Bapsi Sidhwa

Funny. In fact, it was often very funny. The book recounts the life (told in retrospect) of Freddy Junglewalla, the patriarch of a Parsi family in Pakistan from the early 20th century up to independence. It begins with the migration of a young (and very ambitious) Freddy from the country to the city of Lahore. Freddy, of course, is accompanied by his pregnant wife and his simultaneously hilarious and infuriating mother-in-law. The focus of the story, in many ways, is the relationship between Freddy and his mother-in-law, as he arrives penniless and becomes a successful, wealthy merchant.… (mere)

3/5 ☆☆☆



This is a delightful novel but no one can make a quite relative theme from its title " An American Brat " . On first look I thought it must be an account of account teenage spoiled girl POV who creates lot of trouble in people's life and came to realise the true meaning of life . But what set me apart is the story is nothing like it completely different and very much meaningful.

Starts with a girl named Firoza in early 80s, who has lived all her life in lahore , Pakistan and is suddenly thrown into American lifestyle.
Starts with a worried mother sending her daughter to avoid the influence of Islamic fundamentalist and political conflict on her daughter ; a very interesting, funny tale of Pakistani parsee girl who deals with lot of complications, problems while living in America and becomes mature in process.

Bishwa put lot of humour and her wittyness to make this novel intresting. Eg-
Firoza's first impression after reaching the Kennedy airport is " she knew no one and no one knew her ! It was heady feeling to be suddenly so free"
When describing the relationship of her girl friends relationship to her mother she says “Some women just prefer women. Others are fed up. American boys change girlfriends every few months. All boys are not like my David. The girls can’t stand the heartache. It takes them months to get over it. Laura says, ‘If Shirley gets my juices flowing, why should i mess around with boys?’ Either way, they get on with their lives."

It's wonderful to give a lot of credit to Bishwa while describing relationship of Firoza and 7 year old uncle . There's lot of bickering between them but they help each other in need .
Also I noticed that , the books keeps revolving around socio- political senario and it shows how much politics is important in Pakistani's life. Also , Bishwa highlight the factor of parsee tradition and their culture in very detailed way as much is it possible. And I came to know about two three parsee word like kushti and avasta.
The end is abrupt but purely justified and in mature way . It's a novel which is closer to real life circumstances which most girl faces in southasian region .… (mere)