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kafiro_ka_kafka's review
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I wanted to like this book sooo bad. But I just can't. Compared to Hanif's previous two books, this is just boring. The books is disconnected and it feels like even Md. Hanif doesn't care about these characters.
margaret21's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to like this book. I expected to like this book, and did so at the start. Eventually, some 180 pages in, I found I could no longer turn the pages to find out how this story of Ellie, the American pilot who crashes in the desert, teenager Momo who lives in a refugee camp, and Momo's dog, the most intelligent of the three, pannned out. The book has a strange, disconnected feel to it which I enjoyed at first, but in the end I .... just gave up.
banned_book's review
2.0
After reading A Case of Exploding Mangoes, I scrambled to find anything by Mohammed Hanif in my library. This was the only other book that they carried.
Perhaps it was ruined by my expectations. I loved the way he wove elements of magical realism into historical events in ACOEM, but here it feels out of place and far-fetched. I think his success in ACOEM stems from several moving parts that come together within one person's perspective.
Here, the story stands mostly still and comes together when multiple perspectives merge. There didn't feel to be enough substance for so many minds to mull over. This was made especially apparent when those internal monologues lacked critical thinking power (and believe it or not, as bothersome as the dog's voice was to read, Mutt wasn't one of them!).
Hanif experiments and takes a lot of risks with this story, I'll give him that. Hopefully he'll utilize them more successfully in his next novel.
Perhaps it was ruined by my expectations. I loved the way he wove elements of magical realism into historical events in ACOEM, but here it feels out of place and far-fetched. I think his success in ACOEM stems from several moving parts that come together within one person's perspective.
Here, the story stands mostly still and comes together when multiple perspectives merge. There didn't feel to be enough substance for so many minds to mull over. This was made especially apparent when those internal monologues lacked critical thinking power (and believe it or not, as bothersome as the dog's voice was to read, Mutt wasn't one of them!).
Hanif experiments and takes a lot of risks with this story, I'll give him that. Hopefully he'll utilize them more successfully in his next novel.
libdibs's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The only good bit about this book, and I hate to be a hater, was the paranormal twist
hirasidd's review against another edition
4.0
Mohammed Hanif’s Red Birds is a satire about American obsession with wars, their hypocrisy is establishing the agenda, justifying it and the unavoidable aftermath of collateral damage.
The narration of the story is carried by all the characters of the book as the first person. Weird but it helps in understanding every character’s POV and eventually sympathizing and despising with each of them.
The ending of the book has lots of ambiguity and vagueness. I enjoyed it because it leaves the interpretation of the ending to the reader.
The narration of the story is carried by all the characters of the book as the first person. Weird but it helps in understanding every character’s POV and eventually sympathizing and despising with each of them.
The ending of the book has lots of ambiguity and vagueness. I enjoyed it because it leaves the interpretation of the ending to the reader.
naoemil's review
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I enjoyed reading this book but it was extremely character-driven aka not much actually happens. The book is mostly spent on characters reflecting on the past and the hypothetical. That being said the characters are endearing and funny so it was worth the read. It just seemed like the plot had a lot of potential and I would've liked to see more of it.
lazygal's review
4.0
Multiple POVs, including one from Mutt, make this more of a mystery than it needs to be. What mystery? There are two: will Momo find his brother? and will Major Ellie find his way back to his base? Life in the village now that the Americans have drawn back from their nearby base isn't easy for anyone, but having Ellie and a UN trauma specialist descend on Momo's family doesn't help... or does it?
ARC provided by publisher
ARC provided by publisher
deepakchecks's review
3.0
Sarcasm and irreverence has been Mohammed Hanif's strength. I loved his previous two works, especially A Case of Exploding Mangoes , hence started out with high hopes. The book was not too bad, a dark comedy on the absurdities of war and its impacts.
The story is told through the first person descriptions of three main protagonists - Momo, a teen living in a refugee camp, Mutt, his dog and Ellie, a US pilot whose flight crashes into the desert. Momo has an entrepreneurial streak and is looking for opportunities to set-up a business opportunity, but also wants to avenge his missing brother 'Bro Ali'. Ellie survives an air crash but is found by Momo, who takes him home. Ellie only wants to go home, while Momo has other plans for him. Mutt's chapters are the funniest of the lot, a clever device employed by the writer to comment on human's folly. The last section of the book is a mind-bending one, not in a very good way. There is a shootout, some of the humans turn out to be ghosts and I am not entirely what it was supposed to mean.
