face flushes red, flushes blue” (what is she, an ambulance?) , “her legs were smooth, as if rubbed with light”, “mopping kabab crumbs from his mouth with the coarse pink tissue wrapped around a bottle of Pepsi” (this unnecessary detail detracted from the actual scene), a “whistle” bounces from someone's nose, “a brief dip in her wrist sprang into a mound of arm” (wtf?), and last but not least, “her collarbones were so deep they could rock a baby to sleep” (I assume here the collarbones are actually prominent given that the woman in discussion was skinny....).
Anyhow, just because this didn't work for me does not mean you should not give it a try. I recommend you check out some more positive reviews before making up you mind.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
June 5, 2021
Are You Enjoying? By Mira Sethi is a book set in Pakistan about two childhood best friends who get married to hide their sexuality and keep it a secret from the rest of the world.
The book holds collection of short stories about a budding actress, who has to struggle her way up on the sets of a major TV show which will make or break her career.
While other and characters felt straight right flat to Me, only this actress storyline was good and felt true to the blurb mentioned. Others need a lot of depth in terms of character as well as plot. The story "Mini Apples" was definitely a bold start to the book.
I appreciate author writing about bold topics and bringing in the truth about the mentioned culture, but I felt the book needed more research. The book did not felt humourous to me at any point in time. The book does feel like it's a debut and I see more potential in coming books by the author.
2.5 stars
The book holds collection of short stories about a budding actress, who has to struggle her way up on the sets of a major TV show which will make or break her career.
While other and characters felt straight right flat to Me, only this actress storyline was good and felt true to the blurb mentioned. Others need a lot of depth in terms of character as well as plot. The story "Mini Apples" was definitely a bold start to the book.
I appreciate author writing about bold topics and bringing in the truth about the mentioned culture, but I felt the book needed more research. The book did not felt humourous to me at any point in time. The book does feel like it's a debut and I see more potential in coming books by the author.
2.5 stars
May 8, 2021
Someday elitist alien "exotic vs erotic" discourse will end. Someday indigenous sensoria will soar. Amen.
May 1, 2021
I must say, I really enjoyed. I was also constantly envious of Mira’s sharp observation, and the ability to give it words. This book captures a Pakistan I found much more relatable than a lot of other Pakistani writers of English fiction’s. Her largely upper class/elite characters could potentially have been alienating (as sometimes Hamid, Shamsie and Mueenuddin’s are), but the interiority and vividness of ZB, Asha, Nina, Farah and Soni transcends their class.
Stuff like popping Xanax on the daily, or opening a water bottle in front of your guests so they know the water is mineral, or a privileged feudal woman romanticising the Raj, struck a real cord in my Pakistani heart.
People like me can relate to the mundane abuse of pharmaceutical drugs in Pakistan more than they can to Moth Smoke-style partying, and I suspect people like me are in abundance in Pakistan and have always looked to English writers of fiction to give them something ‘relatable’ that doesn’t fixate on clandestine parties thrown by the rich. Interestingly, the one such party described in some detail in this book radiates an almost sinister vibe and makes our protagonist uncomfortable, a perspective that made me feel seen.
In the story ‘A Man for his Time’, Mira achieves several feats: capturing a PU-type atmosphere with a great degree of authenticity (though there are a couple of technical faux pas there that I have pointed out in my notes), achieving the difficult task of not reducing a subject she can’t relate with to a caricature, and portraying a radicalised young religious figure as also a tender and protective brother and son. In fact, this is the kind of complexity Mira bestows upon all her characters, making the book a lovely collection of people and places that lodge themselves in your head with the vividness of personal memory.
My minor quibble with the stories is that with the exception of ‘Breezy Blessings’, none ends on a truly satisfying note that ties up the threads, or at the very least allows us to take away a kernel of truth we can chew on for a while. I say that is a minor quibble because the stories themselves provide enough meat, enough insight into human nature, enough truth to feel satisfying even without endings that pack a greater punch.
Best thing I have read from Pakistan in a long time. Highly recommended.
Stuff like popping Xanax on the daily, or opening a water bottle in front of your guests so they know the water is mineral, or a privileged feudal woman romanticising the Raj, struck a real cord in my Pakistani heart.
People like me can relate to the mundane abuse of pharmaceutical drugs in Pakistan more than they can to Moth Smoke-style partying, and I suspect people like me are in abundance in Pakistan and have always looked to English writers of fiction to give them something ‘relatable’ that doesn’t fixate on clandestine parties thrown by the rich. Interestingly, the one such party described in some detail in this book radiates an almost sinister vibe and makes our protagonist uncomfortable, a perspective that made me feel seen.
In the story ‘A Man for his Time’, Mira achieves several feats: capturing a PU-type atmosphere with a great degree of authenticity (though there are a couple of technical faux pas there that I have pointed out in my notes), achieving the difficult task of not reducing a subject she can’t relate with to a caricature, and portraying a radicalised young religious figure as also a tender and protective brother and son. In fact, this is the kind of complexity Mira bestows upon all her characters, making the book a lovely collection of people and places that lodge themselves in your head with the vividness of personal memory.
My minor quibble with the stories is that with the exception of ‘Breezy Blessings’, none ends on a truly satisfying note that ties up the threads, or at the very least allows us to take away a kernel of truth we can chew on for a while. I say that is a minor quibble because the stories themselves provide enough meat, enough insight into human nature, enough truth to feel satisfying even without endings that pack a greater punch.
