MAIN INCIDENTS: “A Case of Exploding Mangoes”

MAIN INCIDENTS:

“A Case of Exploding Mangoes” is enjoyably satirical about Pakistan's military and political elite (the author was a pilot in the Air Force at the time of Zia's death). Towards the end, the novel seems rushed and is occasionally overwritten, but Mohammed Hanif expresses his anger at his country's lack of democracy and shady dealings with the US in a witty and effective manner.

In 1988, a C-130 airplane carrying Pakistan's dictator General Zia’s ul-Haq, several of his generals, and the American ambassador crashed soon after takeoff. A late addition to the manifest, a case of mangoes, was often suspected of aiding in the crash. In A Case of Exploding Mangoes, Mohammed Hanif takes a satirical approach to who might have been behind the assassination of General Zia’s. The novel is narrated by Ali Shigri, a Pakistan Air Force pilot who suspects that Zia’s had his father killed. He's constantly working on plans for revenge, bringing in and dropping conspirators and making changes as needed. It's a crazy cast of characters, each warped by the absurdities of their own personalities and events they think they can control, but they really don't understand. A Case of Exploding Mangoes has received mostly positive reviews with the Washington Post saying, "A Case of Exploding Mangoes belongs in a tradition that includes Catch-22, but it also calls to mind the biting comedy of Philip Roth, the magical realism of Salmon Rushdie and the feverish nightmares of Kafka. But trying to compare his work to his predecessors is like trying to compare apples to, well, mangoes, because Hanif has his own story to tell, one that defies expectations at every turn."

Summary

"An insanely brilliant, satirical first novel . . . Belongs in a tradition that includes Catch-22, but it also calls to mind the biting comedy of Philip Roth."-The Washington Post” A brilliant debut. . . . Exceptional. . . . The detail is rich, the prose resonant. Grade A."—Rocky Mountain News” Like Catch-22, it is best understood as a satire of militarism, regulation and piety.... Hanif has written a historical novel with an eerie timeliness."-The New York Times Book Review” Global satire with a savage bite. . . . Richly imagined."-The Miami Herald“Hanif's book is sexy, subversive, and magical.... Entertaining and original." -Slate” Fascinating.... It sardonically examines the workings of the Pakistani state, which comes off like a Third World Brazil imagined by Raymond Chandler. What really drives Mangoes, however, is Hanif's sharp writing and considerable wit."-The Village Voice” There are many reasons to read this excellent novel, and one for which it should be celebrated: Hanif has found in Zia’s a veritable Homer Simpson of theocratic zealotry . . . The inevitable comparison here is to Dr. Strangelove, and just as the Kubrick film crystallized the absurdities of nuclear escalation into an archetypal cast of idiots-who-run-the-world, Mangoes provides the necessary update."-New York Observer” Witty, elegant, and deliciously anarchic. Hanif has a lovely eye and an even better ear."-John le Carréeacute;“Hanif confidently tackles ‘the biggest cover-up in aviation history since the last biggest cover-up,' bringing absurdist humor and surprising warmth to his story."-Entertainment Weekly” Funny, subversive, erotic, and sad. Anyone thinking of applying for the job of unhinged, religious dictator should read it first."    -Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"Unputdownable and darkly hilarious . . . Mohammed Hanif is a brave, gifted writer. He has taken territory in desperate need of satire-General Zia’s, the military, Pakistan at the time of the Soviet-Afghan war-and made it undeniably his own."-Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist "A sure-footed, inventive debut that deftly undercuts its moral rage with comedy and deepens its comedy with moral rage . . . The novel has less in common with the sober literature of fact than it does with Latin American magical realism (especially novels about mythic dictators such as Gabriel Garcíiacute;a Máaacute;rquez's Autumn of the Patriarch) and absurdist military comedy (like Joseph Heller's Catch-22). Hanif adopts a playful, exuberant voice, as competing theories and assassination plots are ingeniously combined and overlaid."-Kirk us Reviews” Pakistan’s ongoing political turmoil adds a piquant edge to this fact-based farce . . . Hanif’s depiction of military foibles recalls the satirical wallop of Catch-22. [He brings] heft to this sagely absurd depiction of his homeland's history of political conspiracies and corruption."-Publishers Weekly "Entertaining and illuminating . . . Hanif has crafted a clever black comedy about military culture, love, tyranny, family, and the events that eventually brought us to September 11, 2001."-Booklist

The central theme of the book is a fictitious story behind the real life plane crash which killed General Zia’s, dictator of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988, about which there are many conspiracy theories. After witnessing a tank parade in Bahawalpur, Zia’s left the small Punjabi town in the C-130 Hercules aircraft designated 'Pak One'.

Shortly after a smooth take-off, the control tower loses contact with the aircraft. Witnesses who saw the plane in the air later claimed it was flying erratically, before nose diving and exploding on impact, killing General Zia’s and several other senior army generals, in addition to Arnold Raphael, the US Ambassador to Pakistan, and General Herbert M. Wassom, the head of the U.S. Military aid mission to Pakistan. Zia’s had ruled Pakistan for 11 years prior to his death.

The book develops through the eyes of the narrator, Ali Shangri; a Junior Officer in the Pakistani Air Force who seeks revenge for the death of his father, which he is convinced, although apparently a suicide was orchestrated by General Zia’s himself.

A first novel of the first order—provocative, exuberant, wickedly clever—that re-imagines the conspiracies and coincidences leading to the mysterious 1988 plane crash that killed Pakistan’s dictator General Zia ul-Haq.

At the center is Ali Shigri: Pakistan Air Force pilot and Silent Drill Commander of Fury Squadron. His father, one of Zia’s colonels, committed suicide under suspicious circumstances. Ali is determined to understand what or who pushed his father to such desperation—and to avenge his death.

What he quickly discovers is a snarl of events: Americans in Pakistan, Soviets in Afghanistan, dollars in every hand. But Ali remains patient, determined, a touch world-weary (“You want freedom and they give you chicken korma”), and unsurprised at finding Zia at every turn. He mounts an elaborate plot for revenge with an ever-changing crew (willing and not) that includes his silk-underwear-and- cologne-wearing roommate; a hash-smoking American lieutenant with questionable motives; the chief of Pakistan’s secret police, who mistakenly believes he’s in cahoots with the CIA; a blind woman imprisoned for fornication; Uncle Starchy, the squadron’s laundryman; and, not least of all, a mango-besotted crow. General Zia—devout Muslim and leering admirer of non-Muslim cleavage—begins every day by asking his chief of security: “Who’s trying to kill me?” and the answer lies in a conspiracy trying its damnedest to happen . . .

Intrigue and subterfuge combine with misstep and luck in this darkly comic book about love, betrayal, tyranny, family—and a world that unexpectedly resembles our own.