Seasonal Adjustments

From Publishers Weekly
Khan's first novel, the 1994 winner of Australia's NSW State Literary Award, is a thoroughly absorbing account of culture, family and faith told by a man who has a tenuous relationship with all three. Khan's narrator, Iqbal Chaudhary, left his native Bangladesh for Australia in the middle of the Pakistani Civil War. The novel begins 18 years later, when Chaudhary returns for the first time to his Muslim homeland. Reunited with his upper-class family, Chaudhary struggles with choices of culture and faith not only for himself but for the young daughter he brought with him. ``There are occasions,'' he says, ``when I regret my exposure to the diversity of cultural radiation which has bleached my individuality. I think I know how a travelling performer might feel in his private moments. Effortlessly I can slip into cultural roles.'' His Australian wife's sudden decision to opt for a trial separation adds to Chaudhary's sense of displacement. Kahn's literary background (he is the author of a book of criticism) serves him well, and he brings his novel to life with a ``multiplicity of meanings'' through particularly adept use of metaphor and symbolism. Kahn's imagery transcends culture, sex and faith, pulling readers into the heart of a character who is an alien in both his native land and his adopted country. Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


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Moving between Australia and Bangladesh, Seasonal Adjustments introduces a fresh new voice to the Australian literary scene - with a fascinating story to tell. Iqbal Chaudhary is fortyish, but the mid-life crisis he faces is more complex than many. His Australian marriage has collapsed, his past surfaces to bother his conscience and he feels a compulsive need to go back to the country he left immediately after the war with Pakistan, eighteen years earlier. But his reception from family and friends is deeply mixed. Iqbal is forced to confront why he left Bangladesh and how he feels about his family as well as his native country whose poverty, squalor and overcrowding make him react involuntarily with the squeamishness of a Westerner. Going back, he takes with him his young daughter. One of the many strengths of this multifaceted novel is the tender father-daughter relationship it portrays, as Iqbal brings her close to his origins and also faces the critical questions about his own cultural fragmentation and sense of belonging.


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