Best thing I have read from Pakistan in a long time. Highly recommended.
April 28, 2021
One star for the laughs I got while reading this 'raw representation' of Pakistan. It's sad it was a DNF for me, was really looking forward to it. I reviewed it in detail on my instagram.
June 10, 2021
pointless stories, stereotypical characters, filled with cliches, superfluous writing, the endings seemed as if the author was trying to sound profound but really failed
June 7, 2021
Although the author is Pakistani, it's painfully obvious that she wrote this with foreign readers in mind. The book is clearly pandering to non-Pakistanis. The descriptions are clunky and at times strangely worded ("multiplexes smeared the skyline," "a brief dip in her wrist sprang into a mound of arm,""grazing the sweatered edge of Asher's arm") the descriptions of Pakistan trite and overused, the characters barely fleshed out, and the stories don't seem to go anywhere.
June 27, 2025
I enjoyed this short story collection. there was a nice variety within the stories, with common threads of relationships, social interactions, class, gender, sexuality.
I liked the language, and descriptions... and the construction and pace of the stories.
each short story ended really well/nicely, the closing sentence opening to possibilities rather than shutting them down 🙂
❗ potential spoilers follow ❗
(story and character names spelled by ear)
🏙 👩🏽❤👨🏽👨🏽❤👨🏽 🏙
1. Minneapol / Mini Apple (?)
🌟 🌟 🌟 +
a kinda cute story of two journalists, one from Pakistan the other from the USA, meeting in Islamabad. he the more overtly romantic.
2. Breezy Blessings
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
"I like all of God's creations" 😉
an interesting story of a young woman who gets a job in a TV serial... compromise,
confusion, coercion... acting.
3. A Life of its Own, Part one
🌟 🌟 🌟 ++
a young couple, intending to leave Pakistan for the USA, but end up staying. family dynamics, especially around the matriarch/her mother in law. honour punishment - a young girl publicly humiliated because of her brothers actions - and reactions to it.
4. A Man For His Time
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
Hafiz at university in Lahore, musing on the university politics, the Islamic students group, the popular professor Jameel, coercion/bullying, social media...
at home, his father unable to work, developing a dependence on the medication he takes for seizures.
back at the university, a demonstration against honour punishments (referencing the event from the previous story), led by feminists and communists.
sexuality, death, comfort...
5. Tomboy
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 +
took me a while to settle into the attitude/style of the main character and their narration, but it turned out after finishing the collection to be a story that stayed with me on a deeper felt level, in a good way.
two (LGBTQI) best friends marry, to quieten family and realise their own lives. LGBTQI and artistic social circles. the difference between being open or closed about one's sexuality.
6 . A Life of its Own, Part two
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
while Farah is out with a flat tyre, the rest of the family are discussing local politics, and who might stand for election. Zebe is musing on her children, including her admiration of her daughter in law Farah. thoughts about wealth and poverty. Zebe's charity work (a medical clinic), her organic farm... and her being persuaded to run in the local election (for the seat her husband usually stands for).
7. Are You Enjoying?
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
lovers (unmarried) Soni and (married, older) Usha. the story charts their relationship, past and present... it's complexities. the history of Soni's mothers death, and her relationship with her father. Soni's curiosity about Usha's wife. drug dependence on a small, but not insignificant, level. vulnerability/adriftness, manipulation, the locus of control.
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
accessed as an RNIB audiobook, read by the author ♥
I liked the language, and descriptions... and the construction and pace of the stories.
each short story ended really well/nicely, the closing sentence opening to possibilities rather than shutting them down 🙂
❗ potential spoilers follow ❗
(story and character names spelled by ear)
🏙 👩🏽❤👨🏽👨🏽❤👨🏽 🏙
1. Minneapol / Mini Apple (?)
🌟 🌟 🌟 +
a kinda cute story of two journalists, one from Pakistan the other from the USA, meeting in Islamabad. he the more overtly romantic.
2. Breezy Blessings
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
"I like all of God's creations" 😉
an interesting story of a young woman who gets a job in a TV serial... compromise,
confusion, coercion... acting.
3. A Life of its Own, Part one
🌟 🌟 🌟 ++
a young couple, intending to leave Pakistan for the USA, but end up staying. family dynamics, especially around the matriarch/her mother in law. honour punishment - a young girl publicly humiliated because of her brothers actions - and reactions to it.
4. A Man For His Time
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
Hafiz at university in Lahore, musing on the university politics, the Islamic students group, the popular professor Jameel, coercion/bullying, social media...
at home, his father unable to work, developing a dependence on the medication he takes for seizures.
back at the university, a demonstration against honour punishments (referencing the event from the previous story), led by feminists and communists.
sexuality, death, comfort...
5. Tomboy
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 +
took me a while to settle into the attitude/style of the main character and their narration, but it turned out after finishing the collection to be a story that stayed with me on a deeper felt level, in a good way.
two (LGBTQI) best friends marry, to quieten family and realise their own lives. LGBTQI and artistic social circles. the difference between being open or closed about one's sexuality.
6 . A Life of its Own, Part two
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
while Farah is out with a flat tyre, the rest of the family are discussing local politics, and who might stand for election. Zebe is musing on her children, including her admiration of her daughter in law Farah. thoughts about wealth and poverty. Zebe's charity work (a medical clinic), her organic farm... and her being persuaded to run in the local election (for the seat her husband usually stands for).
