A Closer Look at Woman With a Curve

       

   

A novel by Shahzad Rizvi

Author Shahzad Rizvi, an Indian writer long-residing in the Washington area, skewers politics in the nation’s capital in his satire, Woman with a Curve. A former White House interpreter and veteran of the civil service, Rizvi writes with both intimate knowledge of the Washington scene and a florid imagination.

Summary

The two main characters of Woman with a Curve are girlhood friends Minnie and Maxie, who come to the Washington area from a small town. Efficient, conscientious Minnie begins a rise to the heights of prominence through a chance encounter with a stranger who has taken ill. 

Her compassion is rewarded when her visitor brings her on as an assistant, and later on as a partner, in his career and life. Brash Maxie ruthlessly pursues her own quest for prominence by any means necessary, including exploitation of her sexual charms. In time, she rises to dizzying heights of power and acclaim, before a spectacular downfall. 

Along the way, readers encounter examples of a unique breed of characters that could be found only inside the Beltway. The unforgettable Sharpie—exterminator, political operative, schemer, and senator — will do anything for the spotlight. His political fortunes begin when he stumbles upon a rival in a most compromising position. The vain, vapid President risks all to fulfill his sexual appetites. The First Lady is only one tiny step short of snapping. 

Commentary

Real-life Washington is full of characters whose exploits, appetites, and utterances almost defy parody. But Rizvi has created a funny, lively, imaginary Washington that will have readers shaking their heads and snorting with recognition. 

Book Details

Volume: 136 pages
Publisher: Wordclay (Jan 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1604818387
ISBN-13: 978-1604818383
Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.3 inches
Editions: Kindle, Nook & Paperback

Visit my new website ShahzadRizvi.com

A Closer Look at Dinner With the Dead

       

   

A novel by Shahzad Rizvi

Summary

An Indian call-center employee, Sam, dreams of going into business for himself. He finds the perfect spot—a ruined palace that has long haunted his dreams. Attempts to renovate and refit the mansion, however, are stymied repeatedly by an unseen hand. He discovers that the culprit is a female ghost, Kiran, who haunts the mansion. She lovingly calls Sam by another name, Rahi, and insists that he is her beloved of an earlier century. 

Within the mansion, Kiran and Sam live in tender harmony, whereas just outside its walls troubles—legal, political, and financial—assail Sam from every side, with no solutions in sight.

Alongside the present-day story of Sam’s call center, the tale of Kiran and Rahi in 1850’s India is gradually revealed. Handsome aristocrat Rahi receives a marriage proposal from the royal family, but turns it down. He has already secretly given his heart to Kiran, one of his family’s servants, a penniless orphan. 

Rahi’s family reacts violently to Rahi’s refusal, and he is gravely injured. Kiran is brought in to nurse Rahi, and the love deepens between them, illicit and doomed. Time runs out for the couple as they plan a desperate escape. 

Meanwhile, the jilted princess and her family, caught up in the horrific spasm of revenge and retaliation knows as the Indian Uprising, commit a cold-blooded mass murder and vanish. Capturing them and bringing them to justice requires tremendous courage, luck, and a musical goatherd.

The modern tale and the story taking place in the 1850’s alternate throughout the book. Ultimately, the parallel stories are woven together as the two lovers escape both the tumultuous eras in which they lived, to be reunited beyond time.

Commentary

This deeply romantic story defies categorization, combining the rich sensuous detail of a historical novel with supernatural and paranormal elements. Modern India, rife with political corruption, and India in the violent throes of a 19th century revolution are both limned with insight, keen observation, and flashes of humor. 

Particularly striking are the passages depicting the lives of Indian royalty in the Victorian era, as their tradition of absolute authority comes in fateful conflict with British colonial rule. The monstrous vanity of these Indian rulers, and the near impunity that they enjoyed, shape the narrative of the historical story, and create resonances in the modern era, as greedy politicians and policemen angle for advantage.

The love story at the center of both eras is sustained successfully through the novel, up to the emotionally satisfying conclusion. A wealth of secondary characters, however, is the novel’s greatest strength. 

From the strutting policeman Tiwari to the thoughtful Prime Minister Nizam Ul Mulk, from the monstrous Princess to the old sage in the tree house, the pages of this novel teem with personalities and incidents that engage and entertain readers. At the same time, the book conveys a wealth of detail about Indian history and culture that will delight history buffs and Indophiles. 

Book Details

Volume: 196 pages
Publisher: Wordclay (Dec 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1604819537
ISBN-13: 978-1604819533
Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.4 inches
Editions: Kindle, Nook & Paperback

Visit my new website ShahzadRizvi.com

A Closer Look at Mayu: The Life of a Finnish Woman

      
  

A novel by Shahzad Rizvi

Summary

Mayu both loves and loathes her father. She hates his alcoholic rages, how he abuses her mother and abandons the family. But his talk of social justice kindles her imagination and fills her heart with passion. She vows to defy her mother’s acquiescent example in her own life. 

As she grows up, Mayu’s intelligence and hard work propel her forward. At the same time, she is disappointed over and over in her relationships. As her career takes her around the world, she encounters a wide variety of men who both attract and repel her. She marries an American, but his incessant womanizing drives them apart, and she finds herself the lonely single mother of two boys.

She meets a sincere Indian American, and she and he link up romantically. But Mayu’s emotional baggage, her messy domestic life, and the yawning cultural chasm between her and her Indian lover run like treacherous emotional fault-lines under the affair. Mayu’s intense desire for meaningful connection is at constant odds with her critical, skeptical independence. 

