When the World Break Open

            I was captivated by Seems Reza’s descriptions of her emotional and physical turmoil.  It was very poetic, sometimes as actual poetry, and beautiful, the way she could tell the reader so much about herself in such inventive ways.  The way she describes her tortured relationship with her husband using her cravings from week to week was so amazing to unfold, “I lick wedges of lemon after they’ve been squeezed and pucker my lips, closing my mouth tight against what I should have said.” (Reza,19) contrasted with, “The spiced bag of hot mix includes raisins to temper the heat and I discard them, allowing my breath to turn to smoke.  When my mouth opens, poison rushes out.” (Reza 20).  A lush painting of feelings, motivations, grievances, and split second decisions all fit together as you can see their relationship spiral out of control, cool down, and go up in flames again.  This passage feels magical, even though it’s just about food and moods.  Anger and suppression spin to and fro as she tries to make her marriage work, often against her own will.  Often discarding chronology, you follow the whims of her heart, how she used to feel about Karim, how her children are effected by his anger, how her mother feels about divorce.  All the scenes in this part follow this cascading river of feelings stemming from her marriage.  From Bangladesh to Maryland, she sews together all her thoughts on this part of her life, the most harrowing scenes between her and Karim and the resolution she feels when she does make a decision about her marriage.  From section to section the writing can change a lot, from a poem to an account of a weekend with her family, but her writing always keeps strong emotions and impressions in the foreground.  As she keeps herself center stage, she can take the liberty of moving around a lot in style.

            This book has a few distinctive sections.  I imagined the whole book was going to be about her family, but the book then moved on to her work, her aborted pregnancy, and dating after divorce.  The transitions were not always smooth, some parts seemed to come up abruptly, others seemed marooned in their uniqueness, never really connecting back to the rest in a strong way.  Never is a section boring, whatever is going on, it’s heavy and deeply felt.  The anchor throughout the book is her, no matter what form her writing takes, she was always there with us, in no section was she unrecognizable.  Her interests and inspiration moves about, but her strong personality keeps us grounded.  She never takes a step back, she’s there for each story or exploration of feeling in a way that becomes a hallmark of her writing.  We can only identify her as the protagonist, all other characters must pass her judgment.  We are in her world, we have to listen to her.   

            This narrator’s voice is all consuming, you are there with her, you feel as close as a confidante.  Even when she expresses doubt, even when she blames herself for something, the reader can’t really sympathize with someone else in the story, like Karim.  We see what she sees, feels what she feels, and even when we hear Karim’s protests, we are sure he’s making it up.  We can’t feel his side of the story, we only get a glimpse of it, so it feels untrue and removed from us.  We are conscious that he has a story, but it’s more like a far away echo, while the narrator is talking directly into our ears.  She guides us through each experience, there isn’t room for another story, another experience, not even one as close to hers as Karim’s.  This book is about her, her world, her ex, her children.  There are times when she is honest, honest beyond comfort.  There are times we admire her, want to soothe her.  But there’s no one else we can fully trust in this book.  We spend the most time with her, even her children are seen through her interpretation.  The other characters don’t get to speak freely.  She chooses when others can contribute.  This editing makes us dependent on her.  Her perspective is our life raft through the encounters and emotions she presents to us.  You can’t help but trust her, she’s everything in this book.  As she states, the mother is saintly, “Isn’t the mother required to be a saint?” (Reza 99).  How can we, as her trusted readers doubt her?  Her diverse range of actions and feelings only strengthen how complex and realistic she is, you believe in her more because of her contradictions.     

Iris Keenan