7. Are You Enjoying?
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
lovers (unmarried) Soni and (married, older) Usha. the story charts their relationship, past and present... it's complexities. the history of Soni's mothers death, and her relationship with her father. Soni's curiosity about Usha's wife. drug dependence on a small, but not insignificant, level. vulnerability/adriftness, manipulation, the locus of control.
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
accessed as an RNIB audiobook, read by the author ♥
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2021
A collection of 7 short stories. Honestly, I was really looking forward to reading this book but to say i was disappointed is an understatement. The stories fell short of the plot, and many a times it looked like the author got distracted in between and thus changed the storyline half way. There is a constant white gaze, which gives you an impression that it has been written for a western audience. The language is sometimes forced, and is no way comic although it sometimes to sound satirical.
the stories fail to make an impression, and although do try to tell a story of how times are changing in Pakistan--only in some privileged circles (refer to Tomboy) but still do not do justice to reality.
the stories fail to make an impression, and although do try to tell a story of how times are changing in Pakistan--only in some privileged circles (refer to Tomboy) but still do not do justice to reality.
December 30, 2022
I approached Mira Sethi’s “Are You Enjoying?” with the same level of skepticism that I reserve – unfairly – for South Asian writers. I’ve read too many books that tread the same grounds: the fish-out-of-water immigrants; forbidden love; fundamentalism’s pernicious tentacles.
However, there’s something very refreshing and fascinating happening here, however. Yes, the characters in this collection of short stories, like so many many South Asian tales, rebel against the conformity that a conventional society imposes. But these are stories, first and foremost, about sexuality and the comfort – and cover – class provides for the fortunate few.
The writing is raw and exquisite, at the same time. The stories incisive and insightful. Each turn of the phrase transports you to the bedrooms and bungalows in Pakistan where these stories take place.
“He’d laugh too much … to compensate for conversation he couldn’t offer.”
“ … the murmur of conversing minarets”
“... a lilt that smuggled in opinions in dainty hesitations”
Sethi gives us an insight into life in Pakistan in a way I just never found Mohsin Ahmed to deliver. And the insight she offers here is how, despite our outward appearances and despite our desperate attempts to change, we are disagreeable in the privacy of our bedrooms.
Here’s the thing: Despite the exhortations of well-meaning family members, I have no book inside me. I can't string together enough coherent lines for a passable song, let alone a whole book. That’s why I’m always envious when I come across a new South Asian voice. In the case of Mira Sethi, that envy turned to pride.
However, there’s something very refreshing and fascinating happening here, however. Yes, the characters in this collection of short stories, like so many many South Asian tales, rebel against the conformity that a conventional society imposes. But these are stories, first and foremost, about sexuality and the comfort – and cover – class provides for the fortunate few.
The writing is raw and exquisite, at the same time. The stories incisive and insightful. Each turn of the phrase transports you to the bedrooms and bungalows in Pakistan where these stories take place.
“He’d laugh too much … to compensate for conversation he couldn’t offer.”
“ … the murmur of conversing minarets”
“... a lilt that smuggled in opinions in dainty hesitations”
Sethi gives us an insight into life in Pakistan in a way I just never found Mohsin Ahmed to deliver. And the insight she offers here is how, despite our outward appearances and despite our desperate attempts to change, we are disagreeable in the privacy of our bedrooms.
Here’s the thing: Despite the exhortations of well-meaning family members, I have no book inside me. I can't string together enough coherent lines for a passable song, let alone a whole book. That’s why I’m always envious when I come across a new South Asian voice. In the case of Mira Sethi, that envy turned to pride.
July 5, 2021
They say, never judge a book by its cover.
But with a cover this elaborate, and a title this engaging, I couldn't help it.
"Are You Enjoying?" Yes, I did.
Mira Sethi's debut anthology of short stories offers an intimate introduction to contemporary Pakistan. To those who live here, it reflects images that are up-close and personal.
Elements include: the girl with starry dreams who, it's insinuated, ends up possibly becoming a social media sensation; closeted gays leading secret lives; sleazy directors trying to unload on unsuspecting starlets; religion as a weapon of personal and social power, archaic and patriarchal systems that govern the lives of a large portion of our populace; in juxtaposition, a showcase of the exceedingly rapid paradigm shift from the waning powers of traditional media and the old world order (political and social) to the new and growing significance of social media as a weapon of social justice.
It is a collection of total 7 stories peopled with characters that are richly drawn from life- nuanced and complex, finding their representation across various cross-sections of Pakistan's multi-layered socio-economic structures. The language and expression is refreshingly young and the mood excitingly atmospheric.
"…ignorance was a nicely plausible choice for good-looking, well-nourished people, like the celebrities whose lives she followed on social media."
"Her friends had urged her to start her own brand, but launching one required an end to late nights lying on her bed in temporary self-possession, an embrace of early mornings and the small, shattering surrender they drew from one."
Weather plays an integral part in setting the tone for certain stories and the city of Lahore is woven tightly into different narratives. All themes I find moving and close to my heart.
"…and he looked up at a sky tufted with gunmetal cloud. He wished it would thunder. Lahore was never as magical as when it rained."
"Beyond the car's windshield, as the sun rinsed the early morning fog, birds bobbed on vacant roads. Lahore twinkled in a rare, emptied innocence."
"Outside Soni's bedroom window the sky was a bruised metallic sheet. An amaltas smudged the horizon."
...
"Hindu legend has it," she said, surveying the room, "that nearly three millennia ago, Loh, one of the sons of the god Rama, hero-king of the Ramayana, founded a city on the banks of the river Ravi. Do you know what he called the city?"
