This story is structured in sections, each one headed up by a scientific description of one of the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma). Each, loosely, represents a theme for the following segment.
The story is deeply personal and universal (dealing with the challenges faced by those living in modern Pakistan) and at the same time veers into a kind of magical realism that opens it up wide.
Reading this story brought home to me the difficulties and rewards of reading stories from different cultures:
- It’s difficult because the language flows differently, and because cultural details and assumptions can catch you out.
- It’s rewarding for all the same reasons, plus you get to challenge your own world view and assumptions. Best of all, you hear poetry in the language that you’d never encounter if you only read within your own culture.
This story slowed me down, and rewarded me for savoring it.