Kartography

Children of destiny, Karim and Raheen grow up in the shadow of their parent's convoluted relationship. The parents have switched fiancés at the last minute, a fact that becomes part of family mythology. However, the swap has more serious implications, occurring during a period of civil unrest in Pakistan in the 1970's, where the upper class citizens of Karachi cannot escape the reach of the troubles. A decade later, still affected by the civil chaos that threatens the city, Karim's parents leave Karachi for London, where they eventually get divorced. Raheen loses her alter ego and best friend, writing only sporadically over the years.Later, when Karim returns to Karachi, the two meet again, but their once easy relationship has become complicated by distance and family secrets. Neither can unravel the emotional knots created during the years they were separated. Raheen's nature is to cling desperately to her childhood memories, savoring the closeness she enjoyed with her best friend, although she is definitely in love with him. Karim has evolved into a principled man, a cartographer, whose world is defined in black and white, in absolutes.Karim has long known the family secret; because of this, he judges Raheen for her complicity, although she has no knowledge of the event that occurred before they were born. In the bright idealism of youth, Karim's judgment comes easily, albeit flawed by his ignorance. Karim and Raheen have difficulty managing the complications of love, friendship and polarizing politics, their emotions as entangled as the love of their parents; only when they embrace the decisions faced by their parents can the young couple overcome their lack of communication.This upper class Pakistani slice-of-life is set against a background of recurring civil war, beautifully illustrating the unbreakable bonds of love and friendship, made more durable by friendship. Shamsie's engaging prose evokes the warmth and acceptance of family, as the author connects politics with the everyday lives of the citizens of Karachi. Eventually, affluence is insufficient protection from the random violence of war and personal possessions cannot isolate these families from tragedy.This is indeed a love story between a boy and a girl, but also an inter-generational one, where compassion defines the quality of family relationships. The extraordinary friendship of the parents, even with its inherent problems, teaches their children about the fragility of the human heart and the catharsis of forgiveness. Luan Gaines/2004.

Karim and Raheen have been the closest of friends since they shared a crib as infants. Growing up together in a wealthy Karachi neighborhood during the 1980s, they finish each other's sentences, speak in anagrams, dream each other's dreams and are true soulmates. The two are sure of the fact that, "If I wasn't me, you wouldn't be you." "Can angels lie spine to spine?" Raheen wonders to herself. "If not, how they must envy us humans."Raheen's and Karim's parents were once engaged to each other: her father to his mother, his father to her mother. There is a long buried secret, a family mystery, behind the fiancee swap - one that threatens to sever the magical bond that unites these young people as they become adults.Filled with wry humor and wit, this is a novel about a friendship predestined to turn into love. The metaphor of maps and identity is embodied by the character of Karim, who wants to be a mapmaker, obsessed with finding the roots and meaning of geographical belonging. However, the author Kamila Shamsie also writes about Pakistan, political violence, and growing up rich and comfortable in a land that is always on the edge of riot and despair.Ms. Shamsie writes a lyrical, impassioned narrative, lush with detail. Her novel is a love song, of sorts, to Karachi. Set against the backdrop of Pakistan's bloody civil war, it is a story of a country at war and of hearts at war, where the intricacies of love and intimacy are deftly explored. A superb novel!JANA

As thrilled as I am by my discovery of Calvino’s fingerprints all over this story, the true source of my admiration for this work is the author’s portrayal of a city and its inhabitants. Karachi is as unique a city as ever overspread its limits, and Shamsi captures, with grace and ease, the opposing yet complimentary elements that contribute to its mystery, the shame and the shamelessness, the guilt and the denial, the selflessness and the selfishness, the brazenness and the reticence. I love that the author asked if Pakistan needed to rename itself after East and West went their separate ways? I love the portrayal of the years of upheaval, of the danger that lurked in the darkened streets and was mirrored in the sitting rooms of a thousand posh bungalows in Defense. I love the doubt, the doubting, and the doubters.

I didn't love this book, I felt it could have been so much better! A time and place I knew nothing about and yet still fell that I know little more. Confusing storyline and a big build up for a mystery that turns out to be not very interesting. the relationships between the groups of friends do not ring true at all, and the question of the romantic ending is never resolved.The author can obviously write, but in this case she did not succeed in telling a story.

Very well written. Being a Karachi'ite I could relate to the stories set up in Karachi. It brought back many fond memories of the city which used to be a city of lights and a cradle of peace and harmony, a city that never slept.

purchased for my daughter from her amazon wish list

A depiction of Pakistani privileged class with its daily routines and the author also goes through some life experiences ( that she talks about) of brutality and caged atmosphere that women of upper crust society have to live through.

