A Case of Exploding Mangoes

I did like this book - it sets out to be funny and it made me laugh although I doubt it's going to intrude upon anyone's "top ten".

The central character - beside the OCD and mildly frustrated and devoted Muslim, Zia, who descends slowly into a tragic and comical paranoia - is junior under officer Ali Shigri.

We follow Shigri as we try to keep up and understand exactly what's happened - the book moves swiftly between past and present - and why he's being interrogated over the role of his loveable roommate Obaid - Baby O - in the General's death.

The book is intricate and cleverly sewn and all the pieces come together to form the ultimate conclusion which, in a bit like the way we all watched the film Titanic, we obviously know anyway. The plane is going to come down.

But that's not the main point of this book - the crash is simply a vehicle for Hanif to humanise his characters and have a laugh at the expense of the Pakistani rulers he depicts. He does that well - exploiting every hypocrisy and pointing out every fault.

Still, you may find the tale ultimately frustrating and difficult to see the funny side when so many entirely unsuitable and deluded people do end up in power.

It might be one of those laugh or cry situations in which there is only ever one real option.

Oh, and if you're a fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez you'll probably enjoy the reference to Obaid - my favourite character - devouring a book which from Shigri's quick glance at the title seems to be called something like "Chronicle of a...." 

Always nice to be reminded of a classic!

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this anyway - it's probably not to everyone's taste but might make a nice break between deeply evocative or emotional reads.

I also read this on a plane, which might have been a mistake - fortunately they weren't serving mangoes.