"He called the city 'Loh-Awar'- 'The Fort of Loh' in Sanskrit."
...
"On The Mall, a room of peepals created a canopy of green. The trees grew dense into the sky, and where the black branches jutted out, their broken shadows mingled with the green of the leaves. Patches of light leapt, twinkled and fell apart. Hafeez had lived in Lahore all his life but he relished anew his first glimpse of the Mall every time he turned onto the tree-lined thoroughfare."
I could almost picture the descriptions in rich oil paints or Mid Century Modern water colors. Take a good look before it melts into the multitude of voices surrounding Pakistan's narrative on the global news stage.
But with a cover this elaborate, and a title this engaging, I couldn't help it.
"Are You Enjoying?" Yes, I did.
Mira Sethi's debut anthology of short stories offers an intimate introduction to contemporary Pakistan. To those who live here, it reflects images that are up-close and personal.
Elements include: the girl with starry dreams who, it's insinuated, ends up possibly becoming a social media sensation; closeted gays leading secret lives; sleazy directors trying to unload on unsuspecting starlets; religion as a weapon of personal and social power, archaic and patriarchal systems that govern the lives of a large portion of our populace; in juxtaposition, a showcase of the exceedingly rapid paradigm shift from the waning powers of traditional media and the old world order (political and social) to the new and growing significance of social media as a weapon of social justice.
It is a collection of total 7 stories peopled with characters that are richly drawn from life- nuanced and complex, finding their representation across various cross-sections of Pakistan's multi-layered socio-economic structures. The language and expression is refreshingly young and the mood excitingly atmospheric.
"…ignorance was a nicely plausible choice for good-looking, well-nourished people, like the celebrities whose lives she followed on social media."
"Her friends had urged her to start her own brand, but launching one required an end to late nights lying on her bed in temporary self-possession, an embrace of early mornings and the small, shattering surrender they drew from one."
Weather plays an integral part in setting the tone for certain stories and the city of Lahore is woven tightly into different narratives. All themes I find moving and close to my heart.
"…and he looked up at a sky tufted with gunmetal cloud. He wished it would thunder. Lahore was never as magical as when it rained."
"Beyond the car's windshield, as the sun rinsed the early morning fog, birds bobbed on vacant roads. Lahore twinkled in a rare, emptied innocence."
"Outside Soni's bedroom window the sky was a bruised metallic sheet. An amaltas smudged the horizon."
...
"Hindu legend has it," she said, surveying the room, "that nearly three millennia ago, Loh, one of the sons of the god Rama, hero-king of the Ramayana, founded a city on the banks of the river Ravi. Do you know what he called the city?"
"He called the city 'Loh-Awar'- 'The Fort of Loh' in Sanskrit."
...
"On The Mall, a room of peepals created a canopy of green. The trees grew dense into the sky, and where the black branches jutted out, their broken shadows mingled with the green of the leaves. Patches of light leapt, twinkled and fell apart. Hafeez had lived in Lahore all his life but he relished anew his first glimpse of the Mall every time he turned onto the tree-lined thoroughfare."
I could almost picture the descriptions in rich oil paints or Mid Century Modern water colors. Take a good look before it melts into the multitude of voices surrounding Pakistan's narrative on the global news stage.
August 3, 2021
With the onset of the lockdown last year, my mother and I watched Pakistani serials. We were reeling under the influence of Dhoop Kinare watched years ago and thought that Pakistani serials would be made the same way – with nuance. We were mistaken to a large extent. They were just like the K serials of India, barring a few. The same old upholding of values, same old serials seeped in patriarchy, the same old stories of sacrifice and love.
Why do I speak of these serials? Because Mira Sethi’s collection of stories set in Pakistan are refreshingly different and real unlike these shows. Or maybe these shows are also real, each depicting their own universe of events, and the truths that reside in them.
Mira Sethi’s collection of six stories and a novella is not only extraordinary but also immensely detailed, with an eye for pointing out the quirks, eccentricities, and to a large extent satirical. These stories are the much-needed representation we needed of the country. Maybe some of them even made me think of Zoya Akhtar’s movies. They seemed to be set in the same milieu. The rich with their immense set of problems, insecurities, constantly finding ways to escape what is being served to them by life or by fate as a consequence of their deeds (maybe). Whether it is a man who is recovering from his divorce and falls in love with a neighbour in “Mini Apple” or a young actress who wants to make something of her life in “Breezy Blessings”, or even if it is the matriarch in “A Life of Its Own” (which is in two parts) – all of them are struggling with something or the other – their lives are no different than what you and I live. Sethi draws from people she knows, irrespective of whether rich or not. The stories matter and they speak for themselves.
My personal favourite was Mini Apple till I read “Tomboy” and fell in love with the story. The understanding between the friends Asha and Zarrar, as they get married and continue living, hiding their sexuality from society at large, spoke volumes to me as a gay man living in India. We think we have managed to break free, but have we really?
Mira’s stories constantly defy, they are thinly veiled in wit and humour, sometimes even to make a point, but mostly these stories reveal the human condition and the spaces we inhabit. These stories could be set anywhere in the world, but Mira’s Pakistan is the modern country we need to know of – its contradictions, the complexities, the night life, the lives that are not supposed to live to the fullest, and the constant battles of power and desire. It is the Pakistan that speaks volumes, if you read carefully between the lines.
