Once upon a time in Karachi...

Kartography by Kamila Shamsie

Reviewed by Laila Kazmi

Kartography Kamila Shamsie Bloomsbury, 2002

Kamila Shamsie' Kartography is an exciting novel, especially for those who have lived in Karachi. Set in the Eighties and Nineties in one of Pakistan's largest cities, it is a tale of friendship, love, betrayal and anguish. Karachi is just as important to the story as the two main characters, Raheen and Karim. For those who lived through those years in Karachi, the novel serves as a bittersweet reminder of a difficult time in a beloved city. Thirteen years old, Raheen and Karim, are best friends who’ve been together since birth. Their winter holidays have just started and their plans of spending their days roaming the city with two other close friends, Zia and Sonia, are being spoiled by their parents. Nervous about the safety of their children as the ethnic violence escalates, the parents are planning to send them away for the holidays.

Living in the better part of town, the four friends are somewhat shielded from the violence. Thus, while death toll in the city rises daily, the biggest worries of the young teenagers seem to be not being able to go to the beach or drive to the airport coffee shop when they want – the oldest of the group, Zia, has recently acquired a fake driver's license. Trying to enjoy life like normal teenagers, they sometime seem almost oblivious to the violence. In reality, it is always in the back of their minds even as they make jokes to trivialize it.

"'And they say the elite aren't affected by what's happening in the city,' I'd quipped to Karim a few weeks earlier when I found out softball had been cancelled altogether..."

As the years pass, some unpleasant truths are revealed and the four friends are forced to face bigger issues in each of their lives. As children, Raheen and Karim could read each other's thoughts and complete each other's sentences. But as they reach their early twenties, events from their parents’ past put them at odds with each other and their lifelong friendship at risk.

With the parallel story of Yasmin, Zafar, Maheen and Ali who are the parents of Raheen and Karim, the author touches on another dark period from Pakistan's history. The four parents have known each other since their college days when they lived through the civil war which resulted in the creation of an independent Bangladesh in 1971. That year has haunting memories for the four parents. It is also the year in which the parents swapped partners yet managed to keep their friendship alive. Raheen struggles to untangle her parents' past which is colliding with her own world. It is days away from 1995 when Raheen writes the following note to herself:

"Dead bang between our beginning and our present, is 1971, of which I know next to nothing except that there was a war and East Pakistan became Bangladesh, and what terrible things we must have done then to remain so silent about it. Is it the shame at losing the war, or guilt about what we did to try to win that mutes us?"

Will the friendship between Raheen and Karim survive the pressures of the ethnic violence that surrounds them in the present as well as that which occurred even before their births? Will the parents live up to the expectations of their children? How will Karachi effect the lives of each of the characters?

The novel which starts out at slow pace soon becomes difficult to put down. Kartography is a coming of age story of four friends. Shamsie’s characters are vividly portrayed. Each is very different from the other. Though mainly a story about Raheen and Karim, Zia and Sonia are every bit as intriguing. The flashbacks to the parents' college days are revealing of another time and mind set. Karachi is portrayed as a complex city, lively and dangerous. One thing is for sure, as a native, Kamila Shamsie is in love with her city and manages to invoke in the reader a longing to experience the vibrant life there.

Kamila Shamsie's other novels include 'In the City by the Sea' and 'Salf and Saffron.' Her biography and links to interviews can be found on Sawnet.