Of ‘Life’ in its Grand and Paltry Confusions

Narrative non-fiction is a strange beast and one of its progenies, the personal essay, is relatively unknown in our part of the world. We tend to privilege the political in a broad sense—we produce much solid, not to say stolid, worthy analyses and investigation, but shy away, by and large, from the personal. When South Asian women write of their situations it will, more often than not, be in the terminology of patriarchy, or gender or sexual orientation. These fifteen essays by Pakistani-origin women in this collection,Ways of Being, break this mould. Ruminative, reflective, often very introspective, they are honest, thoughtful examinations of our present realities; of personal fates; of ‘Life’ in both its grand and paltry confusions.