On the surface these stories look simple, but let them not fool you. They are anything but easy. They are an easy read for sure, but their impact lasts longer than you think it would. Sethi’s writing is brazen, feisty even, it is refreshing and more than what you have already heard of it. It is a collection that has rightfully earned every bit of praise. Read it.
Why do I speak of these serials? Because Mira Sethi’s collection of stories set in Pakistan are refreshingly different and real unlike these shows. Or maybe these shows are also real, each depicting their own universe of events, and the truths that reside in them.
Mira Sethi’s collection of six stories and a novella is not only extraordinary but also immensely detailed, with an eye for pointing out the quirks, eccentricities, and to a large extent satirical. These stories are the much-needed representation we needed of the country. Maybe some of them even made me think of Zoya Akhtar’s movies. They seemed to be set in the same milieu. The rich with their immense set of problems, insecurities, constantly finding ways to escape what is being served to them by life or by fate as a consequence of their deeds (maybe). Whether it is a man who is recovering from his divorce and falls in love with a neighbour in “Mini Apple” or a young actress who wants to make something of her life in “Breezy Blessings”, or even if it is the matriarch in “A Life of Its Own” (which is in two parts) – all of them are struggling with something or the other – their lives are no different than what you and I live. Sethi draws from people she knows, irrespective of whether rich or not. The stories matter and they speak for themselves.
My personal favourite was Mini Apple till I read “Tomboy” and fell in love with the story. The understanding between the friends Asha and Zarrar, as they get married and continue living, hiding their sexuality from society at large, spoke volumes to me as a gay man living in India. We think we have managed to break free, but have we really?
Mira’s stories constantly defy, they are thinly veiled in wit and humour, sometimes even to make a point, but mostly these stories reveal the human condition and the spaces we inhabit. These stories could be set anywhere in the world, but Mira’s Pakistan is the modern country we need to know of – its contradictions, the complexities, the night life, the lives that are not supposed to live to the fullest, and the constant battles of power and desire. It is the Pakistan that speaks volumes, if you read carefully between the lines.
On the surface these stories look simple, but let them not fool you. They are anything but easy. They are an easy read for sure, but their impact lasts longer than you think it would. Sethi’s writing is brazen, feisty even, it is refreshing and more than what you have already heard of it. It is a collection that has rightfully earned every bit of praise. Read it.
July 23, 2021
The takeaway? Perspective, quite a lot of it. As someone having grown up in pakistan, and especially and unfortunately, having to adult at the time, I believe this book successfully opened up thought boxes in my mind, introduced new avenues of society and added more to what I previously hoped to have known.
Apart from that, truth be told, the book was sadly a huge letdown. Having heard a few of Mira's interviews, where i found her to be smart and the kind who possesses the eye that sees through things, i was very excited about her debut book. Infact, I happily visited atleast two bookstores before i found it in-stock at the latter. I definitely expected the writing to be intelligent and observant. I did find it smart at a few places but a gapping hole awaited each time a story ended. There was no closure! It felt like descriptions of a part of a larger story. There were no conclusions, no explanatory endings. The endings were thoroughly abrupt and not in the thought provoking kind.
I think I'll be thinking about what i read for quite a few days. Especially because seeing such an up-close, an intimate perspective of a character's life whose decisions I don't agree with, it invited me to consider how everyone around IS a character in the larger scheme of things, in other people's lives as much their own, and how they've their own reasons, right or wrong, for doing things-again, right or wrong.
I'm grateful for it being a fast read and not a painfully slow one I might've otherwise wanted to dnf, and hence, having pulled me out of my reading block.
PS. The writing is so overdone it's frustrating. Better editing and advice might've saved it.
Apart from that, truth be told, the book was sadly a huge letdown. Having heard a few of Mira's interviews, where i found her to be smart and the kind who possesses the eye that sees through things, i was very excited about her debut book. Infact, I happily visited atleast two bookstores before i found it in-stock at the latter. I definitely expected the writing to be intelligent and observant. I did find it smart at a few places but a gapping hole awaited each time a story ended. There was no closure! It felt like descriptions of a part of a larger story. There were no conclusions, no explanatory endings. The endings were thoroughly abrupt and not in the thought provoking kind.
I think I'll be thinking about what i read for quite a few days. Especially because seeing such an up-close, an intimate perspective of a character's life whose decisions I don't agree with, it invited me to consider how everyone around IS a character in the larger scheme of things, in other people's lives as much their own, and how they've their own reasons, right or wrong, for doing things-again, right or wrong.
I'm grateful for it being a fast read and not a painfully slow one I might've otherwise wanted to dnf, and hence, having pulled me out of my reading block.
PS. The writing is so overdone it's frustrating. Better editing and advice might've saved it.
April 26, 2021
3.5⭐
A forbidden and intense affair between a television star and an American Official amidst tiring career choices and lonliness, a naive female actor's sudden realisation of the exploitation in the film industry, a marriage to mask one's sexuality, a family sucked into the whirlwinds of politics, and a woman abandoned by everyone she ever loved- these stories make up Sethi's debut novel 'Are You Enjoying?'.
.
Set in modern-day Pakistan, amidst capitalisation, patriatchy, sexism and homophobia, these stories are shrewd and caustic, portraying family dynamics affected by class distiction and extreme emotions.
Sethi lets her female characters share the lime-light, each with their distinctive method to cope up with the above-mentioned issues. With a myriad of problems, come a plethora of solutions-some logical and some, a product of years of conditioning.
.
