Mira Sethi debuts with “ Are You Enjoying? A collection of short stories about life in Pakistan
Before becoming a TV star in Pakistan, Mira Sethi worked as a book writing assistant at The Wall Street Journal for about 2.5 years, during which one precise moment made her realize that she did not belong.
“I came back from (vacation in) Lahore and took the elevator to the fifth floor of the Wall Street Journal building, and one of my editors – not my immediate boss, but one of the art editors – he said to me, ‘Hey, how was Guantanamo Bay? »» Sethi, 34, recently recalled by phone from his home in San Francisco.
Sethi, in other words, was keenly aware of the distorted perceptions the United States has for its home country. The author of the new collection of short stories “Are You Enjoying?” was born and raised in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province. She attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts before becoming a journalist, and now divides her time between San Francisco and Karachi, where she spends part of the year acting in television and movies.
Her first book, which she started writing several years ago when her first experience on a movie set inspired a version of one of her stories, serves as a kind of mosaic of Pakistan, told through the Inner Life of Her Characters: Aging TV Star Finds Hope in Relationship with American Diplomat; two queer childhood friends marry to escape suspicion; a woman and her daughter-in-law face the challenges of a patriarchal society.
The stories are calm and intimate in their specificity but also form a backdrop of his country of origin which can be candid and at times critical. Sethi spoke to The Chronicle about his book and what writing about Pakistan means to an American audience.
Q: All of your stories are set in Pakistan, and a few have fleeting references to each other. Is there a common thread in the collection?
A: I think my book is about strong women negotiating their own place in society. This is one aspect of it. The other is the young people trying to make their way through a conservative or traditional society.
Q: Even though the stories create a portrait of Pakistan, your writing does not explain the country or its standards to readers. Was it intentional?
A: I was determined not to write an editorial, and that’s a shortcut for: I don’t want to write explanatory literature. I think a question that a non-Western writer should ask himself early in his career is first and foremost: “Do I want to be a bridge maker?” and “Do I want to be accessible in the West?”
While I want to be a bridge builder – if not why write, why be published by Knopf – I never want it to be at the expense of the idiosyncrasies, authenticity and subjectivity of my characters.
Q: Do you feel pressure on how to properly present your country, especially when you release a book to a predominantly American readership?
A: In fact, I wrote an article for Vogue, in which I said, “There is an anxious obsession with showing a positive side of Pakistan in the West.” Anyone who is feted by the West is immediately considered suspect in Pakistan because it is not an open democracy. We like to think we are, but we really are not. There is a ton of censorship; there are no open communication networks. And we believe that people who are celebrated by the West must have sold Pakistan in some way to be relevant in the West or to be respected in the West. But I always knew I was going to write what I thought was true. And it is hard.
Q: Are you worried about the reaction from Pakistani readers?
A: Pakistan’s response has in fact been extremely encouraging. People really got the impression that this was not appeasing the West. It has gone through a lot of reviews in the reviews I have read i.e. I shatter Western stereotypes of Pakistan. I think after September 11 the West demanded books explaining Islam, explaining terrorism, and explaining the region.
Because I live and work there, I think I get a feel for the way life is. I didn’t want to show too bright or sanitized version of Pakistan, and I don’t think I did because you feel like the characters are struggling.
“Do you like it?”
By Mira Sethi
(Knopf; 208 pages; $ 24)
Mira Sethi in virtual conversation with Shahina Piyarali: 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 19. Free. www.elliottbaybook.com
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