Fatty Fatty Boom Boom

Fatty Fatty Boom Boom by Rabia Chaudry (2022 Algonquin Books Kindle 352pp)

 

Rabia Chaudry is a Pakistani-American Lawyer, Podcaster and Author. She became well-known for her podcast “Serial” which investigated the failures of the US justice system in its dealings with one of her childhood friends. Not being a true crime fan that one passed me by but at some point I followed her on Twitter and subscribed to her podcast about the Djinn in Islamic culture. It was on Twitter that I first learnt about her memoir “Fatty Fatty Boom Boom”

This book is a most engaging and fascinating account of her life to date. It takes the story of her parents meeting and being wed to begin introducing us to the many layers of Pakistani life and culture.

When her father is recruited to become a vet in the USA the family makes the move overseas and its not long until culture shock sets in. We see what it was like for her family and those around them as they try to fit in whilst at the same time try to retain their culture and traditions.

Food and the wonderful description of foods play a large role in the story. We learn how many of the traditional Pakistani dishes fit in with various festivals and occasions, pay midnight visits to local street food vendors and generally drool over both Pakistani and western delicacies.

As a small child Rabia is fed heartily and soon she is growing in size and bulk compared to her family and friends. This becomes another theme of the book as we follow her struggles with body image, obesity and the cruelty of family and strangers toward her appearance.

The other main theme is family relationships and their ever-changing twists and turns. People are born, get married and die. Every time she returns to Pakistan for a visit her family has changed more and more but it’s the food and traditions that keep them tightly bound to each other.

She finds herself in an unhappy marriage and gives birth to a child. Its mainly unmentioned but it appears the husband in question is physically violent towards her and resents her studying towards a career.

Switching to study Law, she finds herself under increasing stress and struggles with multiple issues before finally finding happiness again in a new phase of life. The descriptions are honest and brave and you really feel for her during the dark times.

If I have any complaint its that the more recent events are compressed compared to her early life – after a certain point we race forward to the present day and the memoir comes to a halt. Following the main text is a selection of recipes for Pakistani dishes as she has learnt them from her family, probably not necessary but still interesting.

This is probably the first book I can remember reading that deals with Pakistan in its own right without connecting it to events in Afghanistan or terrorism etc. It also makes brief mention of the 1947 Partition of India something that seems to be bubbling up recently in books and popular culture in the west – perhaps we can now accept the trauma it caused.

This is a very worthwhile read that gives a window into not only another culture but also into the private struggles and obstacles in life that often go unsaid.

 

Achtung Schweinehund!

Achtung Schweinehund! by Harry Pearson (2008 Abacus paperback 247pp)

 

Born in the 1960s, Harry Pearson begins taking us through his early life in this somewhat-themed memoir. It quickly becomes clear that the UK culture at that time (for boys at least) was obsessed with the War (WW2) and the military in general.

Beginning with his relatives’ own tales of service, the young Harry soon becomes similarly obsessed and moves on through war movies, war comics, kit-set models, Action Man dolls, board games and ends up at what became his enduring love – war-gaming with miniature figurines.

At each point in this progression, we get histories of the toys/games etc and the people behind the products.

As the book goes on it becomes less of a memoir and more of a history of war-gaming in particular, stopping to describe the famous and infamous fans and inventors of the pastime.

Pearson introduces us to many of the people he’s met and mixed with in the contemporary war- gaming scene. Some come off as quirky loners and others as somewhat more dangerous people to know. He seems to be in two minds on whether to be embarrassed about his hobby or to be proud of how it affected his life.

There’s a lot of humour and a gentle sense of the absurd amongst the facts and figures. I was hoping the memoir material would re-appear but the war-gaming really totally takes over the book until the end.

Interesting enough for some readers but I found it was not quite the book I thought I was going to be reading.

 

Standing By The Wall

Standing By The Wall by Mick Herron (2022 John Murray-Baskerville paperback 57pp)

 

First of all, to avoid confusion I’m talking about the UK version of “Standing By The Wall” which is a slim miniature softcover published by John Murray containing just one short story. In the US market you can get a book by the same name published by Soho which contains all of Mick Herron’s  ‘Slough House’ short fiction to date including the title story.

Set after the events of “Bad Actors” and spanning just 56 small pages “Standing By The Wall” is a very slight addition to the Slough House/Slow Horses/Jackson Lamb canon. Subtitled ‘A Slough House Interlude’ it really is just that, a nice Christmas themed short story bound to be given in droves to Herron fans as a gift this year.

It’s the day before Christmas in Slough House and Jackson Lamb has received an unexpected gift. He summons Roddy Ho to his office and tasks him with digitally altering a mysterious old photograph. As Roddy works, he lapses into his usual self-aggrandizing fantasy about how important he is to Lamb and how would the other agents ever live without him.

Meanwhile a convalescing River Cartwright drops by to visit the team. Witty banter is had and he’s warned not to bother Lamb, will he take heed of their words? Christmas drinks are being organised (without Roddy Ho being let in on the location) and everyone gets a few good lines.

There’s not much more than that really, only 4 or 5 scenes in total ending with a little mystery and a revelation.

As always, it’s fun to land back in the world of these characters. I can’t really fault this for what it is. There are some laughs and more serious ruminations. It’s probably a little expensive for a 56-page short story. If you don’t already own the other Slough House short fiction it might be a better idea to get hold of the US version instead.