Wit and sarcasm find their way into these pages, the dialogues amplifying the current political unrest, the protests and the fight for equality.
.
A breezy read with multiple facets of society hiding in plain sight, 'Are you listening?' is a totally worth your time.
A forbidden and intense affair between a television star and an American Official amidst tiring career choices and lonliness, a naive female actor's sudden realisation of the exploitation in the film industry, a marriage to mask one's sexuality, a family sucked into the whirlwinds of politics, and a woman abandoned by everyone she ever loved- these stories make up Sethi's debut novel 'Are You Enjoying?'.
.
Set in modern-day Pakistan, amidst capitalisation, patriatchy, sexism and homophobia, these stories are shrewd and caustic, portraying family dynamics affected by class distiction and extreme emotions.
Sethi lets her female characters share the lime-light, each with their distinctive method to cope up with the above-mentioned issues. With a myriad of problems, come a plethora of solutions-some logical and some, a product of years of conditioning.
.
Wit and sarcasm find their way into these pages, the dialogues amplifying the current political unrest, the protests and the fight for equality.
.
A breezy read with multiple facets of society hiding in plain sight, 'Are you listening?' is a totally worth your time.
October 12, 2021
Lost interest after reading the first story and the style of the story did not interest me to read further. Leaving this book for now.
I will maybe re-attempt at reading the other stories in the future (if they make sense)
Maybe.
I will maybe re-attempt at reading the other stories in the future (if they make sense)
Maybe.
April 19, 2021
“She knew she scrutinized her own gestures, but she’d begun to gaze not with the kindness of real introspection, but with the punitive inquiry of the present: a woman trailed always by her own shrieking effigy of herself.”
ARE YOU ENJOYING? explores the lives of people, from the mildly famous to the unknown, trying to figure out where they fit, in their homes, relationships, jobs, and society in Pakistan. Sethi is a Pakistani-American actor & writer, and her astute observation of inner worlds and how culture/politics are playing out in interpersonal relationships makes this an engaging & thought-provoking collection. A sampling of storylines: a Pakistani television personality pursues a imbalanced romance with an American embassy worker; a young actress learns what’s required of her to succeed; a queer woman marries a queer man to appease their parents and hide their sexualities; the imperious and astute wife of a politician runs for political office herself.
I found Sethi’s writing evocative, insightful, and lovely. She’s funny, too. These stories provide a glimpse to the private lives & minds of the characters in a way I really (as the title inquires) enjoyed. There’s poignant exploration of tensions in Pakistani society, the influence of western neoimperialism, power, sexuality, & more. I did think the stories lacked something - deeper meaning? Fuller plot? Compelling character arc? Some of the stories worked for me more than others - I especially liked “Tomboy” (no surprise I liked the gay one) and “Mini Apple”. As you move through the book the stories become slightly intertwined, which added depth & increased my emotional engagement. The dialogue is a bit clunky in a few spots, but I think some of that is because Sethi is trying to convey how her characters have different access to education and languages - she’s recording her own audiobook & I’d be really interested to hear her inflection.
Overall: intriguing stories, excellent writing, positive reading experience, & something was missing for me. I’m curious to see how this lands for other folks. Thanks Knopf for the ARC! This collection is out 4/20.
Content warnings: misogyny, violence, homophobia, public humiliation, anti-fat bias, suicidal ideation, anxiety/panic attack, infidelity
ARE YOU ENJOYING? explores the lives of people, from the mildly famous to the unknown, trying to figure out where they fit, in their homes, relationships, jobs, and society in Pakistan. Sethi is a Pakistani-American actor & writer, and her astute observation of inner worlds and how culture/politics are playing out in interpersonal relationships makes this an engaging & thought-provoking collection. A sampling of storylines: a Pakistani television personality pursues a imbalanced romance with an American embassy worker; a young actress learns what’s required of her to succeed; a queer woman marries a queer man to appease their parents and hide their sexualities; the imperious and astute wife of a politician runs for political office herself.
I found Sethi’s writing evocative, insightful, and lovely. She’s funny, too. These stories provide a glimpse to the private lives & minds of the characters in a way I really (as the title inquires) enjoyed. There’s poignant exploration of tensions in Pakistani society, the influence of western neoimperialism, power, sexuality, & more. I did think the stories lacked something - deeper meaning? Fuller plot? Compelling character arc? Some of the stories worked for me more than others - I especially liked “Tomboy” (no surprise I liked the gay one) and “Mini Apple”. As you move through the book the stories become slightly intertwined, which added depth & increased my emotional engagement. The dialogue is a bit clunky in a few spots, but I think some of that is because Sethi is trying to convey how her characters have different access to education and languages - she’s recording her own audiobook & I’d be really interested to hear her inflection.
Overall: intriguing stories, excellent writing, positive reading experience, & something was missing for me. I’m curious to see how this lands for other folks. Thanks Knopf for the ARC! This collection is out 4/20.
Content warnings: misogyny, violence, homophobia, public humiliation, anti-fat bias, suicidal ideation, anxiety/panic attack, infidelity
Read
July 18, 2024patently did not enjoy
June 16, 2021
I really enjoyed this book. Mira's writing is rich and evocative and brings Pakistan alive for the reader. I particularly enjoyed Mini Apple and Breezy Blessings. It is quite obvious that a lot of research has gone into it. Mira gets everything right, from the overall theme to the tiniest nuance. A bold, incisive look into modern Pakistan, this is a book that deserves to be read.
