Shame Review

I just finished reading Salman Rushdie’s 1983 novel about a country that’s “not quite Pakistan”. As The New Yorker put it at the time, “Rushdie’s novels pour by in a sparkling, voracious onrush….each paragraph luxurious and delicious.” I think thats a pretty good way to describe his prose. The story follows the fate of real life Pakistani presidents Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq through fictionalized composite characters. One is a left-leaning populist named Isaknder Harappa (re: Ali Bhutto) known for his lecherous lifestyle. Another is a military man and religious zealot named Raza Hyder (re: Zia-ul-Haq) who eventually overthrows Harappa in a military coup. The two know each other and their families are intertwined and it’s through the wives and women of the families that the main focus of the narrative and theme takes place. I started reading this novel last year, and it struck me as weirdly resonant with the Trump Age. Particularly the description of Iskander Harappa. To give some context, Rushdie goes out of his way to frame Pakistan as a country born of shame. This, according to Rushdie, is due to the country explicitly being founded, not on any basis of ethnicity or history, but solely on the basis of religion, Gods own country so to speak. The shame that suffices the nation comes from it beings Gods country ideologically yet in practice being beset by the same failures as every nation. Things like widespread corruption, oppression, military setbacks, economic inequality, poverty, stagnation. This cognitive dissonance then expresses itself in unforeseen ways. It is with this in mind that Rushdie explains the rise of Iskander Harappa. Harappa is utterly and completely shame-less, and in this is what facilitates his rise to power. He is a frivolous playboy from an wealthy family who nonetheless connects with the average citizen in articulating a populist rage at the feckless and corrupt elites who run the country, and rides the sentiment it to political power (albeit from a left, instead of right, populist stance). In a supposedly godly country, Harappa flouts Islamic taboos on drinking, gambling, fornicating and all manor of lecherous behavior to no consequence, sound familiar?. In a society obsessed with honor and and it’s inverse shame, what happens when someone is totally immune to its effects? This struck the most familiar cord in the current era, beset as we were with a president constitutionally incapable of being hemmed in by shame, its almost like a super-power. Myself and Rushdie are not advocating for a society completely devoid of shame or standards of conduct, but he does paint a vivid picture of a the downsides such a stick interpretation can cause. This is most clearly apparent in the descriptions of the women of the universe created. The wives of Iskander and Raza, Reni and Bilquis become the central focus of the narrative for around a third of the novel. The amount of shame heaped on the wives of the two men is were the true extent of the shame culture exerts itself to the utmost. Reni, the wife of Iskander is humiliated by her husbands indiscretions and spends time in seclusion sewing a numerous shawls that illustrate shameful moments in her families career. Bilquis is shamed by her inability to produce a son for her famous husband and takes her frustration out upon her daughters as a result. Mr. Rushdie occasionally takes asides from the main narrative to describe events from his own life. For example, he relays a story in which a Pakistani girl in London is killed by her father for the crime of sleeping with an English boy. While Rushdie condemns the killing, he also says that he has a pang of sympathy and understanding with the father over the shame inducing incident. The main upheavals of the novel are caused as a response to the accursed emotion. The Army mutiny’s against the government of Iskander Harappa, is, according to Rushdie, inspired by their shameful defeat in the 1971 Bangladeshi War. The coup is a way to regain their lost honor and confidence according to the author. This causes the downfall and death of Harappa while elevates Hyder to the presidency. The other great imdiment of shame is the daughter of Raza Hyder, Sufiya Zinobia. The shame of her birth, not only the failure to be male but also the mental handicap she is born with. The unrecognized shame eventually turns her into a monster, one who stalks the countryside, ripping off mens heads and devouring them. These combined and sometimes distorted narratives are what make up the core of the book. The allegory’s can be a bit ham-fisted at times and there is little narrative flow, but the author always approaches the story with a glint and glean of humor that, combined with the loquacious prose, make for an enjoyable read. The book is also particularly relevant in highlighting some of the emotional stakes we’ve been living through the last couple of years, as well as shining a spotlight on an country and region of the world that rarely gets the kind of in-depth treatment given here. Pakistan is an important, complex and interesting country that has lessons to teach for post -9/11 and post-Trump America, would recommend.