Liked better Dark Shadows

Childhood sweethearts in fiction rarely have an easy time - something (war, parents, religion, a quarrel) will usually divide them. For the first chapter or so of 'Kartography', one imagines that Shamsie's childhood sweethearts Karim and Raheen will have an easier time of it than most. They have, after all, been raised together, their parents the closest of friends. True, there is clearly some rather strange secret in their parents' lives (in 1971, Karim's mother was engaged to Raheen's father, and Raheen's mother to Karim's father, but then they suddenly swapped partners) but this seems if anything to draw the parents' closer together, and make them keener their own children should be close. Karim and Raheen finish each other's sentences, lace their dialogue with anagrams and witty word play and sleep spine to spine. But Karim and Raheen live in the troubled country of Pakistan, and as they approach adolescence, their country's politics slowly begin to come between them. It all begins when Karim and Raheen spend the summer with Raheen's aunt and her liberal-minded husband on a farm in the countryside, and when Uncle Asif begins to tell them of Pakistan's troubled history. Karim is fascinated, and declares his intention to become a cartographer (hence the title of the book), making maps to try to unlock the secrets of his home city Karachi and of Pakistan. Raheen, on the other hand, is fairly uninterested - she believes that she shouldn't concern herself too much with Pakistan's problems as she can't solve them. However, it's not long before, like it or not, she is brought to a realization of the dangers in Karachi, when she and her friend Zia (another member of Karachi's wealthy elite, like Karim and Raheen) are shot at while joyriding round town late at night. And this attack has terrible longterm consequences for Raheen and Karim - Karim's father Ali, convinced that his country is falling into the hands of terrorists, decides to move to England, taking his son with him. Soon after, Karim's parents split up and his mother moves to America; Karim now spends his time moving between London and Boston, and doesn't come to Karachi at all. So Karim and Raheen are separated for several years. During that time, Karim becomes more and more politically aware, and increasingly fascinated by the history of his country. He also begins to brood on his parents' secret - what exactly did happen in 1971 to make the couples change partners? Meanwhile, Raheen continues to enjoy her life as a wealthy Karachi socialite: she swims and parties at the exclusive local club, spends time with her wealthy but traditional best friend Sonia and the handsome and careless Zia, and, after finishing school, goes to America, along with Zia, to study at university there. Although Raheen enjoys her life, she maintains her strong feelings for Karim, writing to him regularly and dreaming of seeing him again. But Karim's letters imply that the two of them are gradually moving apart... and then, one hot summer in Karachi, Karim returns to stay with his old friends. Raheen hopes they will return to their old intimacy, but Karim is a changed man - and he has much to tell her, including some startling revelations about their parents. Will Karim and Raheen be able to build a new, stronger relationship? Or will Karim's knowledge of their families' past secrets, his feelings about his country and Raheen's political indifference pull them apart?As an introduction to the history of Pakistan, this book is brilliant - there's much fascinating information, told clearly, but worked into the framework of an effective and readable story. I learnt a great deal in a very short space of time. I found Shamsie's depiction of wealthy Karachi society interesting, particularly the contrast between Raheen and Karim (from 'old money' families, but with liberal parents) and the 'nouveau riche' Sonia, brought up a strict Muslim. And I enjoyed the sections about 1971, when East Pakistan became Bangladesh. I did, however, have one major problem with the book - I really didn't like most of the characters! Raheen, the narrator for all of the novel apart from a few letters and the flashbacks to 1971, seemed to me spoilt and selfish, desperate to always be the centre of attention and at the centre of any drama (for example, in the scene when her friend Sonia's father is arrested and Raheen storms off into the garden because 'she's upset and she doesn't know what to say to Sonia'). Her political indifference, living in such a troubled city, was deeply irritating, as was her seeming indifference to the poverty around her - and her change of heart later in the book seemed to come round far too quickly. Karim was a bit more interesting, but we never really saw much of the story from his point of view, and I found his mood swings unbelievable - one moment he'd be joking with Raheen, the next accusing her of great selfishness; at one point he was telling Raheen she meant everything to him, at another he was, seemingly on instinct, making a proposal to her best friend. And his revelation of the family 'big secret' was incredibly melodramatic, as was his dramatic arrival to see Raheen in the USA. I also agree with Julie Myerson in the 'Guardian', who found Karim and Raheen's language incredibly arch and coy - their 'in jokes' might have meant a lot to them but on the page they tend to look unfunny and get very tedious after a while. All this meant that while I found some of the descriptions of their love for each other quite moving, I couldn't really care much what happened to them. Neither were their friends particularly sympathetic - Zia was a self-indulgent dandy who laughed when he ran over a cat (out of relief that it wasn't a person, but still!!!) and seemed to positively enjoy setting himself on a self-destructive path, while Sonia was sweet and gentle, but portrayed also as dim - one almost felt the other three had made her their friend so she could be patronized by them. I got on better with the older generation and their struggle in the 1970s, though they also at times came across as self-indulgent over-rich socialites (in some of the party scenes, for example); nevertheless, Shamsie did make the complicated relationships of Ali, Maheen, Yasmin and Zafar convincing and in the end quite moving.In the end, I found the book a great read as a guide to the recent history of Pakistan, and for its perspective on what daily life might be like in Karachi (albeit for the wealthy only). And the childhood sweetheart idea in the book was potentially a very good one. But the self-indulgent, spoilt behaviour of most of the characters, the tendency to shift into melodrama and the irritatingly coy language for the Karim and Raheen dialogues stopped me ever getting that involved. I ended up thinking that Shamsie might be an excellent writer, but that this book didn't work for me. Still, I definitely want to read more by her, and have 'Salt and Saffron', 'Broken Verses' and 'Burnt Shadows' (all of which look at a glance better) to tackle next.

This author does not write a bad book! The first four I read were all excellent! I found this a little confusing with characters being referred to by a variety of names, fine if you speak the language, but I don’t! There was also too many subplots. If it had just been about the civil war and the affect on the families I think I’d have got greater satisfaction! Read it though and all her other books, Especially A God in every stone and Burnt Shadows!

It's difficult to know where to start with a review of this novel. It's the story of a group of friends from Karachi whose families have a complex history due to the development of Pakistan post-partition. As the teens grow older, their friendships are stretched by distance and the discoveries of what has happened in the past. Karim is obsessed by map-making and Raheen by wordplay and conversation, each in their own way trying to describe and define the city they're from.I bought this book because I was curious to see why Granta bent their own rules to include the author in their recent Best Young Novelists list. I think I can see why, because the language, the description and the evocation of a changing culture is quite outstanding.

As always, beautifully written

A beautiful, beautiful book. I loved every bit of it and wanted it to go on forever.