In the Light of What We Know

Posted on 11 February 2018 by Zia Haider Rahman

A bold, epic debut novel set during the war and financial crisis that defined the beginning of our centuryAn investment banker approaching forty, his career collapsing and his marriage unraveling, receives a surprise visitor at his West London town house Confronting the disheveled figure of a South Asian male carrying a backpack, the banker recognizes a long lost college friend, a mathematics prodigy who disappeared many years earlier under mysterious circumstances The friend has resurfaced with a confession of unsettling power.Zia Haider Rahman takes us on a journey of exhilarating scope, ranging over Kabul, London, New York, Islamabad, Oxford, and Princeton and dealing with love, belonging, finance, science, and war Its framework is an age old story the friendship of two men and the betrayal of one by the other, both of them desperate in their different ways to climb clear of their wrong beginnings Set against the breaking of nations and beneath the clouds of economic recession, the novel chronicles the lives of people carrying unshakable legacies of class, culture, and faith as they struggle to tame their futures In the Light of What We Know is by turns tender, intimate, and panoramic, telescoping the great upheavals of our young century into a first novel of rare ambition and profundity. New Read In the Light of What We Know author Zia Haider Rahman For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr First of all, bear with me as I m writing this with a Christmas day hangover In the Light of What we Know has inspired me to reread Sebald s Austerlitz with which it shares many similarities, not least of all the weathered tone of its voice and its duality of narrators the first person authorial voice acting as a mediator for Zafar, the true subject of the novel It also has similarities with The Great Gatsby in as much as a privileged but rather prosaic individual is narrating the story of a First of all, bear with me as I m writing this with a Christmas day hangover In the Light of What we Know has inspired me to reread Sebald s Austerlitz with which it shares many similarities, not least of all the weathered tone of its voice and its duality of narrators the first person authorial voice acting as a mediator for Zafar, the true subject of the novel It also has similarities with The Great Gatsby in as much as a privileged but rather prosaic individual is narrating the story of an underprivileged butglamorous and brilliant individual Both characters are Asian in origin but from very different backgrounds The unnamed narrator of Pakistani roots was educated at Eaton, Oxford a...My personal ice bucket challengeIt s the voice that does it, takes you by the hand and whispers in your ear, promising delights, seducing with a grace and ease, persuading you that this is someone you want to spend time with, hours of your time, the next five hundred pages of your time Yes, this is someone whose company I will enjoy That, at least, is how it u...New authors take note there IS a market for your plotless meandering portentous musings Don t despair, just because you don t have any kind whatsoever of a story I appreciate that there are so many 4 5 star reviews of this large novel that speaking ill of it seems like farting in a cathedral But there are also enough jerks who have one and 2 starred it and in their company I find much solace I will take the liberty of quoting a couple of GR disbelievers It s verbalistic, snobbishly New authors take note there IS a market for your plotless meandering portentous musings Don t despair, just because you don t have any kind whatsoever of a story I appreciate that there are so many 4 5 star reviews of this large novel that speaking ill of it seems like farting in a cat...Race Class War Colonialism Memory Choice Epistemology This is a Big Ideas book In some ways it collapses under the weight of all that meaning, as well as the unnecessary complications of its structure Yet I would still argue that, even though it s a debut novel, it takes its place in a rich tradition of refined immigrant British literature, alongside Kazuo Ishiguro, Vikram Seth and Salman Rushdie There is even something of an old fashioned English sensibility to it some of the most Race Class War Colonialism Memory Choice Epistemology This is a Big Ideas book In some ways it collapses under the weight of all that meaning, as well as the unnecessary complications of its structure Yet I would still argue that, even though it s a debut novel, it takes its place in a rich tradition of refined immigrant British literature, alongside Kazuo Ishiguro, Vikram Seth and Salman Rushdie There is even something of an old fashioned English sensibility to it some of the most common literary references are to Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh and W Somerset Maugham Rahman s narrator who is never named is of Pakistani origin but grew up in Princeton, where his father was a physics professor Now, as the novel opens in 2008, the narrator is a London banker trapped in a loveless marriage and facing inv...This novel is every bit as good as James Wood says it is If you have the slightest interest in the consequences of the 20th century wait, that s a ridiculous way to put it , if you have the slightest interest in the consequences of