Kamila Shamsie’s latest novel Home
Fire revisits the Greek tragedy Antigone. Sophocles’ timeless classic is
reimagined in the modern context with the many intricacies of present day
intact. The novel reflects on the UK of post 9/11 era and traces the changes
through the lives of two families – the Pashas and the Lone, British families
of Pakistani origin. While the Pashas are wary of their dubious past and a
father allegedly involved in terrorist activities, the Lones are people who
have assimilated to the British ways and have seen much socio-political
mobility. It is one of the daughters of the Pasha family – Aneeka who presents
the dilemma that Antigone faced. Just like Antigone was torn between the love
for her slain brother and the allegiance to the state and the King who was her
uncle, Aneeka found herself torn between proving her loyalty to the British
nation and the love for her misled brother who went to join the media cell of
ISIS. Like Shamsie’s other works, this one also shows the complexities of
identities, the nuances that are pervasive. Parvaiz, Aneeka’s twin brother,
yearns for the father he never had and who allegedly died when tortured in
Guantanamo Bay. He finally meets someone who bonds with him over the love of
football and also tells him heroic stories of his father. Led rather misled by
this person, Parvaiz ends up joining ISIS. But the disillusionment settles soon
and Parvez wants to come home.
Aneeka
tries to convince Eammon, the son of the Home Secretary who is smitten by her.
She hopes that Eammon’s father will help in bringing Parvaiz home. But as
destiny would have it, Aneeka has to go to Pakistan to bring home Parvaiz’s
dead body. Much politics is played on the dead body as well. While Aneeka sits
with Parvaiz’s body, her allegiance to Britain is questioned again. Shouldn’t
she be ashamed of her brother? Should she bring his ‘tainted’ body back? The
novel ends with giving a true picture of the turbulence that eastern countries
continue to suffer from.
Shamsie’s
book puts forth ideas that challenges commonly held stereotypes – it reasserts
the problem of home grown terrorism in the western countries. It also shows how
Muslims are engaging with the world post 9/11, the issue of hyphenated
identities and contesting loyalties. The elder sister Isma accommodates while
Parvaiz is disillusioned. For Aneeka the most important thing was bringing back
her brother home. Eammon meets Isma but he falls for Aneeka when he visits
their home in London. For Aneeka, Eammon was someone who could help her
brother. Her relationship with Eammon is seen through this complex lens. This
elegantly written book which was also longlisted for Man Booker 2017 is a
balancing act. It is a powerful exploration of the clash between family,
society and the modern world and how such complications have semblance with the
classic play.
Coming to the second book, like
all his other books, Orhan Pamuk’s The Red Haired Woman also bear witness to
his love for the city of Istanbul. In this book also the protagonist faces push
and pull of the city, its in betweenness in the realm of East and West, of
modern and traditional and the sacred and the secular. Throughout the novel we
find references to two ancient tragedies of fathers and sons – the Greek
classic “Oedipus Rex” and the classic Persian Tale of Sohrab and Rostam from
Ferdowsi’s book Shahname or The Book of Kings.
In
the first tragedy Oedipus unknowingly kills his father while in the second one
the father kills his son by mistake. Sophocles’ tragedy is not just a canonical
western text but its headstrong individualist protagonists find resonance in
non Western tales as well. Pamuk’s book also traces the life of Cem Celik whose
father is more absent than present in his life. Cem’s Marxist father deserts
his family after his release from prison. This puts financial constraints on
Cem’s family. As a result he is forced to take up an odd job as a well digger’s
apprentice. While the job was supposed to be only of two weeks, it took much
longer. It was a challenging job where the site denied to yield water. The work
drags on amidst rising tension and tempers.
Cem
sees a fatherly figure in the well digger. And they often go to the nearby town
during evening trips. There as a part of a theatre troupe Cem meets an
enigmatic red haired woman. His attraction towards this woman causes tension in
the workplace between Master Mehmut and himself because he imagines an
involvement between them. Its interesting how the red haired woman responded to
Cem’s approach. She reciprocated his interest sexually. But its only later we
get to know why she did so. She had a history with Cem's father from the days of the movement and we see the same oedipal complex being played out here.
Cem’s
obsession with the red haired woman leads to an accident in the well digging
site. It forces him to flee the place. His life takes many turns and he is
forced to come back to that very place where he worked as a well digger’s
apprentice many years ago. There he faces the consequences of his own actions –
a son born out of his relationship with the red haired woman. We are taken into
another estranged father son relationship. The later part of the book points to
a repetitive reference to the two classical tragedies. The incidents of estrangement
are way too many. Earlier English translations of Pamuk’s book were much better
than this one which seems to be a case of careless prose or awkward translation.
Both
these two works revisit classics and try to present modern versions of these
timeless pieces. They succeed to an extent whereby human emotions and how they
grapple with complexities are reflected, but they also show the limitations
that modern value systems present.
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