Unmarriageable

It was a truth universally acknowledged, Alys suddenly thought with a smile, that people enter our lives in order to recommend reads.

Ever since I could remember, I'd been engaging in literary transference/transplantation/translation from one culture to another. Growing up on English literature, I taught myself to see my daily reality reflected in my reading material, while plumbing its universal truths in search of particulars... In reading English literature with a Pakistani lense, it seemed to me that all cultures were concerned with the same eternal questions and that people were more similar to one another than they were different. As Alys Binat says in Unmarriagble, "Reading widely can lead to an appreciation of the universalities across cultures." But as Valentine Darsee says, "We've been forced to seek ourselves in the literature of others for too long.

English came with the colonizers, but its literature is part of our heritage too, as is pre-partition writing

I’ll never be lonely,”—Alys gave a satisfied sigh— “because I’ll always have books.

All those books you read. You just talk like a book now, with no sense of reality.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a girl can go from pauper to princess or princess to pauper in the mere seconds it takes for her to accept a proposal.

Affection and respect,” Alys said, “increase exponentially once one is dead.

They say blood is thicker than water. I say to hell with that. If blood mistreats you, better water. And if friends prove false, no matter, find better or be alone and be your own best friend.

We know no one person represents a group or a country in things good or bad.

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajioon. From God we come and to God we return.

real happiness in marriage seems a matter of chance. You can marry a seemingly perfect person and they can transform before your eyes into imperfection, or you can marry a flawed person and they can become someone you actually like, and therefore flawless. The key point being that, for better or for worse, no one remains the same.

Miracles don’t happen to people like us,’ Jena said, her head in her hands. ‘We don’t have the kind of money that can buy miracles.

Alys nodded, adding, “But reading widely can lead to an appreciation of the universalities across cultures.

internal misogyny has made a mockery of female solidarity

Alys gave a small smile. "I wrestle with how to incorporate history. Can any amount of good ever merit the interference of empire? Do we never speak English again? Not read the literature? Erasing history is not the answer, so how does a country put the lasting effects of empire in proper context? Not deny it, but not unnecessarily celebrate it.

But the future is built on a past, good and bad. It’s troubling when someone takes a book and makes a shoddy film out of it and then comes the day when no one has read the book and everyone thinks the shoddy film is the original.” “Come now.” Wickaam winked. “You have to admit that films are better than books.” “Never!

She knew she looked a sight, with her hair plastered to her face, her sneakers caked with mud, armpit sweat stains, and no dupatta, because she didn’t believe in wearing one – men should avert their eyes from women, rather than women being forced to cover themselves – and oh, she must stink.

The sole entertainment for most Pakistanis was to eat out, and the elite English-speaking gentry in particular believed they deserved dining finer than Dilipabad offered.