colonialism that s not right either , if you have the slightest interest in the intersections of mathematics, physics, finance capital, the crisis of 2008, masculine egocentrism, South Asian politics, the dominance of Western ways of knowing, the arrogance of Ame...I seem to be out of step with most readers on this one The novel has garnered an amazing number of very positive and laudatory reviews, which completely puzzled me when I read them after finishing or rather not finishing the book I admit to having skipped large chunks of it, so perhaps it is unfair of me to pass judgement, as I can see that others have spent much time reading and pondering on this very long and complex novel However, pass judgment on it I do, for it totally failed to enga I seem to be out of step with most readers on this one The novel has garnered an amazing number of very positive and laudatory reviews, which completely puzzled me when I read them after finishing or rather not finishing the book I admit to having skipped large chunks of it, so perhaps it is unfair of me to pass judgement, as I can see that others have spent much time reading and pondering on this very long and complex novel However, pass judgment on it I do, for it totally failed to engage me It s certainly a literary novel par excellence, and a clever novel of ideas, covering an enormous and unwieldy range of subjects But I found it sprawling and disjointed, with the narrative constantly going off course, and with no clear trajectory And with far too many footnotes.The novel focuses on Zafar, born in...If you like W.G Sebald, if you like Elsa Morante, David Foster Wallace, Jean Rhys, and J.M Coetzee, you will love Zia Haider Rahman s debut novel No novel written in the past decade has been as sweeping in scope, as devastating in honesty, as heartbreaking in intensity as In the Light of What We Know None has examined the predetermination of class so fearlessly, and none has grasped the moment we live in with such crystal clarity, showing us how little we know about our world, the people we If you like W.G Sebald, if you like Elsa Morante, David Foster Wallace, Jean Rhys, and J.M Coetzee, you will love Zia Haider Rahman s debut novel No novel written in the past decade has been as sweeping in scope, as devastating in honesty, as heartbreaking in intensity as In the Light of What We Know None has examined the predetermination of class so fearlessly, and none has grasped the moment we live in with such crystal clarity, showing us how little we know about our world, the people we love, the work we do, our own effects on the lives of others And none has done so with the same brand of humor, intelligence, and, somehow, optimism The main characters Zafar, who shows up on the narrator s doorstep one day the narrator, who listens to Zafar s gripping tale about his travels throug...Well, this is my first DNF book ever, which is kind of insane I was trying to push through but at this point I m not even halfway through and it s not getting better, so here we are.I can see how the story is beautiful and great to some people, but it wasn t that for me The narrative is all out of order, which for me was really confusing, and there were a lot of British politics class systems mentioned in passing but not explained as a major part of the story and those are things I know very l Well, this is my first DNF book ever, which is kind of insane I was trying to push through but at this point I m not even halfway through and it s not getting better, so here we are.I can see how the story is beautiful and great to some people, but it wasn t that for me The narrative is all out of order, which for me was ...Remember how excited you were when you discovered Pynchon Remember how proud you were when you finished The Recognitions When you first read Ulysses or Moby Dick with understanding Because we ve read many of the world s acclaimed works and having, through long years of reading, hammered a receptacle of appreciation together on the anvils of many great books and intoxicating glory days of reads and rereads, we or I at least often have trouble finding fiction that satisfies And if a novel ta Remember how excit...This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers To view it, click here I was really excited for this book it got great reviews, had great authors talking it up i.e Teju Cole , and GOD DAMN that s a cool cover And there are plenty of things to love about this book The writing is phenomenal and there are frequently moments when you have the compulsion to write down quotes the blank page at the beginning of the book is now littered with quotes and page numbers of all these fantastic little diamonds that catch you and hold your attention These diamonds are strun I was really excited for this book it got great reviews, had great authors talking it up i.e Teju Cole , and GOD DAMN that s a cool cover And there are plenty of things to love about this book The writing is phenomenal and there are frequently moments when you have the compulsion to write down quotes the blank page at the beginning of the book is now littered with quotes and page numbers of all these fantastic little diamonds that catch you and hold your attention These diamonds are strung throughout a narrative of relatively massive scope moving across decades and conti...

English
11 February 2018

Zia Haider Rahman