But ultimately, the story of the Khan is not a retelling or a reimagining – it stands on its own legs with a compelling woman at its centre. She is what keeps you thinking about the book long after you’re done with it.
Did I like Jia, with her rum-soaked almond eyes and her soft and golden skin? I’m still not sure.
But what I can say is that there were moments where I felt like I was her. Mir describes Jia’s anger unfolding inside her, slow and insidious as she beholds her tortured brother, all the more powerful because she cannot give vent to it at that moment because her nemesis expects a hysterical reaction. This moment defines Jia for me – because she is a woman of deep feelings, but one who is able to control them into cool, calculated revenge.
I felt Jia’s love for her family, particularly her older brother Zan. There’s a wonderful metaphor in the book where Mir compares the bonds of family to the threads in a jamawar pattern. It’s a wonderful piece of writing but it also explains not just the bonds of any family, but that of a South Asian family. And not just any desi family – a Pakhtun family.
But there were also times when I couldn’t relate to Jia at all. Her coldness towards her son (a defence mechanism, perhaps, because the intense love she felt for him would have made her weak and unable to take the reins of the family business?) are one such instance. Her actions towards the end of the book made me reassess what I thought of her all along. In the end, she is both human and inhuman, intensely vulnerable but also cold hearted, loyal but ambitious. Like most strong women I know, she defies predictable patterns of behaviour. Mir lulls the reader into assuming her motives because she is a woman only to dispel them in an unpredictable ending that leaves one asking more questions.
What I loved most about this book was Mir’s writing.
It’s gorgeous. For some people, the extended metaphors can be tiring; for me, they were a delight. What I did feel, however, that the re-building of the Khan empire was a tad bit rushed – it came too soon and I wanted to see Jia struggling a bit more to achieve what she does in the end.
There are Jo Malone candles and Hum TV dramas, there is halal food and Savile Row jackets. It all makes sense. It fits in without jarring, which is so refreshing because it is believable and still new. ‘The Khan’ turns stereotypes on their heads – again and again one finds oneself making assumptions which are promptly challenged. That is, to my mind, what makes it an incredible read.
