A Case of Exploding Mangoes, by Mohammed Hanif
Mangoes meet mullahs in a fine political satire
Hanif's novel is really a series of darkly comic vignettes about the investigation of Obaid's disappearance and the preoccupations of General Zia and his generals. There are sharply observed sketches of toadying ministers, mindlessly efficient security chiefs, filthy prison cells, sex-mad Arab sheikhs and erudite communist prisoners (who hate Maoists more than mullahs).
Zia's limited intelligence and unlimited paranoia are portrayed with great glee. The only women of any significance are Zia's wife (who, after seeing a picture of her husband gazing into the cleavage of an American journalist, declares that he is dead to her) and a blind prisoner, sentenced to death by stoning because she had been raped. There is also a rather interesting mango-loving crow, who might have had something to do with several events. Although framed as a mystery and ending with rational explanations for Obaid's disappearance and Zia's plane crash, A Case of Exploding Mangoes is less Le Carr (who praises the author's "lovely eye... and even better ear") than Private Eye. The tension does not build up until the final chapters and is then released far too quickly. The novel spends far more time exposing the stupidity, brutality and hypocrisy of Pakistan's military rulers. Whether such revelations can shock any longer is, of course, doubtful but as a piece of political satire,
A Case of Exploding Mangoes deserves a high mark.
