Rishi

Exceptional. Heartbreaking. Essential.

One of the finest works of fiction I have read in my life.

Overall an entertaining and interesting read. It's not hard to see why Sami has been a successful comedian, and it was great to get his perspective on life in Pakistan as well as life as a Pakistani in America and Australia.

I do think that the book feels a bit rushed. Perhaps he was asked by publishers to rush the release to maximise the interest he had gained via the ABC special (just a theory). A few more rounds of editing and more time to think about how to structure the book would have done a lot to improve the overall result. Shah seems to veer too much from one thing to another accross chapters, and while his anecdotes are great, at times it feels like they were sandwiched into the narrative without serving a clear purpose. As a result the book feels like a series of slightly scattershot vignettes that don't integrate fully into a broader narrative.

Whitehead can't seem to decide if he wants to write a novel or an essay. When he focuses on the novel, the results are salutary. The prose is rich and descriptive and powerfully depicts the horrific injustice taking place. But Whitehead can't seem to help adding a didactic element to the prose that doesn't mesh with the protagonist. Whitehead wanted to say something, and shoehorned it into Coras thoughts in a clumsy and obtuse way. We know the thoughts are Whiteheads, not Coras. The same message could have been delivered more deftly and better integrated with the protagonists character, or through other mechanisms. Furthermore, the railroad theme is interesting, but wasn't deployed as effectively as it could have been.

The first 40% of the novel superb , but things start to unravel from North Carolina onward.

A truly ambitious work that charts the history of football and its relationship to broader cultural and political developments. I commend Goldblatt for covering the whole globe, and not just the European and South American game. Note: This is not an almanac. The book isn't about recounting lots of games in detail. It is a broader anthropological work about the game, it's spread and development, and how it impacted and was impacted by the societies that played it.

A truly remarkable and courageous book. Despite its age, I imagine that many of the complicated issues about identity, both personal and national remain, and in many ways are even more relevant today. I learned that in the ongoing discussions about Israeli-Palestinian affairs, the situation of the Arab Israeli is often forgotten. Grossman approaches this question with empathy, self awareness, and a willingness to acknowledge it's complexity, and the fact that it impacts not only Israeli Arabs, but also the self conception and soul of the entire Israeli population. Highly recommended.