The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| G. Willow Wilson - Woman of two worlds Posted: 22 Jan 2013 01:56 AM PST G. Willow Wilson's books show both beauty and hard truths of life in the Middle East. WRITER G. Willow Wilson is used to standing out, whether as a white American in her adopted country Egypt, or as a headscarf-wearing Muslim woman in her Seattle home in America. "I'm like a dual foreigner," she says on the telephone, while putting the younger of her two daughters, three-month-old Safeya, to sleep. Yet straddling two cultures has helped the 31-year-old bring out three critically acclaimed books in the same number of genres: a graphic novel Cairo, a memoir The Butterfly Mosque and last year's Alif The Unseen, her first novel, which has been named one of the top books of 2012 by The New York Times and Washington Post. "There are some days you want to look and be like everyone else. It's less tiring, but it's also wonderful as a writer to take one step back," she says. Wilson, who never uses her first name (Gwendolyn), has published several graphic novels with big names such as DC, Vertigo and Marvel, but first captured comics readers' attention in 2008 with Cairo, an exquisite depiction of the clash of cultures in the Middle East. Published by Vertigo, it was nominated for an Eisner, the comics industry's equivalent of an Oscar. Two years later, Grove Press published The Butterfly Mosque, a lyrical memoir of the writer's time in Egypt, where she worked as a high school teacher and occasional stringer for periodicals such as the Atlantic Monthly from 2003 to 2007. The book covers her culture shock in a city steeped in tradition but sans American supermarkets, and also follows her romance with fellow teacher Omar, now her husband. However, what really won the rave reviews was her candid discussion of why she converted to Islam – a year before moving to Cairo, while doing an Islamic Studies course at Boston University – and how she tried to negotiate a space between the culture she came from and the life she adopted. "The Middle East is a part of the world that Americans are very unfamiliar with and suspicious of," says Wilson, who moved back to the United States with Omar in 2007 so as not to lose touch with her family and friends. "I thought this could be a book about the difficult things about being a convert and a Muslim in a post-9/11 world." The daughter of two atheists, she decided in her late teens that Islam fulfilled her need for a monotheistic faith. Her family was and is supportive – her father is an engineer, her mother is in finance and her younger sister is an epidemiologist – but she finds the wider American public less tolerant. This negative perception is fuelled by the efforts of a few bad apples, whether terrorists or some of the regimes in the Middle East that suppress free speech and human rights. Wilson does not shy away from these issues and brings them up determinedly, especially in Alif The Unseen, a fantasy tale set in the reality of the Internet-fuelled Arab Spring (the book was reviewed in October in these pages). Topical now, the novel was a hard sell back when she started writing it in 2010. As an eyewitness to the growing online community in the Middle East, she wanted to write about the development of "Blogistan", where people could speak freely about political topics. However, she was unable to convince the editors of The Butterfly Mosque, who "didn't understand how essential these communities were becoming". So she put it in fiction instead. "We open our minds in a way for fiction that we don't for non-fiction," she says. The manuscript was sent to her agent in January 2011, as protesters occupied Cairo's Tahrir Square, a major step in removing the government of then president Hosni Mubarak. It was a tough time, as she and Omar worried about the family members he left behind, and also coped with becoming new parents – their first daughter Maryam was born in February. Her in-laws stayed safe and with things more settled now, she is thinking of moving back to Cairo in a few years once the girls are older. "I imagine we'll be back full-time, probably in a couple of years. Obviously for my husband, there's family and history, and for me, there are things I came to love about Egypt and North Africa. "And it's easier to be a foreigner in a foreign country than in your own," adds the writer, who has navigated a steep re-learning curve in the past five years, figuring out the mechanics of adult life in the US – "tracking down health insurance, renting an apartment, buying cars", among others. "It was very strange for me to come back and have culture shock in my own country," she says. – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network |
| Memoir of a Muslim boy growing up in the West Posted: 22 Jan 2013 01:38 AM PST What goes into making the perfect gentleman? The author of a delightful memoir on being a Muslim boy growing up in the West tells us. MEETING Imran Ahmad after reading his book The Perfect Gentleman is rather surreal; it feels like you know entirely too much about a person you've just met, thanks to his honest, endearing and witty memoir. You know, for instance, that he secretly wore pyjama bottoms under formal trousers when he was young, because the material irritated his skin otherwise. You know he was secretly tempted to bash in the head of a racist school bully with his briefcase (and yes, he carried a briefcase to school). You know that he secretly imagined himself to be a cross between James Bond and Simon Templar. You even know that, as a teenager, he agonised over what he was supposed to do on his wedding night. So open is Imran about his experiences, thoughts