April 23, 2024
I enjoyed this collection quite a bit and was surprised to see that so many others didn’t, especially from other South Asian readers who mentioned that that it felt like Sethi was writing for the white gaze. I take that kind of critique very seriously, as I tend to be a little more scrutinizing toward East Asian American stories for similar reasons. As someone who is not South Asian, I can’t give weight to this critique, but I will just state what I factually enjoyed about this collection. I really enjoyed Sethi’s characters. They are cowardly, foolish, hypocritical creatures who are nonetheless sympathetic. I found the stories in this collection were excellent in conveying desire and yearning. I especially liked how the stories conveyed the feeling of obsession and rumination over a lover or crush. It felt true to life, the way the object of one’s adoration sticks on your mind always, how everything reminds you of them, how you are excited to share news with them, or tell stories about them to others (even if you can’t). I also thought that a lot of these stories had an ironic flavor to them. The narration made slight insults to characters at times, sometimes lightly bullying them. I don’t remember which story it’s from, but I wrote down the words “babylike hands” because the phrase made me laugh. I think Sethi is a clever writer who maybe leans into the conventions of literary writing, which is a very white tradition, and whose endings are not always satisfying. But as a reader, I was pretty satisfied!
June 23, 2021
Are You Enjoying?
Author : Mira Sethi
Published by : @bloomsburypublishing @bloomsburyindia
Short Stories
Mira Sethi , to those who are unaware , is a Pakistani Television actress and journalist . This is her debut novel. With Vogue , Refinery 29 and Mr. Amitav Ghosh himself endorsing this book , this book had my attention!
Well it became kind of very obvious that this was a debut attempt from somewhere middle of the book. Between "Aman of for his time " and "Tomboy" . Don't get me wrong , all seven of the short stories very very engaging , but i felt that several of the character's felt monotonous , which well , is to be expected in this genre of a book and in a debut attempt. The first story , "Mini Apples" was kind of a surprise . A very "bold" story , for lack of a better word. The stories "A Life of it own " , both parts make the book though . You will know why when you read the book.
Some characters , though monotonous , are relatable . Their lifestyle , their choices , etc. Some of the endorsements said that the book is humorous but only after a microscopic search , could i find some things that were (partially) funny.
For a debut though , this was an amazing attempt. Casual readers will enjoy reading this book , as overall the stories are quite interesting to read and in the end that s what matters . Nitpickers should skip it.
Reccomended!
Author : Mira Sethi
Published by : @bloomsburypublishing @bloomsburyindia
Short Stories
Mira Sethi , to those who are unaware , is a Pakistani Television actress and journalist . This is her debut novel. With Vogue , Refinery 29 and Mr. Amitav Ghosh himself endorsing this book , this book had my attention!
Well it became kind of very obvious that this was a debut attempt from somewhere middle of the book. Between "Aman of for his time " and "Tomboy" . Don't get me wrong , all seven of the short stories very very engaging , but i felt that several of the character's felt monotonous , which well , is to be expected in this genre of a book and in a debut attempt. The first story , "Mini Apples" was kind of a surprise . A very "bold" story , for lack of a better word. The stories "A Life of it own " , both parts make the book though . You will know why when you read the book.
Some characters , though monotonous , are relatable . Their lifestyle , their choices , etc. Some of the endorsements said that the book is humorous but only after a microscopic search , could i find some things that were (partially) funny.
For a debut though , this was an amazing attempt. Casual readers will enjoy reading this book , as overall the stories are quite interesting to read and in the end that s what matters . Nitpickers should skip it.
Reccomended!
Want to read
July 13, 20223.5 stars
I enjoyed this more than others and read the book in two days, though granted it's relatively short (189 pages). I can't speak to the authenticity of its portrayal of Pakistan and life there, but I found the characters quite accessible and three-dimensional. I also found the writing quite good at times:
Overall an interesting collection.
I enjoyed this more than others and read the book in two days, though granted it's relatively short (189 pages). I can't speak to the authenticity of its portrayal of Pakistan and life there, but I found the characters quite accessible and three-dimensional. I also found the writing quite good at times:
Javed was touched by the gesture. It hinted at a subtle intimacy, one that asked no questions but took liberties with its love. (p.25)I liked some stories more than others, and thought it was interesting when there was overlap between them. As some have pointed out, the majority of the characters are from a certain elitist class, though there are one or two exceptions to this, but with these I found the author less successful in her portrayal and in making the characters reachable.
He kissed her softly. And the relationship slid from the transparency of lust to an admission of tenderness. (p.166)
Overall an interesting collection.
January 31, 2023
i really liked sethi’s writing style and i found some of these short stories great (tomboy and are you enjoying? especially) but others in the collection felt too short and open-ended to feel like i really knew the characters
May 7, 2021
I have to say that when I picked up this book, I went in with pretty low expectations, pretty much convinced I wouldn't like it. But, I did end up
enjoying
some of the stories. The Sethis of Pakistan are definitely an ambitious and prolific bunch, having made their mark on journalism, tv, film, and music scenes; they've have made previous attempts at literature as well with not much success, (see The Wish Maker). So I kind of expected this to be just another venture brought on as a result of the goodwill of the family name which is pretty established in the intelligentsia of the country.
My favorites in this collection were Tomboy and Are you Enjoying?. For me, those stories worked because of the unconventional characters and themes that the author explored. These stories were also more perceptive and insightful with the characters' voices and motivations better fleshed out. The author shows the myriad contradictions of living in this country, and more importantly with some the acceptance and embodiment of the contradictions while with others the constant struggle to make sense of a messy reality and conflicting impulses, urges, and sense of identity, were really put to the best use to add life to its characters and the stories.
