A review by carabones
Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I am conflicted about how to review this book because, on one hand, I really enjoyed the reading experience and yet on the other hand, I am not sure this book really accomplished what the author was trying to do. Similarly, at times the writing was beautiful and I was in awe of the sentences, and at others I felt very much that I was being "told" rather than shown how I should be interpreting what was happening. The strengths of this book were the vivid sense of place in London and (especially) Karachi and the depiction of a complicated friendship over the course of the characters' lives. I struggled a bit with understanding the characters' motivations and actions when they sometimes felt forced around the one central event that happened in their adolescence. The inclusion of so many topical themes and different formats like interviews and text messages also felt too on-the-nose at times, but I did enjoy it, so I am not sure it detracted from the story for me necessarily. 

Ultimately there is so much worth discussing around the central questions here, about how violence and gendered experiences affect us all through our lives, but I am really not sure where the book leaves us in response. What is at stake here -- is it their friendship, or justice for past events? Parts of the book make me think we are supposed to make much broader connections to world issues, which is where it loses me a bit. Lots of good bits along the way, just not a completely satisfying exploration.

"But here’s the difference between us: feeling that powerlessness made me think, I don’t want that in the world. I don’t want it. No one should know that kind of terror. And it made you think, I’ll be the terrorizer, not the terrorized.”