Commentary

This novel’s depiction of a modern woman’s life and struggles feels instantly and painfully authentic. Mayu juggles not only a career, but a defiant teenage son, a house full of dog hair, and those extra pounds that refuse to budge. There is solid home truth in the book’s portrayal of romantic relationships, especially the compromises that are required between couples, and the times when such compromises seem too difficult to undertake or sustain. 

Mayu is particularly effective at showing the strains that can develop in cross-cultural relationships, when each member of a couple has implicit expectations for how the other partner should behave, yet must continually confront the reality that these expectations are unlikely to be met.

The novel is told in three different voices: the narrator’s, Mayu’s, and her Indian lover Shamim’s. This allows the reader to get inside the perspectives of each character and how they see each other. Time shifts, too, within the story, but the reader is always clear on who is speaking and when. Mayu’s distinctive skeptical voice is one of the novel’s greatest strengths.

Mayu is also interesting in how it depicts the immigrant experience. Mayu and Shamim are both newcomers to the United States. Just as couple relationships require constant readjustment of expectations, so, by analogy, does living in a new land. There are pleasant adjustments, of course, but a subtle sense of loss and unease often undergirds daily life, although it is rarely acknowledged or expressed. This book describes the immigrant’s emotional burden with unusual sensitivity and insight. 

Book Details

Volume: 248 pages
Publisher: Wordclay (Jan 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1604818360
ISBN-13: 978-1604818369
Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.6 inches
Editions: Kindle, Nook & Paperback

Visit my new website ShahzadRizvi.com

A Closer Look at The Last Resident

     
   

The Love Story of a British Officer and an Indian Princess

A novel by Shahzad Rizvi

In this historical romance, an idealistic British diplomat, Nigel, is on his way to India to take up a colonial administrative position.

Pamela, the spoiled and formidable niece of the incoming Viceroy, on the rebound from a broken heart, sets her sights on Nigel. Soon, she is  pregnant, and the two are quickly married.

Nigel's new status as a member of the Viceroy's family, as well as Pamela's intense dislike of India, pose special challenges for Nigel's career.

When he befriends the Nawab of Bhojpal, the ruler of a Muslim princely state, Nigel secures an appointment as Resident, or chief diplomatic envoy, to Bhojpal. There, he falls deeply in love with Mehr-un-Nissa, the Nawab's daughter, though she is in purdah, kept away from the eyes of men.

Her marriage, a political alliance, is as unhappy as Nigel's, with a husband who ignores her in favor of his paramour. The illicit relationship enrages the Nawab and threatens to destroy Nigel's personal and professional life. In the midst of this turmoil, Nigel's wife Pamela is found murdered. Nigel is imprisoned as the obvious suspect.

It takes all the ingenuity of Mr. Joseph, the Nawab's brilliant Jewish prime minister, to get to the bottom of Pamela's murder, exonerate Nigel, and allow Mehr-un-Nissa and Nigel to be united at last.

The book is rich in historical and cultural detail, depicting India on the eve of its independence from Britain in 1947. The attitudes of British colonial administrators, the vanished world of independent rulers of princely states, the fishbowl existence of diplomatic spouses, the astonishing scale of the Viceroy's Delhi palace, and the secluded lives of women in purdah are all shown to the reader through the story of the central, star-crossed relationship.

A vein of humor runs through the romantic plotline. It is clear that this story could only be told by someone with experience of India and deep knowledge of the history, tradition, and people of that time and place.

Author Shahzad Rizvi, now a resident of metropolitan Washington D.C., was born and educated in the princely state of Bhopal. The author was an intimate of the royal family of Bhopal in the final days of their rule, before their state was merged into greater India. His unique inside perspective, coupled with imaginative liberties, informs every page and character of The Last Resident.

The historical romance is richly layered with anecdote, and many diverting minor characters and subplots that add considerably to the book's interest. Aligarh University student pranks, the mutiny of the Nawab's murderous nephew, the rise of Mr. Joseph to his unexpected prominence as prime minister, together with Nigel's executive haplessness and resulting mess, are a few entertaining examples of stories within the framework of the plot.

Even the venerable Mahatma Gandhi makes a cameo appearance.

The Last Resident will appeal to readers with a romantic sensibility, an interest in Indian history and culture, and a love of Dickens-style twists of plot and vivid secondary characters.

Book Details

Volume: 328 pages
Publisher: Wordclay (Jan 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1604818263
ISBN-13: 978-1604818260
Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.7 inches
Editions: Kindle, Nook & Paperback

Visit my new website ShahzadRizvi.com

Excerpt: Behind the Veil

 BUY NOW

 The moment Rashida and Shamim met, they felt an immediate attraction to each other. Shamim, Rashida noticed, was mature for his years. He couldn’t be more than 22 or 23, to her 31. She cautiously stole looks at him. His fair skin, slight figure, tapered hands, shapely mouth — she watched him and took it all in.

She was a surprise to him, as well. He had expected to meet an ugly, middle-aged woman when Nadim had twisted his arm to come to his house for lunch. Nadim was short, nearly bald, with a crooked face on a misshapen head. He was dressed in traditional Indian Muslim clothes — a long-sleeved shirt and baggy pants — but they were soiled and smelled.

If Shamim had met Nadim on the street, he would have taken him for a beggar. One of the straps on his worn sandals was torn and, to compensate for it, he had to walk with a shuffling limp. When he smiled, which Shamim sensed he did not do often, gaps and stained teeth negated the charm of his smile. 

Visit my new website ShahzadRizvi.com

Happy New Year to my readers. Two thousand twelve was a wonderful year and we had many wonderful things happen in our lives. I hope that 2013 will also bring many happy tidings.