The writing is razor sharp and downright funny, but it did not stir any great emotions in me, especially the surreal concluding parts which left me in a mixed state. Nevertheless, a good read.
Quotes:
• But when you take a brutal blow to the back, you say, excuse my foul language, forgive my bad breath, but woof this camp.
• Now we have war for war's sake... War has been condensed to carpet-bombing followed by dry rations and craft classes for refugees. People who had not left their little hamlets for centuries, goatherds who believed in nothing but grassy fields and folk music, women who had never walked beyond the village well, now they could all go and live in UN tents, eat exotic food donated by USAID and burp after drinking fizzy drinks.
• In the corner of the loving room there is a TV that Mother Dear covers with a bedsheet as if it was a chick who needed to do Purdah because of young men in the house.
• Is this pretty mutt with a broken leg my saviour angel or has he been sent to test my resolve? Am I supposed to nurture him back to health and then look for a way to escape this desert, or eat him up bit by bit while looking for a way to escape this desert?
• .. "If I were to start judging people by what they wear, half your camp's population would end up in war crimes tribunal in Amsterdam"
"The war tribunals are held in the Hague", she says dismissively. "And nobody ends up there. It's just for show. Unless you're some poor unlucky Serb and cant afford a good lawyer"
• Red birds are real. The reason we don't see them is because we don't want to. Because, if we see them, we'll remember. When someone dies in a raid or shooting or when someone's throat is slit, their last drop of blood transforms into a tiny red bird and flies away. And then reappears when we are trying hard to forget them, when we think we have forgotten them, when we think we have learnt to live without them, when we utter those stupid words that have 'moved on'.
The story is told through the first person descriptions of three main protagonists - Momo, a teen living in a refugee camp, Mutt, his dog and Ellie, a US pilot whose flight crashes into the desert. Momo has an entrepreneurial streak and is looking for opportunities to set-up a business opportunity, but also wants to avenge his missing brother 'Bro Ali'. Ellie survives an air crash but is found by Momo, who takes him home. Ellie only wants to go home, while Momo has other plans for him. Mutt's chapters are the funniest of the lot, a clever device employed by the writer to comment on human's folly. The last section of the book is a mind-bending one, not in a very good way. There is a shootout, some of the humans turn out to be ghosts and I am not entirely what it was supposed to mean.
The writing is razor sharp and downright funny, but it did not stir any great emotions in me, especially the surreal concluding parts which left me in a mixed state. Nevertheless, a good read.
Quotes:
• But when you take a brutal blow to the back, you say, excuse my foul language, forgive my bad breath, but woof this camp.
• Now we have war for war's sake... War has been condensed to carpet-bombing followed by dry rations and craft classes for refugees. People who had not left their little hamlets for centuries, goatherds who believed in nothing but grassy fields and folk music, women who had never walked beyond the village well, now they could all go and live in UN tents, eat exotic food donated by USAID and burp after drinking fizzy drinks.
• In the corner of the loving room there is a TV that Mother Dear covers with a bedsheet as if it was a chick who needed to do Purdah because of young men in the house.
• Is this pretty mutt with a broken leg my saviour angel or has he been sent to test my resolve? Am I supposed to nurture him back to health and then look for a way to escape this desert, or eat him up bit by bit while looking for a way to escape this desert?
• .. "If I were to start judging people by what they wear, half your camp's population would end up in war crimes tribunal in Amsterdam"
"The war tribunals are held in the Hague", she says dismissively. "And nobody ends up there. It's just for show. Unless you're some poor unlucky Serb and cant afford a good lawyer"
• Red birds are real. The reason we don't see them is because we don't want to. Because, if we see them, we'll remember. When someone dies in a raid or shooting or when someone's throat is slit, their last drop of blood transforms into a tiny red bird and flies away. And then reappears when we are trying hard to forget them, when we think we have forgotten them, when we think we have learnt to live without them, when we utter those stupid words that have 'moved on'.