#Lababin

[daneshzaki]

Kite Strings: Book Review

Mehnaz is an average, middle-class girl who wants to enjoy life. She and her family are someone whom you can easily relate to. Kite Strings by Andaleeb Wajid is a story of life in Vellore, a town in Tamil Nadu from Mehnaz's eyes. The culture and traditions of the Lababin Muslim community are on full display in the book. Being part of the same community, the story felt real and about someone known or related to me.

For the major part of the book, the flow was nice and easy; towards the end, it became a bit too pacy with quite a few incidents happening at the same time. This could be seen in two ways: the author wanting to finish things off quickly or that she wanted to depict real life as close as possible (where sometimes things happen too quickly). The end seems a bit too sudden and has a few questions unanswered such as did the boys in school who harass Mateen (Mehnaz's brother) and his friends get punished and what happened to Basheer, Mehnaz's cousin who runs off midway in the story. I found out later though that there is a separate chapter about Basheer on the author's web site.

There are a few typos and a grammatical errors in the book that could have been avoided through better editing. Also, a glossary of Urdu words used along with their English meaning would be of help to readers not familiar with such words.

Overall, the book provides a good view of life in the Lababin Muslim community from a woman's perspective.