Mohammed Hanif's debut novel

A Case of Exploding Mangoes is Mohammed Hanif's debut novel, set in Pakistan. It is a political comedy; exploring the mystery surrounding the assassination of General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, the military dictator of Pakistan.this is the funniest and cleverest book at the same time unique and thoughtful. It is a political satire and it is historical fiction, but with some important modern messages. The book has a dark satirical style.

Central theme:

The central theme of the book is a fictitious story behind the real life plane crash which killed General Zia, dictator of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988, about which there are many conspiracy theories. After witnessing a tank parade in Bahawalpur, Zia 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 nosediving and exploding on impact, killing General Zia and several other senior army generals, in addition to Arnold Raphel, the US Ambassador to Pakistan, and General Herbert M. Wassom, the head of the U.S. Military aid mission to Pakistan. Zia had ruled Pakistan for 11 years prior to his death.

The book develops through the eyes of the narrator, Ali Shigri, 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 himself.

Style:

A comic novel that has a dark, satirical style, 'A Case of Exploding Mangoes' (2008) is the work of author Mohammed Hanif. Ali Shigri is a revengeful Junior Officer in the Pakistani Air Force. It is through his narration that the story, which is based on the conspiracy-theorized plane crash that skilled the Pakistani Dictator (in power from 1977 to 1988) Muhammad Zia ul-Haq. Shigri's revengeful nature is driven by the fact that he believes the suicide of his father was directly orchestrated by the General himself. This belief of the character is very possibly a reflection of the general's orchestration of his processor Zulfiquar Bhutto's death. Other real people with characterizations in the book include General Akhtar Abdur Rahman (died in the

crash), General Mirza Aslam Beg, US Ambassador Arnold Raphael (died in the crash), Director of CIA Operations Charles Coga and Osama bin Laden.

This book is a political satire, it satirizes the role of religion in government and the way in which governments can manipulate the population for their own benefit. and the way the military in controlling the State, using caricature and very clever one-liners, like "You can blame our men in uniform for anything, but you can never blame them or being imaginative" and "By the time it comes down to the questions about whether I would rescue my best friend's kitten drowning in a river or tell myself that cats can swim, I have begun to enjoy the test, and my pencil ticks the squares with the flourish of someone celebrating their own sanity."

Tone:

The story largely plays out in a Pakistani Airforce Academy, and begins when Shigri is being blamed for Obaid's disappearance in an Airforce plane. It is evtually revealed that Shigri has developed an assassination plot, because he believes that General Zia is responsible for the death of his father. At the very beginning we are suspicious of Shigri's true involvement in General Zia's downfall, particularly after he proudly states: "The only witness to that televised walk, the only one to have walked that walk, would be completely ignored. Because if you missed that clip, you probably missed me. Like history itself, I was the one who got away." This quote gives you a good insight into the tone of the book, and Shigri's feelings toward the role he played in the death of Zia.