He sits back, his hands resting lightly on the steering wheel, ignoring me. I study his pink, manicured fingers, the fingers of a man who has never had to do any real work. One look at his skin and you can tell he has been fed on a steady diet of bootleg Scotch whisky, chicken korma and an endless supply of his agency’s safe-house whores.
Look into his sunken cobalt-blue eyes and you can tell he is the kind of man who picks up a phone, makes a long-distance call and a bomb goes off in a crowded bazaar. He probably waits outside a house at midnight in his Corolla with its headlights switched off while his men climb the wall and rearrange the lives of some hapless civilians.
Or, as I know from personal experience, he appears quietly at funerals after accidental deaths and unexplained suicides and wraps things up with a neat little statement, takes care of any loose ends, saves you the agony of autopsies and the foreign press speculating about decorated colonels swinging from ceiling fans. He is a man who runs the world with a packet of Dunhills, a gold lighter and an unregistered car.
~ A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
This is a book full of reckless, hilarious one-liners. I’ve included a longish passage in this post to convey the context.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
I am not usually too keen on ‘teaser’ style posts, but this one really caught my eye! It has made me want to read more right away. I have Hanif’s latest novel, Our Lady Of Alice Bhatti, on my wishlist.
I don’t know what to make of this book but it looks like one you wouldn’t want to put down once you get started. Enjoy!
@Jenny: It was a bit up and down for me honestly. I loved the wit and the irony. But I wish the plot was tighter, a little more coherent, and with more heart.