What We're Reading

A Case of Exploding Mangoes

Author: Mohammed Hanif
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
$24.00 Cloth (323 p.)
ISBN: 9780307268075
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Reviewed by Sarah Buck, Continuations Bibliographer

I enjoyed this book for its cynical humor, and its muscular style. Hanif is one of those authors, rare to find, who can tell a story and work magic with written words at the same time.

A Case of Exploding Mangoes is about the events that surrounded the bizarre death in 1988 of General Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan. The book is immensely enjoyable because of its subtle sarcasm. I am shamefully ignorant of world politics, especially the politics that arguably led to the attacks on 9/11 because of what the world was doing in Afghanistan, and this book inspired me to research the history it describes.

General Zia was killed when a plane carrying cases of mangoes exploded. There are conspiracy theories surrounding his death. The General had many enemies, and along with several of his generals, the American Ambassador to Pakistan was also killed on the plane with him. The book is marvelous because it folds many different causes for General Zia's demise into one inevitable culminating explosion.

The British style of story-telling is difficult to get used to in the beginning. Hanif switches tenses and employs sentence fragments as a form of humorous delivery. While these fragments slowed me down in reading, in a way they are used poetically to illustrate fragmented events and emotions.

Oscar Wilde said "life's too important to take seriously," which is why this book succeeds. A Case of Exploding Mangoes deals with events that have laid the groundwork for the current state of the world: terrorism in the Middle East, and even 9/11. Such important matters are difficult to broach, but this hilarious book removes us from any blame and allows us to look at history and ourselves without making excuses. Hanif does well to celebrate human foibles. There are so many bad decisions that have built our world, and really all we can do is laugh about it.

I admire how the author refers to the antagonist as "General Zia" and not "President Zia." The book, while only speculating as to what killed the General, shows how the man controlled the press and perpetuated propaganda.

It would be difficult to make this book into a movie unless the director was a genius because The Character of Baby O (the narrator's AWOL roommate) is not a real character for most of the book - he is more of a phantom: someone who is described but who does not act or move action.

My favorite line in the book is found on page 180: "All the books he read hadn't taught him the basic military rule: You manage your anger by kicking ass, not by rearranging the furniture in your room."

Overall the book is a great read: it's funny, fast-moving, clever, smart, sarcastic, and entertaining. It belongs in any academic library that collects literary fiction.