and emotions of being a Pakistani Muslim growing up in London that you forget you're reading an autobiography and he begins to feel more like an absorbing fictional character – which can be rather odd when that character is sitting in front of you having a cup of coffee. "Unless I was absolutely honest, there was no point in writing the book," says Imran, who recently turned 50. "I wanted readers to understand my own internal, mental and spiritual development. You'll notice once I slip into the story, I write in the present tense. It's meant to be in the moment, there is no apology from the writer for 30 years ago." Currently based in Kuala Lumpur and working with an investment company, Imran was born in Pakistan and moved to Britain with his parents at the age of one. Having attended a prestigious boys' grammar school, he went to university in Scotland where he studied chemistry, but eventually ended up working as a management consultant, in renowned corporates like Unilever and General Electric. Originally written and self-published in 2005 as Unimagined, the book was picked up by British book retailer Waterstones in 2007. Imran, however, had his sights set on a US publisher, with dreams of getting that coveted Oprah Winfrey book endorsement. In 2012, his dream was achieved when US publisher Hachette republished the book and distributed it worldwide under its current title. The cherry on the cake? The book landed on O, the Oprah magazine, as a recommended book. Imran's efforts to reconcile his ethnic and religious identity with mainstream Western ideals form the basis of The Perfect Gentleman, as he grapples with questions on spirituality, culture and race. Interwoven with these are the more personal aspects of his life: cars, books, movies, friendships, first love (and heartbreak), job interviews, and so on. Imran even bravely shares his experience of agreeing to an arranged marriage, and later, after 20 years, his divorce. He sees it as a process of acceptance and taking responsibility for his decisions. "How are we going to be happy and empowered without being honest about what we've been through? Ninety percent of what we all go through is part of the common human experience, everyone goes through these issues and feels these emotions. People don't feel so alone when they discover that others have shared similar experiences to theirs. A recurrent theme in The Perfect Gentleman is Imran's ambivalence towards the idea of an arranged marriage, while being confronted with the idea of falling in love. Proudly dubbing himself a feminist, Imran adds that one of his missions with the book is to end the traditional arranged marriage practice, where potential spouses are matched based on race, religion, social standing, wealth and physical appearance. "Growing up, I always wondered, why (Westerners) married for love, and we South Asians married for anything but love. When we keep to traditions like arranged marriages, we deny that we individuals have personalities, desires and dreams. We need to be allowed to stop repressing our emotions, and be free," he says. "I never thought I would come to a place in my life where my ex-wife, my daughter and I would all be happy, and on excellent terms with each other, but it happened. That is the real miracle of my life." A large part of the book's narrative also deals with Imran coming to terms with his spirituality. Often being the only Muslim in his social circle, he spent much of his life struggling with matters of faith – both his own and others'. "For me, the book was always a spiritual journey. It takes a long time to break the bonds that we've been conditioned with, but when it comes to religion, the important thing is to let go of tribalism, and focus on our common humanity. My little contribution to the world, if I may say so, is to promote this. I want to re-humanise Muslims to the rest of the world." Despite the thought-provoking issues he raises, the book remains consistently light and readable, thanks to Imran's inherently humorous writing style and ability to make his experiences relatable. "I absolutely did not want to make it a miserable book!" he asserts. "My life wasn't miserable; I mean, there were certain dark aspects, but I wanted to keep the book light and moving forward. I tend to take a philosophical attitude towards my negative experiences. After all, even the racist bully in school provided a necessary narrative and drama in my book." Imran is by no means done with sharing his life's stories. He's already got a sequel drafted out, with plans for a third book as well. "I've always had a compulsion to write, I just didn't know what to write about. Earlier, writing my personal story seemed too sensitive, but as I became older, I realised my book was already written in my head!" he says. Currently single and having settled into his new life in KL (he's been here for about two years now), Imran is looking forward to beginning life anew. He continues to look for his ideal woman, whom he says is "intelligent, elegant, successful, independent, vivacious, active, spiritually aware, and doesn't actually need a man to look after her. "She will challenge me, not bring me tea. And she definitely won't iron my shirts; mine are all non-iron, in any case! "Being in a completely new environment and free from baggage, I feel young and full of potential. I think we should all dare to dream and believe that we can have life, love and happiness. Why not?" Imran Ahmad will be making an appearance at Kinokuniya Bookstores, Suria KLCC, today at 6pm. For more information on The Perfect Gentleman and its author, visit http://www.perfect-gent.com |
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