Of course, the characters, setting, and themes are primarily explored through the elite lens, but some do delve into the intersections of sexuality, gender, religion and class.
My favorites in this collection were Tomboy and Are you Enjoying?. For me, those stories worked because of the unconventional characters and themes that the author explored. These stories were also more perceptive and insightful with the characters' voices and motivations better fleshed out. The author shows the myriad contradictions of living in this country, and more importantly with some the acceptance and embodiment of the contradictions while with others the constant struggle to make sense of a messy reality and conflicting impulses, urges, and sense of identity, were really put to the best use to add life to its characters and the stories.
Of course, the characters, setting, and themes are primarily explored through the elite lens, but some do delve into the intersections of sexuality, gender, religion and class.
April 26, 2021
I could not put this book down! Sethi has an uncanny way of tipping you headlong into the lives of her characters. Although I have little in common with them on the surface of it, I found myself empathizing with them, admiring their everyday bravery as they navigate their conflicting desires, obligations, and constraints. In “Tomboy”, a friendship that initially defies gender norms eventually becomes a hiding place for queer sexuality that is at once loving and oppressive. I don't know whether to feel encouraged by the many small spaces for resistance that her characters create or to feel despair that they seem to be resigned to these spaces remaining small forever.
But the stories don’t sag under the weight of the themes they address. They are told with humor, nuance, and warmth. Sethi has a knack for bringing a scene to life in just a few lines, using turns of phrase that linger with you: “the dull fizz of mosquitoes” … “the sisters were all shawls, and perfumes, and clucking suspicion”. Like the best short stories, none of these has a tidy ending – they leave you room to come back to them over and over again.
It is a particular pleasure to read this book as a South Asian. Sethi manages, where many have failed, to write about Pakistan for a global audience in a way that feels true to readers who know it.
But the stories don’t sag under the weight of the themes they address. They are told with humor, nuance, and warmth. Sethi has a knack for bringing a scene to life in just a few lines, using turns of phrase that linger with you: “the dull fizz of mosquitoes” … “the sisters were all shawls, and perfumes, and clucking suspicion”. Like the best short stories, none of these has a tidy ending – they leave you room to come back to them over and over again.
It is a particular pleasure to read this book as a South Asian. Sethi manages, where many have failed, to write about Pakistan for a global audience in a way that feels true to readers who know it.
September 2, 2022
3.5 🌟
Sethi is a fairly known tv actress and belongs to an affluent family having roots in literature, journalism and politics.
This is her first book. A set of 6 short stories set in Lahore mostly. Most of them talk about the rich strata of society indulging in alcohol, infidelity, politics and fornication. Some stories are laced with insightful socio-political commentary. Few have hints of the class divide prevalent in Pakistani society.
I quite enjoyed this reading experience. The content and tropes were maturely handled and the storylines kept me flipping the pages. While the content was good, the writing faltered on more occasions than expected. The metaphors and similies sounded ridiculous at times and most of the stories had abrupt unfinished endings, making one wonder what the point of it all was.
As a debut, I'm giving Sethi some grace marks. She's got the stories in her, she just needs to hone her skill to tell them.
Sethi is a fairly known tv actress and belongs to an affluent family having roots in literature, journalism and politics.
This is her first book. A set of 6 short stories set in Lahore mostly. Most of them talk about the rich strata of society indulging in alcohol, infidelity, politics and fornication. Some stories are laced with insightful socio-political commentary. Few have hints of the class divide prevalent in Pakistani society.
I quite enjoyed this reading experience. The content and tropes were maturely handled and the storylines kept me flipping the pages. While the content was good, the writing faltered on more occasions than expected. The metaphors and similies sounded ridiculous at times and most of the stories had abrupt unfinished endings, making one wonder what the point of it all was.
As a debut, I'm giving Sethi some grace marks. She's got the stories in her, she just needs to hone her skill to tell them.
May 30, 2021
Are you Enjoying? Well, no really, I'm not.
I really wanted to like this book. I thought it would be Mira Sethi's time to shine. However, this collection of short stories left me disappointed. I didn't enjoy Sethi's writing style. There was inadequate character exploration. The stories lacked depth and seemed to end quite abruptly, leaving a lack of closure for the reader. The first story, 'Mini Apple' seemed to be heavily inspired by Mohsin Hamid's 'Moth Smoke' and lacked uniqueness.
It would have been much better if Sethi had stuck to one story and created a novella out of it.
NetGalley provided me with this book in exchange for an honest review.
I really wanted to like this book. I thought it would be Mira Sethi's time to shine. However, this collection of short stories left me disappointed. I didn't enjoy Sethi's writing style. There was inadequate character exploration. The stories lacked depth and seemed to end quite abruptly, leaving a lack of closure for the reader. The first story, 'Mini Apple' seemed to be heavily inspired by Mohsin Hamid's 'Moth Smoke' and lacked uniqueness.
It would have been much better if Sethi had stuck to one story and created a novella out of it.
NetGalley provided me with this book in exchange for an honest review.
December 26, 2020
An abashed look at sexuality and desire, power and social mobility—and the humour and heartache in what it means to transgress in a Muslim society today—this debut short story collection from Pakistani writer and actor Mira Sethi offers a disarmingly comic perspective on everyday life in Pakistan.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 206 reviews