Moth Smoke

The newest book I am reading is by Mohsin Hamid and is titled Moth Smoke. I picked it upon the recommendation of another sheltered Salman rushdie fan who works at the Liberty Books store here is Karachi. He suggested I read it promising me that I would not regret thedecision.

Having read the first few chapters, I am sure that I will not hold him at any fault; However,I am certain that i will regret the decision. The book has already made mention of many a hallucinegen I sorely miss. The novel is a much more literary piece than all the three booksI have read till now. Lets just say that its not brain candy, its actually a piece writtento analyse and critique something. I think its a good start into the heavier part of mycurrent reading list which includes For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway andKartography by Kamila Shamsie (another book picked up at the recommendation of the bookstore clerk).

Moth Smoker has captured my imgination to this point, and I can feel myself being attractedto the main character more and more, pondering communist ideology on his Karachi rooftop,while smoking a joint. Driving in teh countryside with his knees on the steering wheel,all the while crumbling up hash and inserting it into an empty cigarette, memories that I hold dear have been put into these pages with deftness and ease. The author writes as ifhe knows me, knows that I will not put down his book without diving into my own world of nostalgia.

One passage caught me off guard in particular, Daru the main charcater walk out of hishouse with one cig in his mouth and the other behind his air, he consumes them like a fiend going through the last of his stash. His friend rolls up in a car a few moments later and the first thing daru asks him is if he has any cigs. The friend replies in the affirmativeand Daru proclaims out loud that he has found his Savior. That scene has been played outmany a time in my life, usally with Natty-chu, J or Mag as the saviors and myself as thefiend low on money and hence, nicotine.